May 15, 2023 – We are thrilled to announce that Jessica Bede has been appointed as Managing Director of the American Carbon Registry (ACR).

Jessica will be well known to many of our stakeholders from her role as ACR’s Director of Registry Operations, where she was responsible for the operation and client services of our critical registry infrastructure.  Jessica joined ACR in 2019, and her deep understanding of our systems and processes, our stakeholders’ needs and perspectives, and the markets in which we operate make her the ideal candidate for the role. In her new position, Jessica will be responsible for providing leadership and coordination for the full suite of ACR’s technical and strategic work to drive climate action, ensure the integrity of carbon credits, and promote market innovation.

Jessica’s previous work has involved a variety of climate financing mechanisms and multiple project types, giving her a wide range of knowledge across the transportation, energy, building, natural resources, and waste sectors. Jessica joined ACR after seven years at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), where she first worked on compliance offset protocol development and credit issuance under the State’s Cap-and-Trade program and then the use of auction proceeds for California Climate Investments to further the State’s climate goals and benefit disadvantaged communities.

Prior to CARB, she worked on the technical design of Carbon Tanzania’s first REDD project, which included establishing and strengthening the land rights of Indigenous populations and delivering payments for ecosystem services to communities for development and livelihood needs.

Jessica holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and a Master’s in International Development from Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Speaking on her new role, Jessica says, “What drew me to ACR and keeps me excited about my promotion is the opportunity to work with my colleagues – leading experts across a wide variety of sectors – to increase our climate and environmental impact. I am grateful to be surrounded by such smart and dedicated professionals with diverse expertise. Our people have created the strong foundation that exists today, upon which we will continue to build.”

We also want to recognize the incredible contribution of Lauren Nichols, our outgoing Managing Director, who joined ACR in 2008. In her 15 years of service, Lauren directly contributed to all aspects of ACR’s organizational development through  progressively advanced technical,  operational and management positions.  She played a critical role in building ACR’s brand and global reputation including growing our team and our suite of methodologies to scale our climate impact, securing a leading role in the California compliance market and in the ICAO CORSIA, and developing and implementing  three generations of ACR’s registry platform. We’re very pleased that Lauren will be staying within the ACR family in an advisory capacity as she begins her next chapter in a leadership role of a family foundation.

We’re also pleased that we have filled Jessica’s position as Director of Registry Operations and will be announcing that new appointment in the coming week.

In the meantime, please join me in congratulating Jessica on her new role, as well as thanking Lauren for her immense contribution to ACR’s ongoing work to deliver innovation and impact over the years.

Mary Grady

Executive Director, American Carbon Registry

ANAHEIM, Calif., March 22, 2023 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, has announced the co-creation with Green Assets of a new conservation fellowship, in remembrance of the late Hunter Parks, to expand the technical knowledge base for harnessing the power of carbon markets for conservation finance. The announcement was made at ACR’s annual gala reception yesterday, where awards were also presented to Tradewater, the National Indian Carbon Coalition and Therm in recognition of their outstanding environmental achievements.

HUNTER PARKS CONSERVATION FELLOWSHIP

The Hunter Parks Conservation Fellowship at ACR has been established jointly with Green Assets in remembrance of the organizations’ business colleague, founder and dear friend. The two-year Fellowship will be awarded to a recent forestry graduate on a competitive basis. The Fellow will engage on a day-to-day basis with forestry and carbon market experts in the evaluation of forest carbon project design and implementation to support the ongoing work to harness the power of carbon markets to conserve, sustainably manage and restore forestlands across the U.S.

“Hunter’s absolute passion for conservation was evident in everything he did. As a landowner himself, he learned by doing and aimed to ensure that other landowners interested in tapping carbon markets for conservation finance had a trustworthy partner. The honesty and integrity that he brought to all his relationships – personal and professional – was as refreshing as his cowboy boots at a carbon conference. We are proud to honor his legacy through an ACR Fellowship in his name that advances his conservation vision,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR.

Hunter founded Green Assets Inc., a forest carbon project development firm, in 2009 with the goal of providing landowners the opportunity to bring environmental and economic value to their property through conservation projects. The company’s mission is summed up by its motto of ‘Landowners working with Landowners.’ Following Hunter’s vision, the organization guides the development of projects, programs, and methodologies to meet the goals of landowners, while establishing a foundation of integrity in the marketplace.

Green Assets CEO Bailey Evans said, “Hunter would be honored to know this Fellowship will continue to provide opportunity for growth in the forest carbon space. The idea is that the candidate will embody Hunter’s passion of exploring the unknown and ensuring landowners get a fair, sustainable deal when participating in the carbon market, while promoting quality and integrity. We look forward to our continued collaboration with ACR, and support of their endeavors to create a high-quality marketplace for landowners to participate in the forest carbon arena.”

ACR AWARDS

ACR’s organizational awards are based on its guiding principles of innovation, quality and excellence.

Tradewater was honored with the ACR Innovation Award for the co-development of ACR’s International ODS Destruction methodology. The methodology combines two key innovations. The first is allowing for the collection of CFCs – for which production and consumption are banned under the Montreal Protocol – from stockpiles in developing countries, most of which don’t have in-country eligible destruction facilities. The second is the ability to export the CFCs to another country for destruction at a TEAP compliant facility. Combined, these innovations provide access to carbon finance to fund this costly ODS collection and destruction process, which delivers very high climate impact.

In spite of Montreal Protocol’s global ban on virgin production and consumption of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), tens of billions of metric tons of CO2 equivalent of CFCs continue to be recycled and reused in old leaking equipment or indefinitely stockpiled in rusting tanks around the world. Destruction of ODS is costly and there is no mandate to collect and destroy these gases. By enabling carbon credits as an innovative (and the only) sustainable mechanism to finance destruction of CFCs, even more critical in developing countries, this methodology helps prevent further global warming and ozone depletion from the reuse and stockpiling of remaining CFCs.

“We are thrilled to receive the ACR Innovation Award and are particularly pleased to work with ACR on tackling these extremely potent greenhouse gases,” said Tim Brown, CEO of Tradewater. “The International ODS Destruction Methodology validates the importance of the global nature of the work and will result in additional and permanent climate benefits. Our aim is to go after these gases all over the world to have the greatest impact we can in the fight against climate change.”

The National Indian Carbon Coalition, a nonprofit program of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) and the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC), received this year’s ACR Commitment to Quality Award for their work helping tribal nations and individual Indian landowners access carbon market finance by developing high quality carbon projects on their lands. NICC has supported four tribes register projects with ACR, including Blackfeet Nation, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Keeweenaw Bay Indian Community.

The carbon market provides tribes with unique opportunities to preserve tribal land ownership, protect the land for future generations, and earn income for their communities. Despite this potential, the carbon market is complex and difficult to navigate. Through its work with Native Nations, NICC creates new opportunities to reap the benefits of carbon projects on their lands, while preserving that land for future generations.

“The work we do is important for the future of tribal communities and the well-being of the planet. We’re pleased with what has been accomplished so far but there is so much more to be done,” said Bryan Van Stippen, Program Director of the National Indian Carbon Coalition.

Therm was presented the ACR Corporate Excellence Award for the company’s work as a frontrunner in facilitating supermarkets’ and grocery stores’ transition to low-GWP refrigerants using carbon market finance based on ACR’s Advanced Refrigeration Systems (ARS) methodology.

In only a year, Therm has worked with dozens of organizations to reduce more than half a million metric tons of CO2e, issued by ACR as verified carbon credits and marketed by Therm as Refrigeration Carbon Credits™ (RCCs). For these facilities, carbon markets have provided crucial additional financing for the transition to low-GWP refrigeration, which can traditionally cost upwards of a million dollars per store for complete system replacement. Therm is working with hundreds of more stores and food distributors to help them access carbon market finance to lower the financial costs of and accelerate the transition to low-GWP refrigeration systems. With less than 2% of the 45,000+ supermarket and grocery stores in the U.S. using refrigerants with GWP less than 150 (EPA Greenchill), the potential for these stores to contribute to emission reductions in this critical decade is immense.

“ACR’s proven track record of integrity and excellence has been crucial to the success of Refrigerant Carbon Credits™,” said Fritz Troller, CEO of Therm. “Partnering with an established and distinguished registry is the first step in creating high-value credits. The unique nature of our program empowers smaller, local grocery stores to take part in large-scale, permanent, and immediate environmental action. RCCs’ undisputed permanence and quality drive a premium carbon credit price, further accelerating the transition to climate friendly refrigerants.”

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas March 8, 2023 – Today, the American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Environment Agency (NEA) of the Government of Singapore as part of Singapore’s efforts to operationalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. As announced at Singapore’s Budget 2022, companies regulated under the Carbon Pricing Act will be allowed to use high-quality international carbon credits to offset up to 5% of their taxable emissions from 2024. The MoU details terms of cooperation between ACR and NEA to facilitate Singapore-based companies in exercising this option through the purchase and retirement of ACR credits.

Starting next year, Singapore-based companies can acquire eligible high-quality carbon credits issued by ACR and other approved international offset programmes and surrender them to the Singapore Government. This is subject to the carbon credits meeting the prescribed criteria set by the Singapore Government. ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program which has instituted robust approaches and procedures to safeguard the environmental integrity of the carbon credits issued. In addition, ACR is approved to supply credits to the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and is one of only two crediting programmes approved to supply post 2020 credits (the other being ART) based on its rules to avoid double counting with the Paris Agreement.

“As more countries explore how to operationalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, including the interaction with the voluntary carbon market, the Government of Singapore is demonstrating a way forward. ACR, which has a long tradition of supporting ambitious climate results, is pleased to be working with the Government on this innovative approach, which allows Singapore-based companies to source high-integrity credits from eligible programmes around the world in support of catalyzing well-functioning carbon markets,” said Mary Grady, the Executive Director of ACR.

New initiative will support U.S. rice and beef producers in Arkansas, Missouri and Tribal Lands

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARK. – Sept. 15, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has named Winrock International to implement the $20 million Growing Value for Producers Through Increased Access to Markets for Climate-Smart Commodities project. The project will support U.S. farmers and ranchers to increase adoption of climate-smart practices and capitalize on their climate value by certifying and monetizing results in commodity markets. Winrock’s proposal is one of 70 selected for USDA funding from among more than 450 applicants.

“There is strong and growing interest in the private sector and among consumers for food that is grown in a climate-friendly way,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in the September 14 announcement of USDA’s historic investment in partnerships for 70 climate-smart commodities and rural projects. “USDA is delivering on our promise to build and expand these market opportunities for American agriculture and be global leaders in climate-smart agricultural production. This effort will increase the competitive advantage of U.S. agriculture both domestically and internationally, build wealth that stays in rural communities and support a diverse range of producers and operation types.”

Winrock’s American Carbon Registry will lead the USDA project with support from Winrock’s Ecosystem Services and Wallace Center teams. Winrock is partnering with the Intertribal Agriculture Council, based in Montana; Arkansas-based Riceland Foods and Arva Intelligence; and Virginia-based Blue Raster on the new initiative.

“Farmers in the U.S. already provide some of the best, most efficiently produced food in the world, but there’s huge additional potential for U.S. agriculture to reduce emissions, store carbon, increase resiliency and provide ecosystem benefits by transitioning to climate-smart practices,” said Winrock’s president and CEO, Rodney Ferguson.

“That transition has to be both science-based and tied to markets that benefit all producers – including small, family-owned farms, and historically underserved farmers,” Ferguson added. “This new USDA project led by Winrock’s American Carbon Registry aims to do just that by inclusively increasing access to markets for climate-smart commodities. It incentivizes the transition by enabling producers to obtain agriculture Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Certificates that can be issued and tracked transparently through a fully digital public registry. Those certificates can then be monetized through commodity markets and to corporates towards their supply chain climate commitments.”

The Growing Value for Producers project, ” will expand the  climate-friendly work that farmers and ranchers across the U.S. are already doing to reduce methane and improve soil health,” said Winrock’s Mary Grady, ACR executive director and CEO of the Environmental Resources Trust. “Our objective is to reduce the cost burden on farmers to adopt a wide variety of climate smart practices and to streamline the verification of climate results. The project will demonstrate how markets can deliver value directly to farmers by putting them in the driver’s seat.”

The five-year USDA project will develop and pilot a farmer-friendly system to generate producer-owned agricultural GHG Certificates, issued and tracked in a public registry, that producers can monetize through commodity markets for corporate buyers, enabling them to achieve and substantiate supply chain and net zero climate claims. It will offer financial support ($25-$40 per acre per year) and technical support to producers to adopt practices and participate in the market through sales of the certificates.

Winrock will build on its extensive carbon market experience operating ACR to create a producer-friendly, fully integrated, standardized, transparent, and scalable platform for tracking practices and cost-effective verification of resulting GHG benefits issued to producers as traceable certificates. The new platform, called the ACR Agriculture Registry for Climate Smart Commodities, is similar to current carbon market registries, although the assets generated will not be carbon offset credits. Instead, producers will generate agriculture GHG Certificates, a unique type of agricultural environmental asset representing one metric ton of carbon dioxide-equivalent mitigated or sequestered as the result of climate-smart practice implemented in a given year.

Winrock’s partners in the new project, the Intertribal Agricultural Council (IAC) and Arkansas-based Riceland Foods, will support producer outreach in beef and rice production. Riceland Foods, a producer-owned cooperative and the world’s largest marketer of rice, has served local communities for over one hundred years. The IAC has, over the last three decades, become recognized as the most respected voice within the Indian community and government circles on agricultural policies and programs in Indian country. IAC producers are conservation leaders despite low access to USDA programs. This project will work with IAC to develop technical solutions that support marketing climate-smart commodities that are designed specifically to support tribal producers. Arva Intelligence and Blue Raster will focus on digital monitoring, reporting, and verification of data. They will provide specialized support in the design, development, and use of the ACR Agriculture Registry.

“The goal is for this work to become nationally scalable for all producers, commodities, and practices across the U.S.,” Grady said.

The project is among the first awarded under USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities investments, which will eventually top $3 billion in funding to expand markets for America’s climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., April 18, 2022 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, has pioneered new registry functionality to label credits verified as “removals” for project types including afforestation/reforestation (A/R), Improved Forest Management (IFM) and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

The announcement coincides with the publication of a first of-its-kind, industry leading approach for distinguishing verified carbon removal credits from emission reduction credits under its Improved Forest Management methodology.

New Registry Functionality

In addition to labeling pure removals credits such as from A/R projects, the new registry functionality also allows project types such as IFM and CCS that can generate both emission reductions and removals to distinguish between the two upon credit issuance. ACR has incorporated verifiable quantification into the methodologies.

“We are excited for the launch of the innovative ACR registry logic to label removals,” stated Lauren Nichols, ACR Managing Director. “We need both high quality emission reductions and removals at scale to achieve Paris Agreement targets. The market has been seeking transparent solutions to differentiate between the two, which is what ACR is now the first to offer.”

For IFM projects, credits that are attributed to growth under the new approach may now be tagged as a removal on the ACR registry including all future issuances of IFM projects using the ACR’s IFM methodology version 1.3 and the forthcoming version 2.0.

Approach for IFM Removals

For IFM projects, removal credits represent emissions pulled from the atmosphere and sequestered in new growth within the project area, whereas reduction credits represent emissions that have been prevented from entering the atmosphere through changes in management practices, such as reducing harvest levels.

“We’re proud to be the first independent, non-profit entity providing a registry platform for the issuance, trading, and retirement of removal credits from IFM projects,” said Kurt Krapfl, the Director of Forestry at ACR. “As carbon markets continue to grow, organizations are thinking about how both removal and reduction credits fit into their climate strategies, and we are happy to now differentiate these benefits so they can make informed decisions on what best fits their needs.”

IFM projects benefit the atmosphere by both removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it long-term in trees, as well as by reducing emissions associated with harvesting. Until now, there was no consistent, transparent, verifiable, and public way to distinguish these benefits for buyers.

ANAHEIM, Calif. ─ April 7, 2022 – Last night, the American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, hosted its annual gala reception to recognize and thank its members and partners. ACR Executive Director Mary Grady welcomed guests, presented highlights from the last two years and described the awards to be presented, including the individual Climate Leadership award as well as organizational awards based on ACR’s guiding principles of innovation, quality and excellence.

Grady presented ACR’s Climate Leadership award to Frances Seymour, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute (WRI), internationally recognized author and expert on the role of forests in addressing climate change and sustainable development. Seymour’s career contributions and tireless dedication have played a pivotal role in advancing scientific, economic and policy foundations for forest protection and restoration as critical tools to combat global climate change and to protect the rights and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples. From her early internships at USAID in the Philippines and with the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal, as well as her assignment at the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, she gained an appreciation of the complex drivers of tropical deforestation. During her policy-oriented tenures at World Wildlife Fund, WRI, the Center for Global Development, and six years at the helm of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Indonesia, she has been a consistent voice for science-led research and evidence-based policies to unlock the massive potential of forests as a cost-effective nature-based climate solution and the commensurate need to mobilize finance at scale to this end.

Sharing Winrock’s deep-rooted concern that climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the world’s poorest people, she also believes that addressing the challenge provides an unparalleled opportunity to turn the tide on deforestation and forest governance. Her 2016 book “Why Forests? Why Now? The Science, Economics, and Politics of Tropical Forests and Climate Change” (co-authored by Jonah Busch) clearly articulates the pathways for public and private sector action to stop deforestation as urgent, necessary and achievable to ensure climate stability, protect biodiversity and realize sustainable development goals. Seymour generously contributes her knowledge and wisdom to an extensive list of organizations and initiatives, including the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) that is hosted by Winrock International. Colleagues in these initiatives benefit from her extraordinary 360-degree view of forest and climate issues combined with her positive, consensus-based approach to deliver results at scale and her relentless advocacy for our planet Earth.

“I am honored to receive this award from the American Carbon Registry, and to find myself in the distinguished company of previous individual recipients and representatives of the organizations being recognized this year,” stated Seymour. “In light of the recent surge of interest in carbon markets and nature-based solutions to climate change, it’s more important than ever to ensure that such markets are held to the highest standards of social and environmental integrity. Colleagues at ACR and Winrock have lived up to their principles of innovation, quality, and excellence, not least through their many past and present contributions to harnessing the potential of the world’s forests as a solution to climate change.”

The ACR Commitment to Quality award was presented to the Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force for empowering 39-member subnational jurisdictions in 10 countries that represent over one third of the world’s tropical forests to implement the highest quality programs to protect and restore forests and reduce emissions from deforestation while benefiting local communities and Indigenous Peoples. Launched in 2008 through a landmark Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation on Climate and Forests by Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger of California and nine other governors from Brazil, Indonesia, and the United States, the GCF Task Force has focused on the collective strength of subnational governments and jurisdictional approaches to deliver climate results at scale. Over the last 14 years, the GCF Task Force has supported member states and provinces to develop robust jurisdictional REDD+ strategies and investment plans, including working with key partners to provide innovation funding for actions that accelerate reduced deforestation.

The GCF Task Force has also been at the forefront of recognizing the critical role that Indigenous Peoples and local and traditional communities play in protecting forests, and has worked tirelessly to cultivate authentic, collaborative partnerships between governments and forest communities to achieve mutual objectives. The GCF Task Force developed and is currently implementing a set of Guiding Principles for this collaboration, which has been endorsed by 17 non-governmental organizations, 34 governments and 18 Indigenous Peoples organizations. The policy and advocacy work is led by the GCF Task Force Global Committee on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, which convenes regularly to share effective strategies for government-community partnerships.

“We are honored to receive this award on behalf of the members of the GCF Task Force in recognition of the hard work they do every day with their partners to protect forests, reduce emissions, and enhance livelihoods,” stated William Boyd, GCF Task Force Project Lead. “We look forward to continuing to support these leading states and provinces as they assess opportunities to address the very real challenges on the ground, including the important carbon finance and market opportunities presented by Winrock and ART.”

ACR honored Finite Carbon with the Innovation award for spearheading the development of a first-of-a-kind methodology for Improved Forest Management (IFM) designed specifically for small non-industrial private forestlands. Despite owning nearly 40% of U.S. forestlands, less than 1% of small forest ownerships have enrolled in the carbon market to date. This is due to known financial and institutional barriers associated with the scale and complexity of the existing market. The peer-reviewed methodology includes innovative aggregation, monitoring, and verification approaches that create efficiencies and streamlined processes to alleviate market entry barriers and incentivize climate action by small landowners ranging from 40 to 5,000 forested acres. The methodology rewards long-term sustainable forest management practices including the landowner’s commitment to forego harvesting, grow trees longer and increase forest stocking, in addition to providing significant co-benefits such as habitat and water protection, improved soil health and recreation.

“We’re honored to accept this award from the American Carbon Registry for our work to enable small forest landowners to access the carbon offset market while ensuring the integrity of offsets created on these lands,” said Sean Carney, President of Finite Carbon. “Finite Carbon has always been a proponent of rigorous, peer-reviewed standards for all forest offset projects, and forests owned by small, family landowners have a critical role to play in sequestering carbon, maintaining biodiversity, and providing clean air and water to our communities.”

The ACR Corporate Excellence award was presented to Bank of America (BofA) for its ambitious corporate climate action. The bank achieved carbon neutrality in 2019, a year ahead of schedule, by reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions, purchasing 100 percent electricity and offsetting unavoidable emissions with high-quality carbon credits. Since 2010, BofA has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent, cut energy consumption by 45 percent through a variety of energy efficiency measures, and purchases 100% of its annual electricity usage from renewable sources. To compensate for unavoidable emissions, the bank supports a variety of high impact carbon projects including GreenTrees, North America’s largest reforestation project, which has planted over 42 million trees on over 120,000 acres, which includes over 500 landowners in the Mississippi River Valley. In 2021 BofA expanded its commitment to reach net zero before 2050 for financing activities, operations and supply chain, and has committed to mobilize $1 trillion by 2030 to accelerate sustainable businesses through lending, investing and other financial solutions.

ICAO’s approval of ACR’s post-2020 offset credits was based on ACR’s ability to demonstrate that it would ensure avoidance of double counting

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, June 2, 2021 – American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, is pleased to announce the recent decision of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to extend the eligibility of ACR offset credits for compliance under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), to include  units  generated during the period 2021 to 2023. This decision marks the first ICAO approval of a carbon crediting program to offer post-2020 vintage credits for airlines to meet their targets in the first compliance cycle 2021-2023.

ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that manages the standards that govern international aviation. In 2016, ICAO approved the CORSIA as a global market-based mechanism to achieve carbon-neutral growth in international aviation starting in 2020. CORSIA is expected to reduce or offset between 2.5 and 4 billion tons of CO2-e through 2035.

To date, ICAO has approved only eight carbon crediting programs globally to supply offset credits for the CORSIA and, until this recent decision, only for units generated between 2016 and 2020.

“ACR welcomes the ICAO Council’s approval following its thorough review of our program requirements and oversight,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “ACR is committed to be a leader in providing high-integrity offset credits based on the best available science. This approval reflects our commitment to ensure our procedures continue to improve and evolve in line with the international climate negotiations and frameworks.”

ICAO’s updated approval of ACR offset credits was based on ACR’s ability to demonstrate that it would ensure avoidance of double counting of credits used for CORSIA with mitigation targets under the Paris Agreement. In the context of climate change mitigation, double counting describes situations where a single greenhouse gas emission reduction or removal is used more than once to demonstrate compliance with mitigation targets.

The ICAO Council’s decision follows recommendations from the 19-member Technical Advisory Body (TAB) that was established to evaluate programs’ compliance with Emissions Unit Criteria for offsetting requirements in the 2021-2023 pilot phase of CORSIA.

ACR updated its program procedures to avoid double counting after the TAB’s first assessment in 2019 “found that no emissions unit programmes assessed had all of the necessary procedures in place to demonstrate consistency with the criterion ‘Are only counted once towards a mitigation obligation’.” TAB’s second assessment of crediting programs found that, based on updates to its rules, ACR now meets all elements of the ICAO criterion and its guidelines for avoiding double-counting.

“This approval gives airlines the ability to demonstrate climate leadership by purchasing credits that are aligned with the Paris Agreement as well as with the San Jose Principles. While there is still work to be done with the U.S. Government and project developers to put these procedures into practice, we’re encouraged that ACR is able to help move this important issue forward,” said Grady.

WASHINGTON, DC MAY 20, 2021 – Today, the American Carbon Registry’s Director of Forestry, Jessica Orrego, testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry for its hearing on Federal, State, and Private Forestlands: Opportunities for Addressing Climate Change. ACR, a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, was invited to testify at the hearing by Ranking Committee member Senator Boozman of Arkansas based on ACR’s recent work with the Senate Committee staff on the Growing Climate Solutions Act.

The hearing was convened, in part, to discuss opportunities for supporting the growth of forest carbon markets as both a climate solution and a means to generate benefits for different kinds of forest landowners. As an expert with more than 20 years of forest carbon-related work experience in the areas of offset project development, consulting and offset standard operations, Orrego delivered three key messages to the Senate committee.

First, she explained that a robust market with existing infrastructure including standards, verification bodies, investors and technical experts is already in place.

The U.S. forest carbon market includes more than 200 projects on more than 7 million acres across the country that have issued close to 200 million tons of CO2 emission reductions in the last decade. Projects are located in almost every forested region of the US, and almost every type of forest ownership class is represented in the carbon market, including industrial landowners, conservation organizations, family forest owners and tribes. We are now seeing some state and municipal forests enter the market as well.

“Carbon revenue is directly helping landowners meet a number of land management objectives, ranging from tribes using carbon finance to purchase ancestral lands and improving fire management, to companies using the finance to help manage land more sustainably, or to assist in conservation goals, and even to pay for small landowners’ insurance or taxes, or other family expenditures,” she testified.

Second, she explained that the demand for carbon credits is rapidly increasing and will continue to rise, with U.S. forest owners well-positioned to benefit. More than 1,500 companies have now set net-zero targets and demand for offsets is exponentially increasing to new record levels.

“This is good news for the U.S. forest carbon market. But as demand for offsets grows, so too is demand for integrity. Companies want to know that their investment is leading to real results. Integrity must be the basis for growth,” she said.

Finally, she emphasized that there is no need to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel. The market and related infrastructure is already in place and is rapidly evolving and expanding to offer more opportunities.

“Disruption to the existing carbon market could have adverse effects on investments, private capital, and on landowners and other stakeholders participating in this market. It is our hope that the government will support the growth and scaling of the forest carbon offsets market by working with the current market stakeholders and within the existing processes and frameworks,” she said.

Responding to a question from Senator Boozman (R-AR), the ranking member of the committee, on the role that the Federal government can play in supporting forest carbon markets, Orrego said, “I think there is an important role for the federal government to play to support the growth and scaling of the forest carbon market by providing capacity building support or through loans as referenced in the Rural Forests Market Act. However, I do want to reiterate, and as I stated in my testimony, there is no need to reinvent the wheel here. The carbon market is operating already and it is growing rapidly, so we recommend that any role that the government plays complements the carbon market and the existing frameworks.”

Responding to a question from Senator Smith (D-MN) about the integrity of forest carbon markets, Orrego said, “We welcome scrutiny. As I said in my testimony, the growth and long-term sustainability of the market depend on integrity. And so, we are constantly innovating and improving, based on the latest science, to ensure emission reductions are real, credible and verifiable.” She pointed out that, in many cases, criticism focuses on a few cherry-picked examples, rather than examining the broader impact that the forest carbon market is having, “which is a hugely positive story.”

The full written testimony provided to the committee can be downloaded here.