{"id":11780,"date":"2025-07-29T16:48:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/?p=11780"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T13:41:14","slug":"25_0037","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/25_0037\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy Administration Announces Availability of $30 Million in Natural Climate Solutions Grants to Mitigate Carbon Emissions (25\/P037)"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/strong>
\nJuly 29, 2025[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Contact: <\/strong> Vincent Grassi\u00a0(609) 984-1795
\nLawrence Hajna (609) 984-1795
\nCaryn Shinske (609) 984-1795<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

MURPHY ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF $30 MILLION IN NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS GRANTS TO MITIGATE CARBON EMISSIONS<\/h3>\n

(25\/P37) TRENTON<\/strong> \u2013 The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection today announced the availability of $30 million in Natural Climate Solutions grants<\/a> for local governments and nonprofits to create, restore, and enhance New Jersey’s coastal wetlands, forests and urban tree canopies.<\/p>\n

\"GrantsThis second round of grants, combined with the initial funding round, brings total\u00a0 \u00a0Natural Climate Solutions funding to $54.3 million to date. The funding supports natural solutions that sequester carbon through projects such as constructing living shorelines; restoring tidal wetlands, salt marshes, aquatic vegetation and forests; and improving urban tree canopies. It represents a key component of New Jersey\u2019s strategy to achieve its 2050 goal<\/a> of an 80-percent reduction in greenhouse gases below 2006 levels.<\/p>\n

Grant applications will be accepted on a rolling basis for one calendar year through <\/strong>DEP\u2019s online application portal<\/strong><\/a> starting August 4<\/strong>. Projects will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis unique program empowers communities across New Jersey to pursue natural ways of reducing climate pollutants that worsen the effects of our changing climate,\u201d Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said<\/strong>. \u201cBy investing in blue and green carbon projects, we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing the resilience of our coastal and forested landscapes, ensuring cleaner air and healthier communities for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant Program in Detail<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Grant amounts will range between $250,000 and $5 million, with each project spanning three to five years. Funding for the program is sourced from auction proceeds obtained through New Jersey\u2019s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).<\/p>\n

The $30 million total funding will be equally divided, with $15 million specifically allocated for projects in New Jersey\u2019s coastal ecosystems (blue carbon projects) and $15 million for projects that improve the health of forests (green carbon projects). DEP will regularly update its Natural Climate Solutions Grant Program webpage<\/a> as funds are awarded.<\/p>\n

Each project will support carbon sequestration<\/a>, the process of capturing carbon dioxide from the air by plants through photosynthesis and storage of that carbon in woody biomass and in plant-derived soil organic carbon. While this is a naturally occurring process on land and in aquatic habitats, there are human actions that can help maintain and enhance carbon sequestration capacity to further help mitigate the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n

The principal methods to promote carbon sequestration include improved land management practices, such as reforestation (planting trees to support forest regeneration), urban community forestry (street tree planting), afforestation (planting trees on land that has been used for other purposes), and protecting tidal marshes from erosion. Protecting coastal ecosystems is particularly important since tidal marshes and seagrass meadows sequester more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests.<\/p>\n

Natural Climate Solutions Grant Program Background<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2023, DEP awarded $24.3 million<\/a> for 14 projects through the grant program\u2019s initial funding round. Funded projects included New Jersey Conservation Foundation\u2019s project to plant 1,000 trees in Trenton to enhance the city\u2019s urban tree canopy and American Littoral Society\u2019s project to restore 19.5 acres of tidal salt marsh and create up to 3,500 feet of living shoreline and oyster reefs.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Natural Climate Solutions Grant Program, visit dep.nj.gov\/climatechange\/mitigation\/ncs-grant\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 29, 2025[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””] Contact: Vincent Grassi\u00a0(609) 984-1795 Lawrence Hajna (609) 984-1795 Caryn Shinske (609) 984-1795 [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””] MURPHY ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF $30 MILLION IN NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS GRANTS TO MITIGATE CARBON EMISSIONS (25\/P37) TRENTON \u2013 The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection today announced the availability of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":11782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"dep-single.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[201,200],"class_list":["post-11780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-193","tag-climate-solutions","tag-grants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11780"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11784,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11780\/revisions\/11784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deptest.nj.gov\/newsrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}