REDD+ carbon offsets - a study of the credit quality of avoided deforestation offset credits
Barbara Haya, Research Fellow
Public Policy
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2023 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2024.
Carbon offsets are being widely used to meet carbon neutrality goals. Avoided deforestation (also called REDD+) is generating the greatest number of credits on the offset market. The goal of this project is to study the quality of these avoided deforestation offset credits. This is an interdisciplinary study involving ten researchers and faculty, each focused on a different part of the credit generation rules -- additionality, baselines, leakage, carbon accounting, social/environmental safeguards, and three case study countries -- Nepal, Vietnam, and Brazil.
Role: Your role will be to develop a database of REDD+ offset projects. This will involve going through the project documents extracting out key information. Since you will have the most knowledge about each individual project, we look forward to involving you, and will value your insights, as we reflect on the projects and the study findings. This is an exciting project with a wonderful interdisciplinary team. The final report and set of papers will inform offset program development.
Qualifications: Most important is attention to detail, fearlessness in wading through long reports looking for specific information (we can help you figure out where to look and how to search), and an interest in international forest projects focused on preventing deforestation and/or carbon offsets.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Barbara Haya, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: This research can be performed completely remotely.
Related website: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-impact/centers/cepp/projects/berkeley-carbon-trading-project
Environmental Issues Social Sciences