Re: Climate (2021.12)
This year has brought much needed attention — and renewed commitments — to addressing climate change.
In conjunction with the recent COP26 meetings, a slew of new reports, tools and programs were announced. Among them were a new report from United Nations Environment Program on Nature Based Solutions for Climate Mitigation and a new online tool to map climate and biodiversity benefits. At the same time, American Forests launched the Reforest America Carbon Program, which uses a new carbon finance approach to help remove carbon from the atmosphere.
These new resources complement other notable tools released this year. Keep in mind the U.S. Natural Climate Solutions Mapper, which illustrates the greenhouse gas mitigation impact of 11 natural climate solutions pathways that can be adopted on agricultural, forested and urban lands. There also was the Reforestation Hub to help land managers, policy makers and businesses identify opportunities to reforest land at the county level. Additionally, the Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation Tool, or CaRPE Tool, allows users to quickly visualize and quantify greenhouse gas emission reductions resulting from the implementation of certain cropland and grazing land conservation management practices, allowing users to quickly compare practices, costs and impacts. And don’t forget about the Resilient Land Mapping Tool, which was updated to include a carbon analysis that shows the potential of soils and forests across the continental U.S. to capture and store carbon emissions.
The last 12 months also brought us new ways to evaluate the equitable distribution of natural resources –such as tree cover and greenspace. The Tree Equity Score tool, developed by American Forests, calculates a neighborhood’s rating based on how much tree canopies and surface temperatures align with documented demographic info, such as income, employment, race, age and health factors. Each score indicates whether there are sufficient trees in the area for everyone to experience the health, economic and climate benefits that trees provide. Similarly, the Trust for Public Lands’ ParkScore Index measures park systems across the 100 most populated cities across the nation according to five categories: access, investment, amenities, acreage and — new for 2021 — equity.
As we reflect back on all that has happened in another tough year, don’t forget about all these new resources as you plan your impact in 2022.