On May 27th, CPO hosted a meeting of US agencies and several external partners involved in international coastal blue carbon research, capacity building, and climate policy, for the purpose of advancing collaboration through the recently established NOAA Blue Carbon Inventory (BCI) Project. 

The NOAA BCI Project is nearing the end of a scoping phase consisting of a series of targeted engagements and opportunity/gap assessment focused on the current status of integrating coastal wetlands in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (NGGIs) in countries identified as priorities by the NOAA-State Department partnership. The project team hopes the assessment will help identify key partner countries and initial activities to be supported by the NOAA BCI Project.

The assessment results were presented at the May 27 interagency meeting for consideration by this interagency group, and the identification of potential synergies and engagement strategies across US and international investments in blue carbon work. CPO participants from the Director's Office and Climate and Societal Interactions Division were joined by colleagues from the National Ocean Service's Marine Protected Areas Center, and representatives from the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the U.S. Forest Service, and Silvestrum Climate Associates.