In a speech at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last week, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar urged that government-owned land must play a greater role in helping to cut carbon emissions, through both carbon capture and storage (CCS) and renewable energy generation.
Citing a recent study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Salazar told members of the conference that plants and soils in the lower 48 states currently store about 90 billion metric tons of carbon and continue to absorb about 30 percent of U.S. fossil fuel emissions each year.
“U.S. lands can store more carbon in ways that enhance our stewardship of land and natural resources while reducing our contribution to global warming,” he said.
This process –called terrestrial carbon dioxide sequestration, relies on trees, plants and crops to absorb greenhouse gas emissions through photosynthesis–is often overlooked.
Terrestrial sequestration is just one more example of emissions-reducing technologies that can help us take advantage of what we’ve already got. We hope Salazar’s speech spurs world leaders to think about ways they can utilize their own public lands for potential sequestration opportunities—because as Salazar said: “the possibilities are immense.”
