William Anderegg and Liz Guinessey

Climate change is driving increasing risks of disturbances to forest carbon in many regions of the world. Successful nature-based climate solutions in forests require durability and robust, evidence-based mechanisms like buffer pools, which are urgently needed. Anderegg will present a suite of his recent research that aims to address this need in U.S. and global forests.

Ensuring the durability of nature-based projects is a critical challenge in carbon markets. To date, Verra has used a pooled buffer approach to manage non-permanence risk in VCS projects. Liz Guinessey will discuss this current approach and Verra’s upcoming efforts to trial alternative mechanisms to address reversal risks.

Speaker Biographies

William Anderegg – Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah

Dr. William Anderegg is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and on the leadership team at the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy at the University of Utah. He has been recognized with the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, and the Blavatnik Foundation National Laureate in Life Sciences. Dr. Anderegg studies how drought and climate change affect ecosystems, including tree physiology, ecohydrology, carbon cycling, and nature-based climate solutions, with a focus on climate risk to forests.

Liz Guinessey – Manager, VCS Program Development, Verra

Liz Guinessey is Manager, VCS Program Development, at Verra, where she works on developing updates to Verra’s flagship Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program. The VCS Program is the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas crediting program, driving finance toward activities that reduce and remove emissions, improve livelihoods, and protect nature. Guinessey focuses on Verra’s permanence portfolio, where she explores and advances innovative approaches to ensure the durability of VCS projects. With a background in ecology and environmental science, she brings expertise in greenhouse gas accounting and methodology development. Prior to joining Verra, she worked in nonprofit roles implementing conservation projects on the ground.

Recommended Readings

Anderegg, W. R., Chegwidden, O. S., Badgley, G., Trugman, A. T., Cullenward, D., Abatzoglou, J. T., Hicke, J. A., Freeman, J., & Hamman, J. J. (2022). Future climate risks from stress, insects and fire across U.S. forests. Ecology Letters, 25(6), 1510–1520.

Anderegg, W. R., Trugman, A. T., Badgley, G., Anderson, C. M., Bartuska, A., Ciais, P., Cullenward, D., Field, C. B., Freeman, J., Goetz, S. J., Hicke, J. A., Huntzinger, D., Jackson, R. B., Nickerson, J., Pacala, S., & Randerson, J. T. (2020). Climate-driven risks to the climate mitigation potential of forests. Science, 368(6497).