Our Public Lands and Waters Must Be Managed to Meet Climate Goals

Image Source: https://www.nrdc.org/

Our Public Lands and Waters Must Be Managed to Meet Climate Goals

Our Public Lands and Waters Must Be Managed to Meet Climate Goals

Source: https://earthjustice.org/

Author: Geoffrey Nolan

Public lands alone are a source of nearly one-quar of all U.S. carbon emissions, and right now, the federal leasing programs for our public lands and waters do not line up with President Biden’s national climate pollution targets, the goals of the Paris Agreement, or extensive climate science. Harnessing the potential of our public lands and waters to mitigate climate impacts requires a whole-of-government approach as well as extensive, repeated engagement with diverse stakeholder groups and experts. We strongly support Chairman’s Grijalva’s legislation to better ensure that management of our public lands and waters adequately accounts for climate impacts, while also creating new opportunities for expert and community engagement.