We’re hiring a Research Associate to expand our work on climate risk. If you’re passionate about ensuring public access to high-quality climate risk data, and informing just and scientifically-grounded adaptation policy, please apply.

Research Associate - CarbonPlan

CarbonPlan is a nonprofit organization using science and data to accelerate climate action. Our team analyzes the design and implementation of climate programs across the public and private sector, an...

apply.workable.com

Two forest offset projects participating in California’s cap-and-trade program are burning — one in Oregon and the other in Washington.

The 2026 fire season has officially begun for California forest offset projects – CarbonPlan

We are tracking fires in two offset projects enrolled in California’s forest carbon program. These are the first two projects to burn in 2026.

carbonplan.org

In enhanced weathering models, more rock surface area typically means faster weathering and more carbon removal. But some models use a mistaken surface area equation that could inflate carbon removal by up to two orders of magnitude. Our latest post explains the mistake and how to move forward.

How surface roughness scaling can mislead enhanced weathering predictions – CarbonPlan

Correcting a mis-interpreted equation in EW models.

carbonplan.org

OffsetsDB just got bigger. Today, we added two new offset registries — Isometric and Cercarbono — to our open database that standardizes information about offset projects and their credits. Now researchers can access data from seven registries, which cover the vast majority of the carbon market.

Welcoming Isometric and Cercarbono to OffsetsDB – CarbonPlan

We’ve added two new offset registries to OffsetsDB.

carbonplan.org

For Open Climate Risk, we created our highest-resolution dataset yet. To make it explorable and downloadable by anyone with a browser, we turned to cloud-native formats and open source tools. We wrote about our new web mapping stack: carbonplan.org/blog/mapping...

Designing web maps for our highest-resolution dataset yet – CarbonPlan

We reached for open source tools and cloud-native formats to make climate risk data easily accessible on the web.

carbonplan.org

We’ve officially opened the search for CarbonPlan’s next Executive Director, and would love your help sharing the position profile. Refer candidates or apply by May 29 for priority consideration: www.goodcitizen.com/executive-se...

To build Open Climate Risk, and its 30 m raster wildfire risk dataset, we needed a data processing pipeline that could scale alongside our developing science methodology. We wrote about the challenges, and our solutions, in a new blog post.

Designing a data pipeline for our highest-resolution dataset yet – CarbonPlan

We reached for new tools to build a flexible and scalable data pipeline.

carbonplan.org

We examined 74 projects that capture and burn methane from pig manure in China, and found a consistent problem: many projects ignore the financial benefits of generating energy from captured methane. files.carbonplan.org/Pig-Manure-A...

Lithos’s first enhanced weathering credits claim a surprisingly high amount of gross carbon removal that we think deserves scrutiny. We tried to figure out what could make these high numbers possible, but we were limited by the available data and left with more questions than answers.

Questions about Lithos’ first ERW credit issuance – CarbonPlan

We were surprised by the high removal rates claimed in a recent credit issuance to the ERW company Lithos. This post explains what questions the issuance raised for us, and what needs to change to get...

carbonplan.org

We developed two new tools for mapping Zarr data: zarr-layer renders a wide range of datasets with little or no modification. And topozarr adds multiscale overviews and web-friendly chunking to datasets while maintaining projection and resolution. carbonplan.org/blog/zarr-la...

Institutions submitting to CDRXIV can build up a substantial body of work over time — but there hasn’t been an easy way to share that work as a collection. Channels fix that, making an institution’s submissions viewable in one place. We’re launching this new feature with three founding channels.

NCAR is the backbone of Earth system science in the US and a global leader in open climate research. It directly supports our mission. Alongside a wide range of peers in the scientific research community, we submitted a letter to NSF strongly opposing any efforts to dismantle or restructure NCAR.

Our new report, written in collaboration with the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative, presents a framework for policymakers to connect the dots between future net negativity and the practical decisions that underpin public investments in early-stage technologies. carbonplan.org/blog/cdr-pol...

Let’s reframe the CDR policy conversation – CarbonPlan

CDR policies must align with a coherent vision of a net-negative world.

carbonplan.org

Today we’re launching Open Climate Risk, a fully open option for U.S. building-level climate risk data. It’s unique because it allows you to see not only risk scores, starting with wildfire, but also the complete underlying dataset, methods, and codebase. carbonplan.org/research/cli...

Consistent temporal accounting supports credible CDR use. cdrxiv.org/preprint/302

Consistent temporal accounting supports credible CDR use – CDRXIV

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is increasingly used to support national targets and corporate net-zero commitments, yet the timing of atmospheric drawdown remains poorly represented in carbon accounting...

cdrxiv.org

Most carbon removal projects don’t pull CO₂ from the atmosphere instantly — there are temporal lags. We contributed to a new preprint showing why accounting for lags matters for both near-term warming and long-term temperature stabilization. 1/2 carbonplan.org/blog/cdr-tem...

The need to consistently account for time in CDR – CarbonPlan

We collaborated on a new preprint that establishes clearer language for talking about temporal lags in CDR, and shows how ignoring them can drive near-term warming.

carbonplan.org

Carbon market oversight requires knowing the location of individual offset projects. That’s why we’ve added project location information for 500 forest offset projects to OffsetsDB. These data were released by Renoster last year and, by bringing them into OffsetsDB, we hope they find wider use. 1/1

We’ve added boundary data for forest offset projects to OffsetsDB – CarbonPlan

Knowing the location of offsets projects enables more robust market oversight. We’ve added geographic information for 500 forest offset projects to OffsetsDB to assist those efforts.

carbonplan.org

New CARB cap-and-trade data is out — and we’ve added it to our Compliance Users tool. With the tool, you can search compliance data by offset project, regulated company, or emitting facility, and explore the connections between them. carbonplan.org/blog/complia...

New data added to the Compliance Users tool – CarbonPlan

We updated the Compliance Users tool to include the latest available cap-and-trade program data about who used which offsets in 2024.

carbonplan.org

Hydropower offset credits are widely viewed as some of the least credible in the market — but Verra is issuing more and more of them. Nearly 70 percent of all hydropower credits on Verra’s registry were issued after it banned new hydropower projects in 2019.

Calling all CDR researchers — we want to hear from you! Share your perspective on the current role of preprints in CDR research via this survey, open until Dec. 15th. Results will be anonymized, synthesized, and shared publicly. Thanks in advance! forms.gle/F7VkxJKM7qW9...

Preprints in Carbon Dioxide Removal

At CDRXIV, we want to understand how carbon removal researchers think about preprints. Your responses to this survey will help us gather those perspectives. The results will be anonymized and shared p...

forms.gle

Nearly six years ago, Jeremy Freeman began as CarbonPlan’s Executive Director, and we’re so grateful for his leadership. Today is another moment of growth for us, as Jeremy steps down from that role, while remaining President and Chair of the Board. In this blog post he shares about our next steps.

A letter from our Board President and Chair – CarbonPlan

Jeremy reflects on CarbonPlan's first six years, and shares about a moment of growth for the team.

carbonplan.org

Verra recently announced that more than half of the credits from the Kariba REDD+ project don’t represent real climate benefits. Our new commentary explains why carbon market participants should treat Verra’s proposed solution to excess crediting with skepticism.

Verra doesn’t have a good solution for excess crediting – CarbonPlan

Verra recently acknowledged the existence of millions of excess credits issued to the Kariba REDD+ project. Rather than resolving the issue, Verra’s proposed solution exposes a fundamental structural ...

carbonplan.org

Wildfire Update: The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires will likely trigger losses from California’s buffer pool, now that they’ve burned over 12,000 acres of a forest enrolled in its offset program. 🍁

CarbonPlan@carbonplan.org · 11mo ago

The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires in eastern Washington have burned more than 3,000 acres of the Colville forest offset project. 🍁🧪(1/3) carbonplan.org/research/for...

The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires in eastern Washington have burned more than 3,000 acres of the Colville forest offset project. 🍁🧪(1/3) carbonplan.org/research/for...

Five years ago, the Lionshead Fire burned through one of California’s forest offset projects in central Oregon. Despite strict reporting requirements, we’re still waiting for an update about the project and the millions of carbon credits that were likely lost to the fire.

California’s forest offset program has a reporting problem – CarbonPlan

Five years later, we still don’t know the carbon consequences of the 2020 Lionshead Fire.

carbonplan.org

Agricultural liming helped create the infrastructure that enhanced weathering needs to scale up, but it also makes some enhanced weathering projects harder to support in the carbon market. We show why this tension exists and discuss some paths forward in our latest article.

Scaling enhanced weathering in limed fields – CarbonPlan

Both agricultural liming and enhanced weathering spread crushed rocks on fields and have the potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere. We explore how modifying liming for carbon removal works — ...

carbonplan.org

California’s offset program is not only deeply flawed, it also costs the state hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. We dive into the details in a new commentary. carbonplan.org/research/off... (1/7)

Offsets are no free lunch – CarbonPlan

Offsets provide few climate benefits and cost California hundreds of millions of dollars each year. When lawmakers reauthorize the state’s cap and trade program this fall, they should eliminate the us...

carbonplan.org

We wanted @cdrxiv.org to have a distinctive design built on a reliable, open source publishing software. Getting both required collaboration with @janewayolh.bsky.social to overcome technical challenges. Here's how we did it: carbonplan.org/blog/cdrxiv-...

Building CDRXIV in the open – CarbonPlan

How we built our platform for research in carbon dioxide removal using open source tools.

carbonplan.org

Early snowmelt and forecasts of a hot and dry summer ahead mean the 2025 wildfire season could be devastating. And when trees burn, sometimes carbon offsets go with them. We’ll be documenting how wildfire affects offsets. carbonplan.org/blog/offset-...

This fire season promises to be rough. We’re tracking its impact on offsets. – CarbonPlan

We’re relaunching our forest offsets tracking tool for the 2025 North American fire season.

carbonplan.org

We recently hosted a workshop with Cascade and Stripe on how ERW projects should account for pre-existing aglime use when estimating new carbon removal. It’s a tricky but important question — and everyone agrees that it can’t be ignored. carbonplan.org/blog/aglime-...

Workshop notes: accounting for aglime in enhanced rock weathering – CarbonPlan

We recently held a workshop on accounting for counterfactual liming in enhanced weathering. Attendees agreed the counterfactual must be considered, but for now there is no single best way to do so.

carbonplan.org