Navigating the American Carbon World Conference (2012)
From our man in San Francisco
Every year Climate Action Reserve organizes the largest carbon conference in North America titled, ‘Navigating the American Carbon World’. This year too the conference was held from the 10th of April to the 12th in San Francisco. The conference provided a good opportunity for regulators, climate academicians and corporations amongst others to get together and discuss the state and future trends of the American carbon markets.
The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) is a premier carbon offset registry for the North American carbon market. It is involved in establishing standards for carbon offset projects, overseeing verification, issuance of offsets and transaction. Till date, CAR has issued just under 23 million Climate Reserve Tonnes (CRTs) to various GHG mitigation projects. One CRT is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions reductions.
This year’s conference began with verification bodies, auditing firms having discussions on the verification of Scope 3 emissions. A meeting of all Climate Action Reserve Account Holders, to discuss policy updates and guidance on project registration, followed this. Throughout the day various sessions were held on areas such as the California Markets, Western Climate Initiative (WCI), the UN CDM market etc. During day 2 of the event sessions were held on topics such as ‘Developing SubNational REDD+ Policies and ‘Transaction Structure and Pricing’. The California Air Resources Board (CARB), R20, Shell Energy were just some of the organisations which were represented at the events.
The last day of the conference provided insights into sectors such as Agriculture and offsets arising from such projects and ‘Policies and Paths to California’s Mitigation Goals’. During the three day event, some of the distinguished speakers included Linda S. Adams, former Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and Founding President of R20, Dirk Forrister, Incoming President and CEO, International Emissions Trading Association, Mary Nichols, Chairman, California Air Resources Board and many others.
Source: www.thetrendisblue.com
Overall, the conference was a valuable event in the carbon market calendar. Because of the launch of the California Cap and Trade Program, this year’s conference was even more important. The focus was also on linkages between international programs and the voluntary markets as companies prepare to meet compliance requirements.
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