The 2020 Presidential election was one of the most unique in our history for a number of reasons. Now that the election is over, it is time to start considering the implications of a Biden Presidency on key issues, and for the American Forest Foundation, one of the most important issues to consider is climate change.

President-Elect Biden has made it clear that climate change will be one of his most significant policy priorities and is already providing some indication of how that is likely to manifest.

The new Administration has stated that they are going to be focused on the objective of putting the US on a path the Net Zero Carbon by 2050.  Achieving net zero emissions means building on the broader consensus goal of achieving the 2-degree goal outlined in the Paris Agreement, and going further. To achieve the net zero target, we will need to make big changes to our economy and to our energy and transportation sectors. The Biden climate plan targets big investments in clean energy and renewable power, integrating climate policy with infrastructure improvements and efforts to promote resiliency, positioning the US as a leader in the global climate movement, aiding communities that have been harmed by inaction on climate and providing support for communities that have powered our industrial revolution and growth.

To achieve net zero, we will need to build a comprehensive path to decarbonization. While many of sectors of our economy can be decarbonized, it will take time. As a result, we will need to turn to the idea of negative emissions in order to address the challenges these sectors represent. We cannot be succesful in this without incorporating natural climate solutions.

To do that we will need to natural climate solutions, or the means to use agricultural lands, forests and wetlands to capture and sequester carbon, as part of a comprehensive net zero strategy. This will open the door to programs like the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP), which provide an essential path forward for scaling natural climate solutions and delivering essential carbon credits back to businesses who need them as we move toward broader decarbonization of the economy.

How Family-Forests Can Help Meet These Climate Goals

Family-owned forests make up a significant portion of our nation’s forests, 36% of all forested lands. We cannot maximize the carbon sequestration potential of America’s forests without including these landowners and their forests in the plan. AFF, in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy, has launched a program called the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP).

The FFCP is an innovative program that was designed so that small landowners, those who own between 1 and 100 acres, are able to participate in carbon markets. The FFCP pays these landowners to implement sustainable forestry practices that increase the carbon sequestration potential of their forests, and that additional carbon is then sold as carbon credits to support the achievement of corporate sustainability and climate goals.

As companies begin to seek out innovative solutions, the FFCP could serve as a critical resource to these companies by providing steady, reliable carbon credits at a reasonable price. For more information on the FFCP, visit the program's website.