Accounting for greenhouse gas emissions and removals is a complicated but necessary task to address climate change especially in dynamic terrestrial ecosystems. YASSP researchers leverage their ecosystem expertise to support the development of carbon policy and management.
Science for High Integrity Frameworks to Transform Carbon Markets (SHIFT-CM)
SHIFT- CM is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving the scientific foundation of ecosystem-based carbon crediting or Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) carbon crediting. YASSP’s Researcher Director, Sara Kuebbing, leads the hub alongside a team at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) the initiative aims to develop good practice guidance and research priorities to support the emergence of the next generation of carbon markets. YASSP researcher participate in research working groups exploring permanence and durability as well as digital monitoring, reporting, and verification.
Ecosystem Management Carbon Protocols
Carbon Crediting Protocols set the base standards for how to account for carbon gains in when we protect, manage, or restore ecosystems for voluntary and compliance carbon markets. Our team provides scientific evidence and practical support to help protocols evolve to incorporate emerging data streams, tools, and methodological approaches. We do this through a variety of on-going activities including, leading syntheses of key crediting elements like baselines, additionality, and permanence, developing protocol intercomparison projects to assess the assumptions and outcomes of protocols, convening workshops with diverse market actors, and responding to requests for information from standards bodies and government agencies developing or updating protocols, and serving as experts on scientific panels: NIST Carbon Dioxide Removal Consortium, Clean Air Task Force Ground Truth Assessment, Verra’s VM42 v3 protocol on agricultural land management, and the EU CRCF carbon farming guidelines for mineral soils.
EDF Collaboration: Temperate Agroforestry Carbon Evidence Review
This project reviews more than 100 studies measuring carbon storage in temperate agroforestry systems across Europe, the United States, and Canada to assess the current evidence base on the climate mitigation potential of temperate agroforestry. This research examines the conditions under which different agroforestry systems store additional carbon, and how methodological choices influence these estimates. In doing so, this study evaluates what conclusions can be reasonably drawn from existing research and offers recommendations for improving data collection, study design, and MRV approaches to strengthen confidence in our understanding of temperate agroforestry as a natural climate solution.
Designing National Forest Inventories for Soil Carbon Change (NFI)
This project evaluates how national forest monitoring systems can be designed to accurately detect changes in soil carbon. Using data from Canada’s National Forest Inventory, we assess how sampling design, spatial variability, and remeasurement strategies influence the ability to distinguish real carbon changes from noise. Through simulation and empirical analysis, we identify practical design improvements that can substantially improve detection power. This work directly informs national greenhouse gas inventories and climate policy by providing evidence-based guidance on how to design monitoring systems that produce reliable, decision-relevant estimates of soil carbon change.
