New Rules for Forest Offset Projects
We were pleased to see the extensive provisions in the House's Waxman Markey bill for foreign forest offsets generated by reducing deforestation and forest degradation projects. Today, California's Climate Action Reserve released an updated set of rules for forest offset projects, "Forest Project Protocol version 3.0." This new protocol opens the door for forest-related offset projects to be included in efforts across the US to mitigate climate change. The new protocol raises the bar for rigorous national standards for forest-related projects that sequester carbon emissions.
The Reserve believes that by adopting the new protocol, it has cleared the way for more high-quality forest-based offsets to enter the US carbon market. The protocol covers three types of forest projects: improved forest management practices, reforestation, and avoided conversion to other uses. No regulatory-quality national standard previously existed for these types of carbon offset projects.
The Reserve undertook this project because of its lead role setting rigorous standards to ensure that projects that claim to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions actually do so. The Reserve develops protocols for projects that earn carbon credits for carbon market transactions. While the US carbon offsets market is currently voluntary, if and when the US adopts GHG legislation it will almost certainly include provisions for forest carbon offsets, both domestic and foreign, as does Waxman Markey. To ensure a robust and reliable forest offset market, rigorous standards for GHG offsets projects will be critical. The updated Forest Project Protocol takes an important step towards environmental integrity in this offset asset class.
The Reserve issues carbon credits equivalent to the metric tons of carbon dioxide reduced or sequestered from each registered project. These credits can then be sold or traded on the carbon market. All Reserve projects must be verified by a third party to ensure that they have met all of the Reserve's protocol requirements before being registered.
