# Danny Cullenward (@ghgpolicy.org)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/ghgpolicy.org

## Career

- **Shleifer Senior Fellow at University of Pennsylvania** (Jul 2023 - Present)
- **Senior Fellow at Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal** (May 2021 - Present)
- **Lecturer at Stanford Law School and Stanford University** (Apr 2017 - Jun 2021)
- **Research Associate at Carnegie Institution for Science** (Mar 2016 - Jan 2020)
- **Philomathia Research Fellow at University of California, Berkeley** (Sep 2013 - Dec 2015)

## Publications

- Forest carbon protocols underestimate climate-driven carbon loss risks — Nature (May 2026) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10571-y
- Carbon credits are failing to help with climate change — here’s why — Nature (Oct 2025) https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03313-z
- Toward more effective nature-based climate solutions in global forests — Nature (Jul 2025) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09116-6
- Greenhouse gas offsets distort the effect of clean energy tax credits in the United States — Environmental Research: Energy (Jan 2025) https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/ad9f65
- Funding forests’ climate potential without carbon offsets — One Earth (Jul 2024) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.06.006
- Carbon offsets are incompatible with the Paris Agreement — One Earth (Sep 2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.08.014
- Using remote sensing to quantify the additional climate benefits of California forest carbon offset projects — Global Change Biology (Sep 2022) https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16380
- California’s forest carbon offsets buffer pool is severely undercapitalized — Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (Aug 2022) https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.930426
- Future climate risks from stress, insects and fire across US forests — Ecological Letters (May 2022) https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14018
-  Accounting for the Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity of Regional Electricity Transfers  — Environmental Science & Technology  (May 2021) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c08096
- Analyzing California’s framework for estimating greenhouse gas emissions associated with retail electricity sales — The Electricity Journal (Oct 2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2020.106818
- Managing uncertainty in carbon offsets: insights from California’s standardized approach — Climate Policy (Jun 2020) https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2020.1781035
- Climate-driven risks to the climate mitigation potential of forests — Science (Jun 2020) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz7005
- An open-source model of the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade programme with supply-demand scenarios to 2030 — Climate Policy (May 2020) https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2020.1760774
- Tracking banking in the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade program — Environmental Research Letters (Dec 2019) https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab50df
- The Quiet Undoing: How Regional Electricity Market Reforms Threaten State Clean Energy Goals — Yale Journal on Regulation Bulletin (Nov 2019) https://www.yalejreg.com/bulletin/the-quiet-undoing-how-regional-electricity-market-reforms-threaten-state-clean-energy-goals/
-  California’s Foreign Climate Policy  — Global Summitry (Sep 2017) https://doi.org/10.1093/global/gux007
- Prove Paris was more than paper promises — Nature (Aug 2017) https://doi.org/10.1038/548025a
- State Constitutional Limitations on the Future of California’s Carbon Market — Energy Law Journal (Nov 2016) https://www.eba-net.org/felj/elj-37-2/
- Structural oversupply and credibility in California’s carbon market — The Electricity Journal (Jun 2016) http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2016.06.006
- Dynamically estimating the distributional impacts of U.S. climate policy with NEMS: A case study of the Climate Protection Act of 2013 — Energy Economics (Mar 2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2016.02.021
- A critique of Saunders' ‘historical evidence for energy efficiency rebound in 30 us sectors’ — Technological Forecasting and Social Change (Feb 2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2015.08.007
- Carbon Offsets in California: Science in the Policy Development Process — Book chapter (Jan 2016) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20161-0_15
- Peak Electricity and the Clean Power Plan — The Electricity Journal (May 2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2015.04.006
- The Limits of Administrative Law as Regulatory Oversight in Linked Carbon Markets — UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy (Jan 2015) https://doi.org/10.5070/L5331028754
- Leakage in California's Carbon Market — The Electricity Journal (Nov 2014) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2014.09.014
- How California’s carbon market actually works — Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Nov 2014) https://doi.org/10.1177/0096340214546834
- End use technology choice in the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS): An analysis of the residential and commercial building sectors — Energy Economics (Nov 2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.09.023
- Science Advocacy and the Legal System: Is Life Cycle Assessment Unconstitutional? — Book chapter (Jan 2013) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01821-8_4
- Psychohistory revisited: fundamental issues in forecasting climate futures — Climatic Change (Dec 2010) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-010-9995-2
- Carbon Trading, Taxes, and Offsets — Book chapter (Jan 2010) https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.41379827.25
- The Dam Debate and its Discontents — Climatic Change (Apr 2006) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9085-7

## Credentials

- Attorney — State Bar of California (Feb 2014) https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/295908

## Education

- **Stanford University** — PhD, Environment and Resources (Sep 2008 - Aug 2013)
- **Stanford Law School** — JD, Law (Sep 2010 - Jun 2013)
- **Stanford University** — MS, Management Science and Engineering (Jan 2005 - Jan 2007)
- **Stanford University** — BS, Earth Systems (Sep 2002 - Jan 2007)

## Involvement

### Civic
- Greenhouse Gas Protocol (Sep 2024 - Jun 2026)
  Independent Standards Board
- UNFCCC Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (Mar 2024 - Present)
  Methodological Expert Panel
- Carbon180 (May 2016 - May 2018)
  Board of Directors
- California Environmental Protection Agency (Sep 2017 - Present)
  Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee
- Bay Area Air District (Aug 2017 - Present)
  Hearing Board (currently alternate), Advisory Council

## Links

- Personal website: https://ghgpolicy.org