Areas of Expertise:
offsets, environmental economics, agriculture, forestry, climate policy, bioenergy
Christopher Galik is an senior policy associate at Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. He is currently working to better document issues associated with on-the-ground implementation of climate and low-carbon energy policy. He continues to partner with researchers at North Carolina State University to investigate the forest resource implications of expanded renewable energy targets. He is likewise working with faculty at Duke and other universities to highlight the impact of existing regulations and offset protocol design on forest carbon offset supply.
Prior to joining Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Christopher served as a research coordinator for the Climate Change Policy Partnership (CCPP), a collaborative project intended to leverage the resources of Duke to determine practical strategies to respond to climate change. Within the Partnership, Christopher had primary oversight over biological sequestration, bioenergy, and biofuels policy analysis and applied research activities.
Before CCPP, Christopher spent several years in Washington, D.C. as a policy analyst, specializing in species conservation and federal forest management and policy.
Ph.D. Student; Forestry and Environmental Resources. North Carolina State University. (exp 2016)
Master of Environmental Management; Resource Economics and Policy. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University. 2002.
Bachelor of Arts; cum laude, Biology. Vassar College. 1999.
In this article, researchers look at the potential of southern forests to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering carbon. Striving to produce a more realistic assessment of the potential for these forests to sequester carbon in response to future markets or policies, researchers used National Woodland Owner Survey data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program to link landowner demographic and behavioral data with forest conditions. The report also examines barriers to individual nonindustrial private forest participation in carbon offset programs and offers recommendations for overcoming those barriers.
Author(s):Christopher S. Galik, Brian C. Murray, D. Evan Mercer
This paper discusses the operational issues associated with the expanding scope of reduced emissions from deforestation (RED) as forest degradation, conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) and other sectors and activities are added. The review looks to the ideas of countries, observers, and experts, as well as to the experience of those moving toward implementation through country REDD+ plans and voluntary offset markets. While not all countries may be ready to implement programs or policies across all REDD+ activities, expanding RED to REDD+ can bring significant benefits for strategic planning, coordination across sectors and activities, and increasing mitigation opportunities.
Author(s):Lydia P. Olander, Christopher S. Galik, Gabrielle A Kissinger
Afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects can generate greenhouse gas reduction credits by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through biophysical processes and storing it in terrestrial carbon stocks such as biomass, litter, and soils. One feature of these A/R activities is the possibility of carbon reversal, whereby the stored carbon is subsequently lost though natural disturbances, such as fire and wind, or anthropogenic disturbances such as harvesting. Adequately accounting for carbon reversal under land use, land-use change, and A/R has been a point of ongoing discussion at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties. This report examines alternative approaches to addressing reversals to inform ongoing UNFCCC discussions on the effectiveness and economic and practical feasibility of various approaches.
Author(s):Brian C. Murray, Christopher S. Galik, Stephen Mitchell, Phil Cottle
This paper presents a revised accounting framework to track biogenic carbon emissions, or the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and use of biomass resources. It is designed to achieve three overarching principles: to be cost-effective, to be adaptive and responsive to changing conditions, and to provide incentives for continuous improvement. The revised framework achieves these three principles through a three-tiered system. The first tier consists of the establishment of regional default biogenic accounting factors (BAFs) for classes of feedstock. The second is the targeted exemption of individual feedstocks based on evidence of minimal net emissions associated with their use. The third and final tier provides the opportunity for individual feedstock producers to become certified under the framework, and in doing so, employ a BAF other than the feedstock default. Although biogenic carbon dioxide accounting is complicated, and any accounting framework will surely involve economic, scientific, and political tradeoffs, the paper looks to show that an intuitive and defensible system is nonetheless possible to construct.
