ACR and Green Assets pioneer new methodology to generate carbon credits and prevent forest loss

A new methodology released by ACR at Winrock International offers an innovative avenue to conserve and enhance forestlands in the United States.

Every year, the US loses nearly three million acres (1.2 million hectares) of forest to other land uses, negatively affecting wildlife and water quality and releasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The new ACR methodology – developed in partnership with Green Assets, Inc. – uses carbon finance to conserve and sustainably manage forests that are at risk of conversion to non-forest uses.

The newly published Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Active Conservation and Sustainable Management on U.S. Forestlands generates carbon credits from forgoing the conversion of at-risk forests to agriculture, mining, real estate, and other non-forest land use development, and instead employing long-term conservation via 40+ year legally binding easements to durably protect and sustainably manage the forest resources.

“The loss of forestland to alternate uses is a major concern in the U.S. and worldwide,” said Dr. Kurt Krapfl, Forestry Director for ACR. “Carbon markets can create a powerful financial incentive to keep forests as forests, which is vital to achieve our climate goals.”

In addition to providing habitat for wildlife, clean water for drinking, recreation opportunities, and wood products, forests store vast quantities of carbon. Today, forests represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the US, capturing and storing approximately 13% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. When forests are converted to other land uses, much of this carbon is emitted to the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change.

“As landowners working with landowners, we see firsthand the benefits of carbon finance in keeping forestland as forestland,” said Bailey Evans, CEO of Green Assets, which partnered with ACR to develop the new methodology. “We understand and have demonstrated the power of conservation finance to help landowners implement sustainable timber management, meet long-term stewardship goals, and conserve forestland. Green Assets is excited to partner with ACR to promote active forestland conservation across the country.”

In development since 2021, the publication of the new ACR methodology marks a significant step forward in addressing climate change through land-based initiatives and incentivizing active conservation and sustainable forest management practices. To qualify, landowners must demonstrate the threat of forest conversion through a qualified appraisal, then enact a legally binding conservation easement that ensures long-term carbon storage and accumulation associated with continued forest cover.

The quantified forest carbon stored and sequestered through forest growth on eligible projects generates tradable market assets in the form of carbon credits, which reward the landowner financially for the climate and ecosystem services benefits their forestlands provide.

Read ACR’s Primer here.

About ACR

ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program that operates in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. A nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, ACR was founded in 1996 as the first private greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the world with the mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment. ACR has long pioneered science-based methodologies for activities that reduce and remove GHG emissions in the forestry and land use, energy, and industrial sectors. ACR methodologies are built on the ACR Standard, which is rooted in sound science to ensure the emission reduction and removal credits we issue are real, additional, permanent, and independently verified. Learn more at https://acrcarbon.org/.

About Green Assets

Green Assets, “Landowners Working with Landowners®,” is a trusted leader in designing and implementing sustainable conservation and forest carbon credit projects. They work to bring environmental and economic value to clients & credit purchasers through unique opportunities and markets. Green Assets utilizes first-hand knowledge and expertise to enhance the economic and environmental potential of forest properties. Learn more at https://green-assets.com/.

Change Underscores Promise to Deliver Ambitious Climate Results

American Carbon Registry is now ACR. The new name underscores the organization’s longstanding promise to deliver Ambitious Climate Results, and better reflects the work being done by ACR’s team of experts across different sectors, geographies, markets, and services.

“We have a new name but our promise to partners and the market overall remains the same,” said Mary Grady, ACR Executive Director. “Our mission and our dedication to technical expertise and excellent customer service is unchanged.” ACR’s mission is to create confidence in the integrity of carbon markets, catalyzing transformational climate results.

Known as ACR by partners and clients for over a decade, the American Carbon Registry was established in 1996 as the world’s first carbon crediting program and has been a leader in the space ever since. While its robust, transparent and secure registry is still a centerpiece of ACR’s program, its contributions to climate action have always been much broader, including pioneering rigorous, science-based carbon accounting standards and methodologies, as well as overseeing independent verification of GHG emission reduction and removals projects.

The new name brings ACR into alignment with the reality that it is a global carbon crediting program focused on a range of greenhouse gases and offering services in addition to the registry. ACR operates in compliance and voluntary carbon markets, including California’s Cap-and-Trade market, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), Washington State’s Cap-and-Invest market, Colorado’s Methane Recovery market and has an MoU with the Government of Singapore’s National Environment Agency.

To coincide with its new name, ACR launched a new website, designed to offer users improved functionality and an enhanced experience, with easy access to valuable technical and policy resources related to the different markets in which ACR operates, the ACR registry and linked credit trading platforms, and ACR’s standard and methodologies.

View the event  recording here

ACR has published the world’s first methodology to leverage carbon market finance to plug orphaned oil and gas (OOG) wells in the United States and Canada. The methodology provides the eligibility requirements and accounting framework for the creation of carbon credits from the reduction in methane emissions by plugging OOG wells. Orphaned wells are inactive and have no solvent owner of record. These wells can leak toxic chemicals that lead to air pollution, groundwater contamination, soil degradation, damage to ecosystems, and risk of explosions. OOG wells also pose an acute climate threat. The wells are often leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas which is a large contributor to warming. Rapidly reducing methane emissions, including from orphan wells, will significantly reduce early atmosphere warming and associated impacts.

Researchers at McGill University, together with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), have produced a map of 120,000 documented OOG wells across 30 states in the U.S. However, estimates of additional undocumented OOG wells range as high as several million across the country. The EPA estimates the volume of methane being released from these orphan and other inactive wells to be between 7 and 20 million tons of CO2e every year, though it could range much higher.

This webinar shares information about ACR’s methodology, about the environmental and climate harm of OOG wells, and answers audience questions about the methodology.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., May 24, 2023 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, has published the world’s first methodology to leverage carbon market finance to plug orphaned oil and gas (OOG) wells in the United States and Canada. In the U.S. alone, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates methane emissions from abandoned wells, of which orphaned wells are a subset, to be at least 7 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually, which is likely an underestimate. While U.S. government funding is available to plug orphaned wells, it is woefully inadequate to address the issue with estimates of a funding gap of many tens of billions of dollars.

The ACR Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from the Plugging of Orphaned Oil and Gas (OOG) Wells – developed in partnership with Dr. Mary Kang of McGill University, one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic – provides the eligibility requirements and accounting framework for the creation of carbon credits from the reduction in methane emissions by plugging OOG wells.

Orphaned wells are unplugged, inactive and have no solvent owner of record. Many of these wells have fallen into advanced states of disrepair and are leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Unplugged wells can also leak other toxic chemicals that lead to air pollution, groundwater contamination, soil degradation, damage to ecosystems, and risk of explosions.

While oil and gas operators are required to plug wells at the end of their productive lives, more than 160 years of oil and gas operations has left the legacy of a huge number of orphaned wells in the U.S. and Canada, for which no operator exists. In these cases, responsibility for plugging the wells falls to states/provinces, federal agencies or Native American tribes, which have historically lacked the funding needed to address the problem in a meaningful way.

“The ACR methodology is designed to address the enormous gap in the existing resources to plug orphaned wells. It is intended to incentivize the plugging of leaking oil and gas wells in the U.S. and Canada, creating a pathway for carbon markets to help finance this activity for maximum climate impact,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR.

OOG wells pose a serious climate threat. Researchers at McGill University, together with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), have produced a map of 120,000 documented OOG wells across 30 states in the U.S. However, estimates of additional undocumented OOG wells range as high as several million across the country. Because of this, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies abandoned wells, of which orphaned wells are a subset, as one of the most uncertain sources of methane emissions in the US, estimating 7-20 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually.

“It is highly likely that we are vastly underestimating the climate impact of OOG wells because of a basic lack of information. One of our main ambitions with this methodology is to help drive investment in innovation and technology, which in turn leads to the collection of more data. Our hope is that as we better understand the extent of this problem, legislative and other solutions can be developed that will help to address the challenge based on a stronger understanding of what it will take to solve it,” said Maris Densmore, ACR’s Director of Industrial Solutions.

Proper plugging and remediation of all U.S. and Canadian OOG wells is now an extremely large financial burden for local and federal governments, and there are significant backlogs because of lack of resources, equipment, and experienced personnel. While roughly $4.7 billion in funding was made available through the REGROW Act (part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), a Columbia University report estimates that the cost of plugging a mere 500,000 wells could be as high as $24 billion. Carbon markets can provide financial incentives for additional action that complements other private, philanthropic, state and government led initiatives.

“While not a silver bullet, carbon finance can provide an innovative contribution by offering an additional source of funding. It will prioritize plugging the wells that are emitting the highest levels of methane, promoting a long-term solution with results that are measured, monitored and verified over the course of decades,” Densmore said.

The potential costs for capping wells vary widely. While carbon credit purchases may be enough to cover the full costs of capping some wells, most funding will be supplemental to additional state, non-profit and federal funding for well capping. Each state has different rules and regulations that will determine whether participating in the carbon market is the right investment. For some states the contribution to bonds to cover the costs of wells may be adequate, but that isn’t guaranteed now or in the future.

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, May 1, 2023 – ACR, a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, announces an open public comment period for updates to the ACR Standard, which details ACR’s requirements and specifications for the quantification, monitoring, reporting, verification, registration and issuance of project-based GHG emission reductions and removals as carbon credits.

Proposed updates to the ACR Standard from version 7.0, published December 2020, to version 8.0 were previously posted for public comment in November 2021. This May 2023 public comment version reflects ACR’s responses to the first round of public comments as well as additional programmatic clarifications.

Key updates include codifying ACR’s existing scope exclusion for projects that displace one type of fossil fuel to another type of fossil fuel and projects that lock-in long-term GHG emissions; clarifying requirements to use ACR templates for key project document submissions; detailing the specification of environmental and social risk assessment requirements and the use of ACR tools and templates; and significantly enhancing the Complaints and Appeals process to detail the scope of complaints, the stepwise process for evaluation, investigation and resolution including timelines, and the requirements and process for appeals.

A detailed summary of changes is provided on the ACR website.

Please submit written comments to ACR@winrock.org with the subject line “ACR 8.0 Public Comments” by June 2, 2023.

ACR Standard 8.0 will go into effect July 1, 2023.

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, April 20, 2023 – American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, announces the opening of the application window for candidates for the Hunter Parks Conservation Fellowship at ACR. The Fellowship, established jointly with Green Assets in remembrance of the organizations’ business colleague, founder, and dear friend, was announced last month and to advance Hunter’s conservation vision.

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 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. 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 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.

The Hunter Parks Fellowship at ACR aims to continue to provide opportunity for growth in the forest carbon space by selecting a candidate who embodies Hunter’s passion for conservation, of exploring the unknown, and ensuring landowners get a fair, sustainable deal when participating in the carbon market, while promoting quality and integrity.

To read more about the Fellowship and to apply for consideration, please visit Winrock’s job site:  https://grnh.se/db6d7aad2us

ACR — together with fellow Winrock enterprise Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) — are the first two crediting programs approved to supply credits for first phase of CORSIA.

LITTLE ROCK, March 31, 2023 – The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council, the UN’s main aviation body, has approved the American Carbon Registry (ACR) to supply carbon credits for the first phase of CORSIA, which commences in 2024.

Earlier this week, ACR was notified by the ICAO Council that it had been approved to supply CORSIA-eligible emissions units for the 2024-2026 compliance period. Eligible credits include those issued to activities that started their first crediting period on or after January 1, 2016 and that represent emissions reductions that occurred from January 2021 through December 2026.

ACR is once again one of the first crediting programs to receive approval to supply credits for a new phase of CORSIA. In this case, it is one of the first two crediting programs to receive approval for the 2024-2026 compliance period, the other being the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART); both are enterprises of Winrock International. In 2021, ACR and ART were the first crediting programmes to be approved to offer post-2020 vintage credits for CORSIA’s 2021-2023 pilot phase.

“We are proud that ACR has once again successfully completed a thorough review of our program requirements and oversight,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “Ensuring carbon market integrity is paramount to our mission, and this this approval reflects our commitment to ensure our procedures continue to improve and evolve in line with Paris Agreement rules alongside increased scrutiny, oversight and guidance in the marketplace.”

ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that manages the standards that govern international aviation. In 2016, ICAO approved the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (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.

Initially approved by ICAO in 2020 to supply eligible pre-2020 ACR-issued credits for the 2021-2023 pilot phase, ICAO expanded ACR’s eligibility in 2021 to supply post-2020 credits for use in the pilot phase. This updated approval for Paris Agreement-aligned credits, which ACR was the first to receive, 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.

This latest approval for CORSIA’s first phase comes alongside the release by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) of its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), a set of fundamental principles for high-quality carbon credits. ICVCM’s requirements for crediting programs, such as ACR, have been streamlined for ICAO-approved programs to build on existing CORSIA requirements, with additional criteria around effective governance, credit tracking, transparency and robust, independent third-party validation and verification.

“ACR looks forward to continuing to be at the vanguard of market innovation and impact, and to working with the broad range of stakeholders who share our desire to create confidence in the environmental and scientific integrity of high quality carbon credits in order to accelerate transformational climate action,” Grady said.

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas March 27, 2023 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, has been approved as one of the first Offset Project Registries (OPRs) for the State of Washington’s Cap-and-Invest Program.

The program sets a limit, or cap, on overall carbon emissions in the state and requires businesses to obtain allowances equal to their covered greenhouse gas emissions. In the first compliance period, 2023-2026, participating entities can cover up to 5% of their emissions with carbon credits, and can cover an additional 3% with credits from projects on federally recognized Tribal lands.

As an OPR, ACR will work with Washington’s Department of Ecology to oversee the listing and verification of carbon offset projects developed following the Department’s approved offset protocols. ACR-issued Registry Offset Credits are then eligible to be converted to Ecology Offset Credits that may be used by capped entities to meet a portion of emissions reduction obligations under the Cap-and-Invest Program.

“We are thrilled to support Washington State’s Cap-and Invest Program, which is designed to reduce climate pollution and help the state meet its climate goals. The approval signals that we have met stringent regulatory requirements including technical expertise in carbon offset protocols; extensive experience in the oversight of offset project listing, registration, independent third-party verification; the issuance of serialized credits on a transparent registry; and a solid understanding of the regulation underpinning the compliance offset program,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR.

This follows an announcement last month that ACR has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Environment Agency (NEA) of the Government of Singapore that will allow Singaporean companies to use ACR-issued carbon credits to offset up to 5% of their taxable emissions starting in 2024. ACR has also served as the leading approved OPR in California’s Cap-and-Trade Program since 2012.

“ACR, which has a long tradition of supporting ambitious climate results, is pleased to be working with federal and state governments around the world that are leading efforts to explore that role that carbon credits can and should play within compliance regimes in support of catalyzing well-functioning carbon markets,” Grady said.