Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement—particularly limiting global warming to 1.5°C—requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon markets have emerged as a central mechanism for mobilizing private funding toward these efforts, especially in forest management, protection, and restoration. However, forest carbon accounting faces scrutiny. In the past four years, carbon markets have expanded rapidly—only to stall due to concerns about how crediting methodologies measure, report, and verify carbon benefits. These concerns reflect scientific, political, economic, and social uncertainties.
This fall 2025 speaker series will examine these foundational issues in forest carbon accounting and crediting, focusing on both major critiques and proposed solutions. Topics include: selecting baselines and assessing additionality, incorporating digital measurements and remote sensing, addressing permanence and leakage, and exploring new frontiers in accounting, such as adjusting for albedo effects and non-climate feedback, temporary accounting measures, and jurisdictional accounting. Attendees will hear from researchers with emerging solutions and ideas to improve carbon accounting. They will also hear perspectives about the opportunities and challenges of incorporating evolving methods into existing crediting schemes from those engaged in financing and producing carbon credits.
Join us every Tuesday from September 2 to December 2 from 12-1 p.m. U.S. ET. Note that there will not be webinars on October 14, October 21, and November 25.
The series is free and open to the public. Each session will be recorded. We will offer CEUs from Society of American Foresters, Society for Ecological Restoration, International Society of Arboriculture, the Connecticut Division of Forestry, and the Massachusetts Forester Licensing Board for foresters and practitioners who attend the live webinars. Please email yff@yale.edu for further information.
Series Hosts
This fall 2025 speaker series is co-designed and co-hosted by The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment, Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program (YASSP), Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (YCNCC), The Nature Conservancy, SE Advisory Services, and The Climate Trust.
Series Facilitators
The series is facilitated by Sara Kuebbing (YASSP; YCNCC), Kim Myers (SE Advisory Services), and Julius Pasay (The Climate Trust).
Photo: Forested mountains in Japan. Luke Paris / Unsplash.
