Carbon Capture and Storage on
Oregon's Natural & Working Lands
Oregon's natural and working lands - forests, grasslands, rangelands, farmlands, wetlands, and urban parks and open spaces - produce many benefits, including opportunities to capture and store carbon to reduce Oregon's overall/net contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. Oregon has goals to increase the amount of carbon natural and working lands capture and store by 2030 and 2050. If the state is successful in achieving these as well as sector-based carbon storage goals, Oregon could be net neutral and mitigating the effects of climate change by 2040.
Oregon's goal:
The Oregon Global Warming Commission adopted a Natural and Working Lands Proposal that sets goals for carbon capture and storage on Oregon's natural and working lands: Sequester at least an additional 5 MMTCO2e per year in Oregon’s natural and working lands and waters by 2030, and at least 9.5 MMTCO2e per year by 2050 relative to a 2010 to 2019 baseline. The OGWC recommends that the natural and working lands outcome-based goal should be separate from, and in addition to, Oregon’s sector-based emissions reduction goals as established by the Legislature and updated in Governor Brown’s Executive Order 20-04.
OUR APPROACH
The Oregon Global Warming Commission adopted a Natural and Working Lands Proposal that sets goals for carbon capture and storage on Oregon's natural and working lands. The Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University received funding from the US Climate Alliance and Natural Resources Conservation Service to:
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Establish and facilitate a Natural and Working Lands Advisory Committee;
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Develop a methodology to inventory net carbon capture in Oregon's natural and working lands;
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Develop climate-smart management practices and establish an activity-based baseline;
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Define the scope of work for a Workforce and Training needs analysis;
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Identify community impact metrics; and
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Produce a final report.
