OCTOBER 17, 2018 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, is soliciting public comments on two methodologies:

Updates to the Methodology for Avoided Conversion of Grasslands and Shrublands to Cropland Production (ACoGS). Proposed revisions to methodology v2.0 are to simplify use, better align with conservation programs, and reflect the latest trends in conversion.

A new Methodology for Capturing and Destroying Methane from U.S. Coal and Trona Mines to quantify GHG emission reductions associated with the capture and destruction of methane that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere as a result of mining operations at active underground and surface coal and trona mines and abandoned underground coal mines. Not only an important GHG mitigation activity, coal mine methane mitigation also contributes to mine safety initiatives and can increase the supply of a clean energy source when methane is recovered and used to produce electricity or heat.Stakeholders are invited to review the methodologies and submit comments to ACR@Winrock.org by November 18, 2018.

MAY 25, 2018 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, announces the following:

Open public comment period for updates to the ACR Standard v5.0, which details ACR’s requirements and specifications for the quantification, monitoring, reporting, verification, registration and issuance of project-based GHG emissions reductions and removals as carbon offsets.

Publication of ACR’s Guidance for Carbon Project Development on Tribal Lands, which was developed in partnership with the Indian Lands Tenure Foundation to facilitate the validation, verification, and registration on ACR of carbon offset projects located on tribal land, including both lands held by tribal nations and those held by individuals.

FEBRUARY 1, 2018 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, is accepting stakeholder comments on the update of its Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions and Removals from Advanced Refrigeration Systems.

The Methodology, developed by Dentons US and EOS Climate in cooperation with Susan Wood Consulting and True Manufacturing, is intended to incentivize GHG emissions reductions through the deployment and use of advanced refrigeration systems in large commercial and stand-alone commercial refrigeration.

The Methodology updates including making advanced refrigeration systems a stand-alone methodology and expanding the stand-alone commercial refrigeration sector to include numerous equipment types. Additional changes have been made to clarify, revise, and add context to updates.

Please send comments to ACR@Winrock.org by March 5, 2018.

SACRAMENTO, CA, November 7, 2017 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, is proposing updates to the ACR Standard, which details ACR’s requirements and specifications for the quantification, monitoring, and reporting of project-based GHG emissions reductions and removals, third-party verification, project registration, and issuance of offsets.

Stakeholders are invited to review the proposed changes to the ACR Standard posted on the ACR website and submit comments to ACR@Winrock.org by December 10, 2017.

SACRAMENTO, CA, October 24, 2017 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a non-profit enterprise of Winrock International, announces the approval of a milestone methodology developed by The Nature Conservancy and TerraCarbon to measure and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions from the restoration of peat soils. This breakthrough is the result of eight years of Conservancy research in northeastern North Carolina. Landowners who restore peat soils can use this methodology to document and sell carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market.

North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula is a patchwork of peat soils called pocosins (Algonquin for ‘swamp on a hill’), thick deposits of decomposed plant matter that store high amounts of carbon. Similar peat deposits are found along the United States coast from southern Virginia to southern Georgia. The methodology applies to those areas as well, offering private landowners in all of these states a potential financial incentive for restoration.

These pocosins have been ditched and drained since Colonial times. In fact, one drainage canal at the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia is named the George Washington Canal because its construction was led by our first president. Dry peat emits carbon dioxide, and is vulnerable to large wild fires that also emit carbon dioxide. The Conservancy work involves restoring more natural water patterns to peat, thus reducing GHG emissions.

The original work began at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in 2009. As the work progressed, researchers wanted to prove that carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided by restoration. At Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Conservancy researchers monitored carbon dioxide emissions at a restored site and compared that data to emissions from a site that was not restored. The results were submitted to the ACR, a nonprofit that oversees the registration and verification of carbon offset projects.

“This provides another tool to incentivize conservation of pocosins on private lands. We hope that in the future, this will provide an additional funding stream to scale up restoration work,” says Brian Boutin, Director of the Conservancy’s Albemarle-Pamlico office. “There is the potential that selling carbon credits could fund restoration and possibly provide additional income to private landowners as well. This methodology is a really important step in getting us towards that goal.”

“We are very pleased to approve the pocosins methodology, adding to our list of approved wetland restoration methodologies for the Mississippi delta and the California delta and coast,” said Mary Grady, ACR Deputy Director. “This new methodology is an important tool for landowners to access carbon market finance for restoration activities, and we are excited to see the first pocosin offset projects emerge.”

The Conservancy worked with TerraCarbon, which develops and sells carbon offsets to fund forest and wetland conservation around the world, to develop the methodology and shepherd it through ACR’s stakeholder consultation and scientific peer-review approval process. This work was funded by Duke Energy, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Other partners include  United States Geological Survey, East Carolina University and Duke University.

SACRAMENTO, CA, August 21, 2017 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a non-profit enterprise of Winrock International, is proud to announce it has issued more than 100 million tonnes of carbon offset credits—the equivalent of  taking over  21 million cars off the road for a year. Each credit represents a metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) removed from the atmosphere.

The high quality, serialized credits are from a wide range of voluntary and California-regulated carbon market projects, including: reforestation, forest management, avoided conversion of forests, destruction of ozone depleting substances, mine methane capture, advanced refrigeration systems, transportation fleet efficiency, livestock manure management, avoided conversion of grasslands, rice cultivation, advanced formulation foam blowing agents, landfill gas capture, industrial processes and renewable energy. Voluntary credits can be retired by corporations or individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, while California market credits can be used by regulated entities in the state and in linked jurisdictions such as Quebec towards their emissions reduction obligation.

“We are very excited by this milestone, which shows we are successfully harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment,” said John Kadyszewski, ACR Director. “We aim to enhance market confidence and to catalyze transformational emissions reductions through the development of innovative methods to measure, report and verify GHG emissions reductions in sectors such as agriculture, land use and forestry, high global warming potential refrigerants, transportation and energy. We hope better methods and metrics can increase private sector investment and ambition so we can surpass targets set under the Paris Agreement.”

ACR was founded in 1996 and joined Winrock in 2007 to help Winrock fulfill its mission to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources. Winrock believes that climate change will have a profound impact on the poorest populations around the world and that markets are the quickest and most effective path to mobilize actions to reduce emissions.

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CONTACT

MGrady@winrock.org 805-884-1961

Chris.Hancock@winrock.org 501-319-2033

The American Carbon Registry (ACR) has open for public comment a Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions or Removals from Avoided Planned Land Use Conversion in Peat Swamp Forests.

The Methodology, developed by Winrock International and Infinite Earth, outlines methods to quantify the avoided net greenhouse gas emissions resulting from project activities implemented to stop planned land use conversion on undrained tropical peat swamp forests in southeast Asia.

Please submit public comments to ACR@Winrock.org by September 18, 2017.

SACRAMENTO, CA, August 2, 2017 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a non-profit enterprise of Winrock International, has published a new Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of GHG Emissions Reductions from the Destruction of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and High-Global Warming Potential (GWP) Foam. The Methodology developed by EOS Climate and ACR significantly and substantively expands the California Air Resources Board (ARB) ODS Compliance Offset Protocol to include multiple additional eligible sources of ODS and foam, new monitoring and verification methods and destruction facilities, and updated quantification, emissions factors and sources. The emissions reduction potential in the U.S. alone from the destruction of ODS and foam totals over 50 MMT CO2e by 2020, equivalent to taking over ten million cars off the road each year.

Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems, aerosol sprays and medical devices as well as foam blowing agents for the manufacture of insulation and noise reduction in buildings, appliances, coolers, marine applications and industrial pipe insulation. CFCs and HCFCs are classified as Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) because they deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, and they have extremely high GWPs, ranging from 4,750 to 10,900 times more potent to the atmosphere than CO2.

Under the Montreal Protocol, the production of CFC refrigerants in the U.S. is phased out and the production of HCFC-22 will be phased out by 2020. However, the use of these ODS is not prohibited, and standard practice is to recycle these compounds for reuse. This practice leads to ODS refrigerants leaking into the atmosphere at rates estimated by the EPA to be up to 25 percent annually.

By providing a financial incentive through the carbon market, the ARB Offset Protocol has incentivized the destruction of ODS resulting in 15 MMT of emissions reductions over the last decade. ACR’s new methodology will build on that success and more broadly incentivize large-scale GHG emissions reductions from the destruction of ODS and foams.

The ACR methodology includes new eligible sources of ODS used in air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, in medical aerosol applications and for fire suppression. Additionally, to incentivize foam destruction projects, of which there have been none to date, the ACR methodology includes multiple new eligible foam sources including walk-in coolers, refrigerated transportation, refrigeration cases, pipe insulation and marine foam, and provides new emission factors and quantification methods for foam projects as well as for monitoring destruction events conducted at destruction facilities that are a part of an enclosed equipment de-manufacturing system. Foam projects have the potential to supply 30 MMT of CO2e emissions reductions by 2020.

“This expanded Methodology provides needed updates to EOS Climate’s original, circa-2008 ODS offset protocol to reflect new science, current regulatory and baseline conditions, and advances in recycling and destruction technologies”, said Jeff Cohen of EOS Climate. “ODS projects under California’s cap-and-trade program have prevented the equivalent of millions of tons of carbon emissions, while also speeding the transition to climate-friendly advanced technologies. We have a limited time window to permanently retire the remaining inventories of these most powerful climate pollutants before they get released to the atmosphere, while ensuring correct carbon accounting. It is important for California, Ontario and other regulated markets to review this updated Methodology for inclusion in their programs.”