Climate Capabilities - Carbon Emissions Sequestration

Climate plays an important role in where plants, animals, and humans can thrive. As the global climate changes, it threatens the safety and well-being of our communities, our economy, and our natural heritage. The USGS investigates the causes and consequences of climate change and helps people create strategies to navigate this global crisis.

The USGS conducts research on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration in public lands. Public lands maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior make up about one-fifth of the Nation’s land area. They include national parks, seashores, and monuments managed by the National Park Service; national wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and working lands and offshore mineral rights managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The USGS also investigates methods of land management aimed at decreasing emissions from federal lands. The USGS provides decision-makers, local communities, and land managers with tools to analyze tradeoffs associated with changing energy practices. The USGS also develops natural carbon dioxide removal technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere through carbon sequestration and to decrease natural methane emissions.