Research Focus Areas
Learn about the Virginia Climate Restoration Initiative’s three main areas of research
Nature
Virginia’s forests already sequester 40 percent of the state’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Approximately 6 million acres of privately owned land in non-urban counties of the state could be transformed into forests to sequester CO2.
Forest restoration requires strategic planning that considers land use, economic, environmental, and climatic conditions necessary for forest growth, which vary across space and time.
Learn moreApproximately 6 million acres of privately owned land in non-urban counties of the state could be transformed into forests.
Technology
Virginia has the land, water, and energy resources to deploy engineered and nature-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) systems. Engineered options can remove carbon at larger scales than nature-based options. Nature-based options have lower deployment costs, although they are limited by the area of suitable land.
Learn moreWith existing incentives and an optimization that prioritizes the lowest-cost pathway for near-term deployment, Virginia can offset 88% of its emissions.
Policy
How communities use land and construct buildings is shaped, in part, by local land use policy. To implement a nature-based or engineered solution to carbon sequestration, or even construct buildings to reduce emissions or sequester carbon, local land use regulations and policy must allow and support the technologies and practices that reduce emissions and/or sequester carbon.
Learn moreMany engineering-based technology solutions to CO2 reduction or sequestration would require communities regulate their land differently than they do now.