Download Materials from the 11th Forum: Moving Forward on Lands-Based Mitigation Challenges and Solutions


Setting the Stage

Presenter: Nicklas Forsell • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)
Integrating Climate Smart Principles into Action

Session 1: Policy Perspectives

Objective: Presenters will discuss recent efforts to address climate change issues in various policy settings and identify current and future status and modeling needs related to climate, energy, and land use policy issues.

Presenter: Bill Hohenstein • Office of the Chief Economist, USDA
Role of AFOLU in Meeting Decarbonization Goals

Presenter: Shaun Ragnauth • Acting Branch Chief, Climate Change Division US EPA
Policy and Analytical Perspectives

Presenter: Anne-Hélène Mathey • Executive Director, Environment & Climate Policy, Canadian Forest Service-Natural Resources Canada
Canadian Policy Perspectives on Climate Change and Nature-Based Solutions

Presenter: Abraham Ortinez • General Mitigation Coordinator of the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC)
Nature Based Solutions in Mexico: Environmental Justice and Compliance with National and International Mitigation Goals

Capacity Building Needs and Recent Progress in Latin America, panel discussion

Session moderator: Marcela Olguin-Alvarez • Climate Change Unit USFS – SilvaCarbon
Panel members: Georgina Trujillo • National Forestry Corporation, Chile; Paul Melo • Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, Ecuador; Sandra Bravo • Transparency and NDCs Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNEP; Kendal Blanco Salas • GHG Support Unit, UNFCCC
Capacity Building Needs and Recent Progress in Latin Ameica

Session 2: Model (Methods) Comparison

Objective: This session will focus on how to create “informative” multi-model comparisons and how to best use the results in the regulatory framework. By focusing on policy-relevant questions, this session will provide a platform for modelers to present current multi-model exercises and future development and for the users of the results (e.g., regulatory community) to discuss alternative options to explain variability and uncertainty across models’ results in framing future policy designs.

Presenter: Sara Ohrel • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Report: GHG Mitigation from the US FOrestry and Agriculture Sector

Presenter: Chris Ramig • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Model Comparison for Biofuels Analysis

Presenter: Terry Nipp • AgMIP & Alex Ruane • NASA/GISS
Developing Multi-model Assessment Communities within Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project

Presenter: Adam Daigneault • University of Maine
Forest Model Intercomparison Project (ForMIP)

Session 3: State of the Art Tools & Challenges

Objective: This session brings together diverse perspectives on the current policy environment, important trends, and the latest advances in forestry and agriculture modeling. Research application presentations will illustrate recent uses of forest and agriculture models to answer policy-relevant research questions

Presenter: Ron Sands • USDA-ERS
Large-Scale Biomass Supply for Carbon Sequestration: Trade-offs Across Agricultural Futures

Presenter: Jeff Vincent • Duke Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Public Policy
Using Spatial Datasets to Improve Modeling of AR Costs, Carbon Accumulation, and Net Tree-Cover Gain in the Global South

Presenter: Tom Hertel • Purdue University
Global-Local-Global Analysis of Systems Sustainability Network (GLASSNET)

Presenter: Yuan Yao • Yale School of the Environment
Best Practices and Challenges in the Life Cycle Assessment of Forest Products

Session 4: Mitigation

Objective: This panel session will focus on the types of greenhouse gas reduction opportunities that exist for forestry stakeholders in part 1 and agriculture in part 2, the barriers to getting markets for those opportunities off the ground, and how the modeling community can best represent the evolution of these markets in their analyses.
Part 1 - Forestry

Presenter: Greg Latta • University of Idaho
Considerations in Modeling Harvested Wood Product Mitigation Strategies

Presenter: John Coulston • USFS
Carbon Impacts of Thinning and Future Wildfires

Presenter: Brent Sohngen • Ohio State University
Global Climate and Policy Impacts on Forests

Part 2 - Agriculture and Bioenergy

Presenter: Matthew Langholtz • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Overview of the 2023 Billion-ton Report and the Roads to Removal Report: Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BICRS)

Presenter: Jason Grant • Virgina Tech
A Cross-Country Stock-Taking of GHG Emission Footprints in Major Agricultural Commodities

Presenter: Niklas Hinkel • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
GLOBIOM - Understanding Uncertainty in Market-Mediated Responses to US Oilseed Biodiesel Demand

Part 3 - Private/Voluntary Approaches and Needs
Objective: Explore options for voluntary actions and private-sector initiatives to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon removals within the forest and agricultural sectors. Gain insights into additional data and modeling priorities for supporting and assessing these activities.
Private Sector Land Sector Emissions Reduction Panel Discussion

Session moderator: Greg Latta • University of Idaho
Panel members: Martha Stevenson • Senior Director, Strategy & Research, Forests • WWF; Deborah Lawrence • Calyx Global; Spencer Plumb • Senior Manager, Forest Carbon Innovation • Verra; Rishi Das • Head of Forest Carbon Ratings • BeZero

Private Sector Land Sector Emissions Reduction Panel Discussion

Session 5: Carbon Plus

Objective: While the focus on the Forum has traditionally been the application of models to project GHG emissions and carbon sequestration from the land sectors, these models have broad applicability to other pressing societal challenges. The purpose of this session is to present recent advances in modeling to capture the interactions between GHG emissions and carbon sequestration potential from the land use sectors and other policy objectives that could affect land management and related markets. Presentations in this session will highlight state-of-the art modeling to explore interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between land sector abatement and other policy objectives that align with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, including enhanced food security and nutrition, water system sustainability, nutrient management, and biodiversity protection. Presentations will offer new insight into scale dependencies in systems modeling, potential interactions between policy goals, and policy design considerations.

Presenter: Maridee Weber • Joint Global Change Research Institute
Recent GCAM Efforts for Decarbonization-Related Agriculture and Land Use Modeling

Presenter: Aline Mosnier • UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land Use and bioEnergy (FABLE) Consortium: Reconciling sustainable land use pathways across national and global scales

Presenter: Justin Baker • NC State University
Sustainable Phosphorus Futures and Tradeoffs Across C, N, and P Policy Objectives – Global-to-Regional Scale Considerations

Presenter: Mario Herrero • Cornell University
Tradeoffs and Synergies Between Healthier Diet Transitions, Alternative Proteins,and GHG Policy



epa logo
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Sara Ohrel, Chair
usda logo
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Ron Sands
Jeff O'Hara
Elizabeth Marshall
rti logo
RTI International
Robert Beach
Alice Favero
canada wordmark
Canadian Forest Service & Natural Resources Canada
Carolyn Smith
Nicoas Duval-Mace

univ of idaho logo
University of Idaho
Greg Latta
ncstate logo
NC State University
Justin Baker

Questions? Please contact Naomi Taylor at njtaylor@rti.org for more information.

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