The Climate Action Reserve, a new set of standards meant to bring transparency and accuracy to the U.S. voluntary carbon reduction market, launched Monday.
The Climate Action Reserve is a division of the California Climate Action Registry, a non-profit public organization started by the State of California to serve as a voluntary greenhouse gas registry to encourage emissions reductions.
The Reserve provides verification and tracking of greenhouse gas reduction projects and their inventories of greenhouse gas reduction tons. It is a set of project protocols for specific industry sectors based on best practices as determined by stakeholder work groups representing industry, government, science, and environmental sectors.
Owners and developers of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects can register their projects and the associated inventories of Carbon Reduction Tons (CRTs, pronounced carrots) on the Reserve website. After that, a project is verified by an independent third party to ensure the project has met the protocol standards and to accurately quantify the greenhouse gas reductions.
Each CRT associated with a project registered on the Reserve is assigned a unique serial number. This prevents the possibility of double counting and also assures buyers that when a CRT has been retired it cannot ever be sold or transferred again, creating a real and permanent offset.
The Reserve now has only two projects it has verified–both forest projects that are partially funded through purchased carbon offsets.
However, Gary Gero, president of the California Climate Registry, said the reserve expects to have about 20 projects that meet its standards within a year; 50 to 100 new ones in its second year; and hundreds of new projects representing millions of tons of CRTs in its third year of existence.
Crucial information about carbon reduction projects, and their associated inventories of emissions reduction tons, is made publicly available on the Climate Action Reserve website. This includes project location, ownership; the name of the project developer; the third party verification firm and the verification report; the specific protocol utilized to develop a project; and additional detailed information.
"The Registry’s Forest Protocols are among the world’s most accurate and environmentally sound, which led the State of California to adopt them," said Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board, the state agency charged with implementing AB32, California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act.
Ken Newcombe, Managing Director and Head of U.S. Carbon Desk, Goldman Sachs, said "We are enthusiastic about the work the Reserve is doing because it provides increased certainty about investing in this sector."
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