ENV 697b () / 2024-2025

Science for Policy and Practice: A Seminar

Credits: 1.5 Spring 2025: Tu, 1:00-2:20, Sage 41c

Synthesizing science for policy and practice commonly requires synthesis of scientific evidence to address a targeted policy or practice question. This seminar focuses on a topical policy/practice need. This semester, the seminar focuses on synthesizing available science and protocols focused on quantifying the climate benefits of afforestation, reforestation and tree planting initiatives, with a particular focus on developing evidence that builds confidence in carbon accounting within Scope 3 emissions inventories. The class will draw upon materials ranging from the IPCC GHG Inventory Guidelines – for calculating nationally determined contributions – to afforestation/reforestation protocols for carbon markets to the GHG Protocol aimed at corporations, cities and communities. We will focus on discovering and unpacking the science that informs guideline/protocol development, the causal claims made, and what approaches/ information might be needed to build confidence in the rigor of the claims made about reductions in GHG emissions/ enhanced removals due to activities that increase tree/ forest cover. The class deliverable will be an informational brief focused on the state of accounting for these activities, the degree of confidence one should have in current approaches, and what science might be needed to increase standards of evidence.
 
This class is targeted toward students in the YSE Masters programs and admittance to the course is capped at 12, requiring an application for consideration.