Urban forests' potential to supply marketable carbon emission offsets: A survey of municipal governments in the United States

a r t i c l e i n f o This study assesses the motivation, willingness, and technical as well as managerial capacities of U.S. cities to store carbon and sell carbon offsets. Based on a national survey of urban foresters, arborists, and other officials responsible for urban forest management within U.S. municipal governments, results indicate that local governments are interested in selling carbon offsets. An estimated Probit discrete choice model shows that the chance of a city participating in carbon trading is positively influenced by a number of factors including: (1) level of urbanization, (2) management's knowledge of carbon sequestration, (3) revenue generation from offset sales, (4) population education level, and (5) familiarity with carbon market institutions such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). The cost of living, as reflected by median home prices, appears to be inversely related to the probability of participation. Currently, a number of cities have the technical and managerial capacity to establish quality carbon offset criteria such as enforceability, additionality, verifiability, and baseline establishment. However, many cities are still unaware of carbon sequestration opportunities, and there appears to be a fundamental disconnect to market participation. The results also suggest that municipal governments would gain from a better understanding of the costs and benefits associated with urban forest carbon storage. In recent years, the public has demonstrated increased concern over global warming and climate change issues. Rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses (GHG) are considered the major cause of global warming. After water vapor, carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas emitted to the atmosphere, primarily through the fossil fuel combustion or deforestation (Schneider, 1989). Because of the apparent severity of the GHG problem, any initiatives that sequester carbon dioxide should be considered in developing climate change mitigation efforts. Concurrently, markets for carbon offsets are emerging. Under cap and trade systems, businesses that need additional emission permits can purchase them from other firms. They can also purchase certified emission reductions or carbon offsets from other projects, including forestry, which capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and safely store it. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is an example of an offset trading system in the North America, where interested sellers and buyers of carbon credits participate in a voluntary, but legally binding, scheme to trade carbon offsets. The CCX started an offset registry in 2003, with the total annual volume less than 1 million tons of carbon …