Context and future directions for integrating forest carbon into sub-national climate mitigation planning in the RGGI region of the U.S.

International frameworks for climate mitigation that build from national actions have been
developed under the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change and advanced
most recently through the Paris Climate Agreement. In parallel, sub-national actors have set
greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals and developed corresponding climate mitigation plans.
Within the U.S., multi-state coalitions have formed to facilitate coordination of related science and
policy. Here, utilizing the forum of the NASA Carbon Monitoring System’s Multi-State Working
Group, we collected and reviewed climate mitigation plans for 11 states in the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative region of the Eastern U.S. For each state we reviewed the (a) policy
framework for climate mitigation, (b) GHG reduction goals, (c) inclusion of forest activities in the
state’s climate action plan, (d) existing science used to quantify forest carbon estimates, and (e)
stated needs for forest carbon monitoring science. Across the region, we found important
differences across all categories. While all states have GHG reduction goals and framework
documents, nearly three-quarters of all states do not account for forest carbon when planning
GHG reductions; those that do account for forest carbon use a variety of scientific methods with
various levels of planning detail and guidance. We suggest that a common, efficient, standardized
forest carbon monitoring system would provide important benefits to states and the geographic
region as a whole. In addition, such a system would allow for more effective transparency and
progress tracking to support state, national, and international efforts to increase ambition and
implementation of climate goals.