Sec. 8. Coastal Blue Carbon Inventory Program
412 words·~2 min read·
/bill/118/hr/9912/ih/section-8·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
The Undersecretary, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Secretary of the Interior, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, shall establish the Coastal Blue Carbon Inventory Program. In carrying out the Program, the Undersecretary— shall— support domestic coastal blue carbon ecosystem conservation activities; develop emissions mitigation, coastal resource management, and resilience strategies related to carbon storage and sequestration, including long-term sustainable management of coastal blue carbon ecosystems in the context of marine spatial and resilience planning; assess coastal blue carbon ecosystem needs and prioritize scope; build country-level awareness of benefits and national priorities related to the restoration of coastal blue carbon ecosystem and capacity to restore coastal blue carbon ecosystems; address data and knowledge gaps related to— carbon sequestration rates of ecologically distinct ecosystems; and the role of vertically migrating fishes, zooplankton, marine mammals, and fisheries in the carbon cycle; expand data management tools; develop national and regional inventories of coastal blue carbon ecosystems; provide to State, local, and Tribal governments and other entities engaged in coastal blue carbon ecosystem conservation, including universities, research institutions, and private or nonprofit organizations, technical assistance such as— country- and regional-level workshops and trainings; and assessments of carbon stocks and stock changes; and maintain a publicly available digital library of coastal blue carbon ecosystem data, which shall include— open-source analysis and modeling tools; disaggregated soil carbon data collected from coastal blue carbon ecosystems; mapping resources to identify protected coastal blue carbon ecosystems; surveys of ongoing and completed restoration projects in identified coastal blue carbon ecosystems; and any other information the Undersecretary determines necessary; and may, for any international research, data collection, and technical assistance activities or any other activity the Undersecretary determines appropriate, coordinate with existing interagency efforts to inventory blue carbon.
Not later than 1 year after the date on which the Program is established under subsection (a), and every 2 years thereafter, the Undersecretary shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that— describes the type and number of participants in the Program; details each coastal blue carbon ecosystem inventoried since the previous report; assesses barriers to providing quality technical assistance to participants in the Program; and estimates the cost of the operation of the Program, including digital library maintenance and technical assistance.
In this section, the term Program means the Coastal Blue Carbon Inventory Program established under subsection (a).