The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality estimates that the state currently emits about 140 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, while forests and other natural land uses capture and retain about 50 million tons of that. An evaluation of current land-use practices in Virginia shows that restoring natural ecosystems, primarily forests, can accomplish 20% of the state’s additional carbon sequestration needs and that Virginia will need to turn to technological solutions for the other 80%.
CRI Findings
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CRI Web Maps
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The Climate Restoration Initiative (CRI) explores how to implement negative emissions strategies (removal of carbon dioxide from the environment) throughout Virginia, to understand the interplay between negative emissions, communities, and existing economic and social activities—and analyze potential barriers and ancillary benefits of carbon mitigation. Future research will explore how to accelerate the deployment of negative emissions strategies, how to create incentives for their adoption, and how to assess the costs of doing nothing.
CRI in the News
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Researchers at the University of Virginia’s Environmental Institute have published a report assessing how much carbon Virginia needs to remove from the atmosphere to get to “net-zero” emissions of carbon dioxide – a designation which means that emissions of greenhouse gases do not exceed the amount being removed from the atmosphere.
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The University of Virginia will use $1.55 million in settlement money from the Volkswagen emissions scandal to research carbon removal strategies and create an online dashboard that can help reduce net carbon emissions in the state.
UVA received the money in July, after being approached by attorneys asking if the University would like to submit a proposal, which the Environmental Institute responded to based on its work with CRI.