Nature – Riley et al. (2025): Accounting for albedo in carbon market protocols
Lynn M. Riley, Susan C. Cook-Patton, Loren P. Albert, Christopher J. Still, Christopher A. Williams and Jacob J. Bukoski,IN: Nature Communications, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64317-x
The climate benefits of some Voluntary Carbon Market projects may be overestimated due to a lack of accounting for albedo change. Here the authors analyze 172 Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation projects within the market and find more than 10% occur in places where albedo may entirely negate the climate mitigation benefit, and a quarter occur in places where albedo may halve the mitigation benefit.