By Tony Brunello and Dan Nepstad| May 19, 2013 | The Sacramento Bee

We love our forests in California. After a century of rapidly losing them to farming and logging, we finally succeeded in virtually ending deforestation in California. We were driven by our interest in the natural beauty, the wildlife, the sustainable timber supplies and the water-purifying functions of old-growth redwoods along the coast, the blue oaks growing across the Central Valley and the mixed pine forests of the Sierra. It was only possible because we had a clear vision of the importance of our forests and a successful strategy for protecting them.

California has an opportunity now to help forest-rich states in Brazil, Mexico and other nations take a similar step to keep their forests. But why should Californians care?

First, we are part of the problem. Much of the palm oil that is hidden in our cosmetics and foods is grown on recently cleared lands in Indonesia and Malaysia. We make furniture, build decks and cover our houses and businesses with ipe, teak and mahogany extracted from tropical forests.

Second, tropical forests are part of the solution. Their trees are a giant reservoir of carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere when they are cut down, logged or burned. The sum of these activities around the world releases about the same amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year as all of the world’s cars, trucks and buses combined. Reducing emissions from tropical forests is one of the cheapest ways for the globe to reduce its carbon footprint.

Finally, California can help tropical partner states where the world has largely failed. We can send a much-needed signal to tropical nations and states that California – and the world – want to help in reducing tropical deforestation.

The opportunity before California could have large impacts beyond our border – accepting limited carbon offsets from states that meet rigorous criteria for reducing tropical deforestation. Carbon offsets in California’s cap-and-trade program play a limited role in overall state reductions, and any tropical forest offsets could – and should – also play only a minor role within the program.

California’s Air Resources Board states that more than 400 million metric tons of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 2020 to meet our legal mandate. They estimate that roughly 30 percent of those reductions will come from the cap-and-trade system while the rest will come from our regulations for cleaner cars, renewable energy and energy efficiency regulations.

California should provide limited space to allow “sector-based” forest carbon offsets into our cap-and-trade system for only those tropical states that meet strict economywide rules, such as those developed here in California in partnership with the state of Acre in Brazil and the state of Chiapas in Mexico. See stateredd.org to see the recommended rules. According to these recommendations, no state could trade emissions offsets with California unless they have strict statewide deforestation baselines and targets, ensure local communities’ lives are improved, respect indigenous peoples’ rights, and meet or exceed the environmental standards we have here in California.

Acre began to build the laws and systems that are needed to switch from the forest-clearing rural economy to the forest-maintaining rural economy 13 years ago. It is working. It has already achieved emissions reductions of more than one-third of California’s mandate by 2020. Acre, Chiapas and another 16 tropical states from around the world have been meeting with California for the last four years through the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force.

The tropical states have slowed deforestation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. But they have seen only a trickle of positive incentives. Their political will is flagging. These are not isolated forest carbon projects. They are forest-maintaining rural development. And our tropical state partners can’t do it alone.

It is time for California to help other forested states that are trying to mirror our environmental and economic progress. Accepting limited international forest offsets is the right direction for California policymakers.

Tony Brunello is the executive director of the Green Technology Leadership Group, partner at California Strategies and former California deputy secretary for climate change and energy. Dan Nepstad, a scientist, is director and president of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) International Program in San Francisco, and a lead author of the forthcoming fifth global assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Read the article on Sacbee.com

Tuesday, April 30, 7:45 AM–8:45 AM BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLES: Cap ‘n Trade is Alive and Well
California passed its “Assembly Bill 32” law in 2006 that forced the state to reduce its greenhouse gas levels to 20% below its 1990 level of emissions by 2020. Since then, California has passed one of the nation’s most aggressive fuel emission standards, a renewable portfolio standard at 33% of total energy use, and the country’s first economy-wide cap and trade program. Six years into the implementation of AB 32, how is this law changing the business climate in California and will these changes influence the national debate?

Discussion Leaders:
Stephen Pattison, Vice President Public Affairs, ARM Holdings
Michael Picker, Senior Advisor to the Governor for Renewable Energy Facilities, Office of Governor Jerry Brown
Governor Bill Ritter, Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University
Andy Wirth, President and CEO, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings

Moderator:
Tony Brunello, Principal, California Strategies

Information

By Kelli Barrett | March 28, 2013 | Ecosystem Marketplace

The REDD Offset Working Group or ROW is the group tasked with finding best practices to incorporating REDD+ into California’s emerging carbon market. This week, the group held its second of three workshops. The event heard from Indigenous leaders and policy experts on safeguards and the importance of stakeholder engagement.

28 March 2013 | Using the REDD+ mechanism to fight deforestation and climate change involves a complicated and lengthy process that crosses over several sectors. Because of its complex nature, Valentino Shal of the Mopan Maya Indigenous people says multi-stakeholder engagement is key to REDD’s success.

Shal is an Indigenous Social Development Consultant for the Mopan Maya community in southern Belize-a region offering pristine rainforest, mountains and rivers. It’s an area that could easily work for a REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) project and many of the locals want it to. But before they can move forward, Shal says, certain safeguards must be in place to ensure that the rights of the Indigenous tribe regarding their land and culture won’t be violated and their way of life remains intact.

Shal’s concerns are commonplace among Indigenous groups worldwide contemplating participating in REDD projects. To address these concerns, the ROW-REDD Offset Working Group initiated an in-depth panel event made up of environment and social policy experts as well as Indigenous leaders to discuss how to build a sufficient safeguard system in the context of linking these jurisdictional-national or subnational- REDD+ programs to California’s carbon market.

The ROW was established to examine and offer recommendations on how states and countries can develop REDD+ programs and generate credits through California’s cap-and-trade system. Their event, “Benefits Sharing and Safeguards” also looked at how California should recognize existing safeguard policies as well as how the monitoring and reporting of these safeguards should take place.

Cross-Sector Engagement

“Indigenous people need to have access to information,” says Tashka Yawanawa, Chief of the Yawanawa People in Acre, Brazil. “We need information to make decisions that will reflect on our future and the planet.”

The Indigenous leaders agreed that without transparent information regarding REDD, they would be unable to make decisions. Access to information was one of several reasons policy leaders recognized the need to involve every area of stakeholders in the REDD process.

Jill Blockhus, a Senior Policy Advisor at The Nature Conservancy discussed the REDD+ SES (Social and Environmental Standards) initiative which aims to secure the necessary safeguards in place when building a government-led national, state or local level REDD program. REDD+ SES generates social benefits by protecting the rights of the local and Indigenous populations. All stakeholders-NGOs, financing agencies, governments and others-can use the standards.

“Following the standards is a multi-stakeholder process and very interactive,” says Blockhus. “It goes above and beyond the do no harm idea of safeguards.”

Complying with these standards is purely on a voluntary basis. State or country governments agree and sign up to participate.

“Governments agree because they see that there is value in planning a REDD process which engages a lot of stakeholders, gets their input and help in the design phase so the program ends up with good environmental and social performance,” says Blockhus.

Acre, Brazil is one state applying the standards to their REDD program, which is being developed under the System of Incentives for Environmental Services (SISA). REDD+SES will be used to assess the social and environmental quality of the program in its early days.

“REDD+ SES is an instrument that can report and communicate the impacts and results of the SISA and also to monitor the Brazilian safeguards,” says Monica Julissa of the Acre government’s Institute of Climate Change and Environmental Services.

SES can help engage stakeholders that are often hard to reach. Despite the many attempts at outreach, reaching key actors is a challenge, says Felicia Line, the Director of Climate Change in the Chiapas Ministry of Environment. Chiapas, Mexico is a region heavily inhabited by Indigenous groups. Line says engaging with people from crucial sectors like agriculture, livestock and forestry is necessary and so Line is looking at further capacity building and other ways to engage.

Reaching out to different sectors inside communities, like the young and elderly, and also to women is a challenge as well. In many societies, women aren’t involved in these issues.

In Belize, Shal says they intend to create special measures to ensure women are engaging.

“We don’t see our communities as static,” Shal says. “If we feel women need to be involved, then we will find those measures needed for their participation.”

Line also suggested educational activities about climate change and REDD may help involve women and other sectors that aren’t traditionally involved.

Land Rights and Benefits Sharing

Chief Almir Narayamoga Suruí, the head of the Amazonian Surui people, has developed a 50 year sustainable management plan that includes a forest carbon project that protects 240,000 hectares of rainforest and ensures a greater livelihood for his people through the generation of carbon credits the project offers.

REDD can be done in a transparent manner and can help provide a great future, he says.

But other indigenous leaders are still unsure about REDD and say they need more information.

“Those that are against REDD+ do not have sufficient information and those that support REDD+ do not have sufficient information,” says Juan Reategui, the Technical Coordinator for COICA (Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin).

Indigenous people fear relocation and losing or being tricked out of their land rights by project developers and others. But Steve Schwartzman of the EDF (Environmental Defense Fund) says a primary difference of a jurisdictional REDD+ program-which is the program type that would be accepted in California’s carbon market-is that the government has more authority in the form of enforcing contracts or implementing policies that protect Indigenous peoples’ rights.

“Jurisdictions can do things that project developers and NGOs can’t,” says Schwartzman. For example, in Brazil, each state is constitutionally responsible for protecting the environment and the rights of Indigenous people. And Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry enforces these public interest laws, he says.

“It’s a forum that deals with these issues directly,” says Schwartzman.

Also at the jurisdictional level, relocating indigenous people to earn carbon credits won’t work, according to Schwartzman. In order to earn credits, there has to be a statewide or nationwide reduction of emissions which won’t be achieved by relocating an Indigenous community off of one piece of land.

Julissa of Acre and Line of Mexico both said relocation isn’t part of their government’s strategies.

In order to maintain low deforestation rates, Julissa says, we have to use the forests’ services sustainably. Relocating people out of a single area isn’t a sustainable method, she says.

“I don’t ever see relocation happening in Belize. I don’t think it’s something that is being considered by Indigenous communities, governments or NGOs. ” says Shal.

Nations agree that Indigenous communities are often good stewards of the land. And as a valuable part of REDD programs, the question of what benefits sharing will look like for these communities has been raised.

Because Indigenous communities are collective, Reategui of COICA believes the benefits should be collective as well. Improvements to a community’s education and health are possibilities. Reategui did point out also that the benefits should maintain the traditional culture and way of life. A benefit, for instance, could be an education program in their native language.

Elsa Esquivel , Director of Cooperativa AMBIO, a NGO located in Chiapas that works with Indigenous people in developing REDD projects, says there are many unknowns about benefits sharing.

“Where should the benefits be applied,” says Esquivel. “Is it going to be direct resources or compensatory programs for improving health or productivity? These are the things that are still unclear.”

Outlook

Overall the opportunity for California to accept REDD credits from jurisdictions like Acre and Chiapas at some point in the future sends a message to business leaders that a market value has been put on stopping deforestation, Schwartzman says.

The panelists agreed that REDD+ programs created to participate in California’s market must be at the jurisdictional level and designed with the local and Indigenous populations in mind. So although California can’t force any jurisdiction to implement safeguards, it can require that certain protection measures are taken in order to participate.

Schwartzman also notes the importance of protected areas recognized for the ecosystem services they provide and to become part of a developmental policy that is sustainable. Otherwise the area will be difficult to maintain. He mentions that 20% of Amazon rainforest is recognized as a protected area for Indigenous populations and another 20% is under strict sustainable usage.

“If these lands could gain revenue for their ecosystem services, then that is a huge gain for the Amazon,” says Schwartzman. “And an enormous gain for the atmosphere and for the world.”

Read the article on EcosystemMarketplace.com

By Juan Ferero | March 27, 2013 | The Washington Post

SEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER RESERVE, Brazil — As a small boy in the early ’80s, Almir Surui hunted monkeys with a bow and arrow, wore a loincloth and struggled with Brazil’s official language, Portuguese.

At 38, he is the tech-savvy, ­university-educated chief of the Paiter Surui, or “the real people,” of this western corner of Brazil.

He can still handle a bow. But Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui says his weapon of choice is technology: Android phones to monitor illegal logging, hand-held Global Positioning System devices to map territory and Google Earth Outreach to show the world what a well-managed forest looks like.

Wielding the tools of the 21st century, the 1,300-member tribe has delved into a complex scheme in which governments or companies pay for forest preservation, contributing to a system that, if fully realized, would help end large-scale deforestation. By determining how much carbon is prevented from being released if the trees on Surui lands are left standing, the tribe hopes to sell carbon credits internationally to offset greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries.

This is the first time an indigenous group has adopted this type of conservation plan, which could become a model for tribes searching for ways to save their lands. And environmentalists say its development in this swath of Amazonia is due largely to Almir’s feverish diplomacy: his 16 trips to the United States, the meetings with tech companies and the sit-downs with Wall Street financiers, U.S. senators and the likes of Prince Charles.

“I think it’s working,” said the chief, who is heavyset, with a broad, fleshy face and bangs that cover his forehead. “I wouldn’t have gone to 33 countries to talk about our culture, our health care, our education and the way things are if it wouldn’t work.”

The Surui have also become adept at drawing would-be allies to their Rhode Island-size reserve.

“When we were there, we were blown away,” said Josh Knauer, chief executive of the Pittsburgh software company Rhiza, which built one of the user interfaces on the phones the Surui use. “I was pleasantly surprised by how many members of the tribe adapted to the technology, adapted it for their use. And they were adapting it on the fly.”

The Surui’s efforts to save their forest and themselves have taken place in a region of Brazil not usually associated with cutting-edge conservation tactics.

People here like to say that this state, Rondonia, is like the Wild West, a place where loggers and settlers penetrate Indian land, where traffickers smuggle cocaine and where hired pistoleros have killed Indians who were in the way of development.

“Rondonia is the laboratory for everything that can be used to take down the forest,” said Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo, the head of Kaninde, an indigenous rights group. “And we export these methods to other states.”

Need for change

Until the late 1960s, the Surui were considered “uncontacted,” having had little association with modern Brazil. But then came road-building crews, which Surui warriors attacked with bows and arrows.

In 1969, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs agency decided that it was time to make permanent contact, laying out mirrors, machetes and other trinkets to draw the Surui from the jungle.

“This wasn’t the first time in their history that they’d made contact with the outside world, but it was the time that became definitive and lasting,” said Vasco van Roosmalen, director of the Amazon Conservation Team, a Brasilia-based group that has worked closely with Almir. “This changed everything for them.”

What happened next was a scourge of epidemics — measles, chickenpox and tuberculosis.

“People suffered a lot, and that’s why our population fell so much,” said Jose Itabira Surui, 68, the tribal chief’s uncle. “We were 5,000, and we went down to 290 or 300.”

Almir grew up in that environment — a toxic atmosphere of deaths, hunger, alcoholism and impending ecological disaster.

Yet there were strong chiefs who instilled the need for ready-to-act young leaders. Almir, who was the first Surui to study in a university, became one of them.

But he realized that the old way of doing things, most notably the violent confrontations, was unlikely to bring dividends. He said he was more interested in finding partners with common interests.

“We came to understand that the Surui people alone can’t resolve the problems the world is facing,” he said.

Tribal ‘pop star’ with a plan

In 1998, when he was in his early 20s, Almir began meeting with the World Bank’s board of directors in Washington. He wanted a development project restructured so the Surui would receive the benefits directly, instead of having them filtered through the state bureaucracy. His arguments were persuasive.

Those who have worked with him say that part of his appeal is his gift for the theatrical — knowing what will capture the attention of people in Rio de Janeiro or New York or Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

“Walking through the crowds with Almir is like walking with a pop star,” said Beto Borges, an environmentalist at Washington-based Forest Trends who helped the Surui develop the carbon-credit program. “All of a sudden, here’s an indigenous person from the Amazon. And not only an indigenous person, but he’s a chief, wearing this huge headdress with feathers.”

In 2007, that’s how he strode into Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

The headdress was a memorable sight, recalled Rebecca Moore, engineering manager of Google Earth Outreach, but it was Almir’s proposal that particularly impressed company executives.

“He presented a pretty sophisticated idea of how the Surui people could blend their traditional knowledge with modern technology — tools like Google Earth, the Internet — to literally defend the rain forest,” she said. “And we were convinced.”

What Almir wanted was a Google alliance to create satellite imagery of the Surui reserve. He also wanted to improve an “ethno-mapping” project in which old battlegrounds, groves of trees, animal-breeding areas, hamlets and ancestral burial grounds are catalogued in 3-D.

The Surui have also taken to using phones to record the movement of loggers and settlers into their territory. The video is uploaded to the Internet.

The objective, Almir said, is to let the world know what’s happening on Surui land.

“We want to mobilize public opinion,” he said.

One of the chief’s most ambitious plans has been the proposal to sell carbon credits, a five-year-old effort that began with a painstaking audit to determine how much carbon is in the trees on Surui territory.

Later this year, the Surui hope to sell those credits to foundations or companies looking to boost their images by paying the tribe to preserve those trees and the carbon they hold.

The long-range goal is the establishment of a worldwide environmental governance system, in which polluting industries and developed countries would buy credits from the likes of the Surui. Those companies and governments would offset their emissions and meet environmental standards by paying others to ensure that the carbon locked in trees is not released into the atmosphere.

For now, the Surui hope to collect up to $1 million annually, which Almir considers an important start.

“This is the great economic potential that the forest has,” he said. “That’s why we’re trying to make people conscious of all this.”

Read the article on Washpost.com

REDD+ Offset Working Group (ROW) Workshop – April 16, 3:30-5:30 p.m.

ROW is an advisory group convened to provide recommendations on how California might incorporate international programs for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in its cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions. Established in February 2011 by a memorandum of understanding between the Governors of California, Chiapas (Mexico), and Acre (Brazil), the ROW consists of both government observers and technical experts. The ROW released a draft set of recommendations in January 2013, and held a series of three stakeholder workshops to discuss various aspects of those recommendations in February, March, and early April. This meeting will provide an overview of the ROW’s recommendations as well as a summary of feedback received at the stakeholder workshops. Final written comments on the ROW recommendations are due by April 30, and further feedback is welcomed. Please come and learn more about what a REDD+ offset program linked to California’s cap-and-trade program might look like.

Navigating the American Carbon World (NACW)

NACW is the largest and most comprehensive gathering for information and discussion around climate change policy and carbon markets. Happening April 16-18 in San Francisco, NACW will take an in-depth look at California’s historic cap-and-trade program, including discussions on market structure, revenue allocation, legal issues and forecasts. The conference will also delve into other established and emerging carbon markets around the world and potential linkages. And, NACW will provide a platform for discussing offsets and offset supply, U.S. federal policies, and business leadership.

In its 11^th consecutive year, NACW is once again being anticipated as the year’s best networking event for the climate change policy and carbon community.  It has consistently attracted the largest crowd of representatives from business, government, environmental groups and academia.  For NACW 2013, delegates will have the opportunity to network and schedule meetings with each other through a special conference social networking community.

Key reasons to attend:

• Expand your network of peers, identify opportunities for collaboration, and gain leads for the strategic growth of your organization
• Get in-depth information, updates and analysis on the California cap-and-trade program, including market structure, forecasts, linkages, legal issues, impacts of U.S. federal programs and offsets and offset supply
• Gain actionable insights from leading climate change policy and carbon market experts and prepare your organization for the enforcement of California’s declining emissions cap
• Get a comprehensive understanding of current and developing international climate policies and carbon markets and linkage between markets , including California and Quebec
• Visit the NACW exhibit hall to find the right tools, resources and partnerships that will help your organization gain competitive advantage
• Pre-conference workshops offer education and training opportunities for attendees that need an introduction or refresher course on key carbon market topics

Information

Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, is a remote frontier, the gateway to Mayan ruins, chilly highland forests and steamy rain forest jungle.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013    4:00-5:00 EST / 1:00 – 2:00 PST
Space is limited, so REGISTER NOWfor this free webinar

On January 24^th the REDD Offset Working Group (ROW) released its draft recommendations on how the states of California, Chiapas and Acre can link together to develop the world’s first sector-based, jurisdictional REDD+ offset program within a cap and trade compliance system. The report is available at www.stateredd.org.

Join ACR’s featured speakers from the REDD Offset Working Group: Tony Brunello, Green Technologies Leadership Group; Daniel Nepstad, Amazon Institute of Environmental Research; and Ludovino Lopes, Consultant to the Secretary of Environment for the State of Acre, Brazil for an overview of the ROW recommendations including design elements of compliance-grade REDD+ programs, legal and institutional issues associated with subnational linkages, and social and environmental safeguards. Note the ROW schedule of public workshopsand invitation for comments on the draft recommendations through April 30^th.

Please direct any questions regarding webinar registration to Paul Burman at pburman@winrock.org.

A group of experts released recommendations for California last week on how to allow offsets from international forest protection projects into its carbon cap-and-trade system, which, if adopted, could make the state the first compliance market to allow those credits to be used.

The group, formed as part of an agreement by the governors of California, the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Brazilian state of Acre, devised a framework for state regulators to enable California to expand its available supply of domestic credits.

California entered into a partnership in 2009 with 19 states and provinces from Indonesia to Peru to help advance sub-national programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) using the carbon market as a financial incentive.

None of the compliance carbon markets in operation today allow emitters to use REDD credits but California has said it may allow emitters to use “international sector” credits, which could include REDD, from certain states that have stringent programs in place.

“The final recommendations are expected to serve as a key input into potential CARB (California Air Resources Board) rulemaking covering international sectoral crediting,” said Toby Janson-Smith, a member of the expert panel from environmental group Conservation International.

The recommendations address a broad range of issues, such as how to enforce REDD programs, safeguards to protect landowners, the infrastructure for MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) systems, among others.

Acre and Chiapas have been regarded as some of the most advanced states when it comes to monitoring forest carbon emissions and deforestation patterns.

“It creates a pathway for California to collaborate with some of the jurisdictions (such as Acre, Chiapas) that have done the most to reduce emissions globally through allowing crediting in California’s carbon market for reducing emissions from deforestation,” said Steve Schwartzman, director for Tropical Forest Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the working group.

Parties to the U.N. Convention on Climate Change have discussed for over a decade how to compensate countries with tropical forests for protecting their forests, which serve as a carbon sink, and prevent them from razing trees for agriculture and other financial incentives.

But as the latest global climate meeting in Doha showed, it is unlikely that an international REDD mechanism will be in place at least before 2020, when a new global pact to reduce emissions could be adopted.

Janson-Smith said that creating a way for California to accept REDD credits could serve as a guideline for other countries.

“California could become the world’s first compliance market accepting REDD credits – setting an important precedent for other emerging markets, including Australia, Japan and the UNFCCC,” he said.

Policymakers and country negotiators are recognizing that REDD will be necessary to combat climate change down the road because deforestation accounts for nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The U.N. is focused on developing a global REDD framework, in which countries would set deforestation targets, an endeavor that will take several years to achieve.

But the working group’s recommendations also aim to ensure that subnational, or “jurisdictional,” REDD programs such as the ones being developed in Acre and Chiapas can be incorporated into national programs.

“(The jurisdictional approach) ensures greater security in terms of monitoring and measuring emissions. It also reduces risks of leakage and reversals of emission reductions than with standalone projects,” added EDF’s Schwartzman.

Read the Article at PointCarbon.com

California’s carbon market won another key battle in the courts late Friday when the state superior court upheld the offset program designed by state regulators to give companies another option to comply with mandatory greenhouse gas emission caps.

Judge Ernest Goldsmith of the Superior Court of San Francisco said the agency implementing the state’s carbon market, the Air Resources Board (ARB), used its “best judgment” to design program rules that the state legislature has directed it do issue.

Green groups the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Our Children’s Earth Foundation challenged the ARB last summer, arguing that the state legislature never intended to allow the market to allow for the use of offset credits, which they argued do not yield “additional” emissions reductions beyond what is already required by state law.

They argued that the ARB’s tests to determine whether an offset is additional were inherently subjective and uncertain.

Goldsmith, who has ruled in favor of the ARB in an earlier challenge to its carbon market rules, said the regulator “has used its experience, expertise, and judgment in arriving at the appropriate methodology to determine additionality within the cap-and-trade program.”

The ruling will provide greater certainty to carbon market participants, who have been hesitant to buy carbon offsets or invest in new offset projects because of the legal challenge.

“Today’s decision… provides a bright green light for further investment in pollution reduction projects,” said Tim O’Connor, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund.

The ARB should now have the confidence to allow projects that reward changes in rice cultivation or nutrient management to count for compliance with the program as well, O’Connor said.

PERFORMANCE STANDARD

Unlike the U.N.’s global offset program, the Clean Development Mechanism, California uses a “performance standard” to determine whether projects are “additional.”

While the petitioners argued that the approach is flawed because “it recognizes offset activities that are ‘significantly better than average’ and thus includes activities that already exist,” according to law firm Jones Day.

But Goldsmith found the ARB’s decision not to adopt the costly and bureaucratic CDM approach of approving offset projects “was justified programmatically and consistent with its legislative grant of discretion.”

The Climate Action Reserve, a Los Angeles-based organization that developed the four offset standards approved so far by the ARB, applauded Goldsmith’s decision on Monday.

“It is tremendously gratifying that we can proceed in addressing the serious threat of global climate change with a full-fledged state program. Let us now fully focus on moving forward,” said Gary Gero, president of the Climate Action Reserve.

Read the Article at PointCarbon.com

Environmental Finance Group Presentation Overview