Greenhouse gas emissions and removals from forest land, woodlands, urban trees, and harvested wood products in the United States, 1990-2021
| Authors: | Grant M. Domke, Brian F. Walters, Courtney L. Giebink, Eric J. Greenfield, James E. Smith, Michael C. Nichols, Jon A. Knott, Stephen M. Ogle, John W. Coulston, John Steller |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Type: | Resource Bulletin |
| Station: | Northern Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-RB-101 |
| Source: | Resour. Bull. WO-101. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Washington Office |
Abstract
As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United States has reported an inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals by sector, as defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), since the mid-1990s (U.S. EPA 2023). In 2021, United States net GHG emissions increased by more than 6.8 percent relative to 2020 net emissions, which had decreased substantially from previous years and was due, in large part, to the global pandemic. Forest land, harvested wood products (HWP), woodlands, and urban trees within the land sector collectively continue to represent the largest net carbon sink in the United States, offsetting the equivalent of more than 12.4 percent of total (i.e., gross) GHG emissions in 2021 (U.S. EPA 2023). Estimates of GHG emissions and removals are compiled by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service researchers and partners and are based primarily on National Forest Inventory (NFI) data collected and maintained by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program within the Forest Service. This resource bulletin provides an overview of the status and trends of GHG emissions and removals from forest land, woodlands in the grassland category, HWP, and urban trees in settlements in the United States from 1990 to 2021. The estimates for the United States summarized here are based on the compilation reported in the "Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry" chapter of the U.S. EPA (2023) submission to the UNFCCC. Most of the national scale estimates are also developed and reported at the individual State level (fig. 1) for the entire 1990–2021 time series and are available in a published research dataset (Walters et al. 2023). This report also includes regional carbon stock and stock change estimates by broad ownership category (i.e., private or public land) and National Forest System region