The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
Overall, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and nature-based climate solutions in the forestry, agriculture, land conservation, and water sectors are essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, agriculture is responsible for 11 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while the land sector absorbed the equivalent of about 13 percent of the country’s GHG emissions (mostly from forests). Within this goal, the role of wildlands and woodlands, alongside improved forest management, is essential as evidenced by:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that forests are key to limit warming to 2 ̊ Celsius, and climate-aligned forest management practices are identified as a central way to sequester and store carbon.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that private U.S. forests are climate-change mitigation powerhouses. The EPA’s 2022 “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks” shows that 84% of current carbon sequestration is happening on private forestlands.
The Northeast can be a major absorber of atmospheric carbon and promote a strong wood-based economy, if we implement climate-smart forestry that also protects biodiversity and healthy forest ecosystems.
The $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) as formed in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—particularly the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund and $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator—represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage private capital for investments in environmental infrastructure and nature-based climate solutions. The GGRF is designed to make funding available for projects that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of air pollution, with a particular emphasis on projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
The GGRF is particularly relevant to the goals of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities collaboration because it can provide resources to invest in environmental infrastructure and nature-based climate solutions in water infrastructure, forest management, land conservation, and agriculture—all of which can contribute significantly to greenhouse gas reductions.
In New England the GGRF has the potential to create new financing initiatives to bring climate-smart forestry solutions to scale, building on the New England Forestry Foundation’s Climate Smart Commodities program working with large, small and Tribal forestland owners to deliver fully 30 percent of New England’s carbon reduction goals.
Importantly, the EPA has recently expanded the scope and framework for the GGRF to include investments in projects that help American communities address climate change specifically. This scope expansion is in addition to other investment categories including clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transportation; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and development of critical clean water infrastructure.
New England Forestry Foundation: Prouty Woods Community Forest. Photo ©Lauren Owens Lambert
Andi Colnes is Deputy Director and Climate Fellow with New England Forestry Foundation, where she focuses on high-impact, nature-based climate solutions through the management and protection of New England’s forests. Andi has led global climate finance initiatives and strategic campaigns focused on renewable energy, large-scale land conservation, and sustainable forestry over a 30-year career, and most recently as Director for Global Green Bank Development at the Coalition for Green Capital. She has also served as the Secretariat for the global Green Bank Network, a member of the NEFF Board of Directors, and as the founding Executive Director of the Northern Forest Alliance.