CA issues new cap and trade rules

These are the most recent rules which were approved, though they will not be finalized for a few days.

Cool new REDD tool

Mongabay covers the newly introduced REDD calculator for Indonesia here:

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0713-redd_calculator.html

And this from the REDD calculator (about) website:

We developed a web-based application for evaluating the environmental and socioeconomic implications and tradeoffs of implementing Indonesia's forest moratorium in Kalimantan under alternative scenarios. This web-based application enables on-the-fly quantification of the benefits of moratorium implementation for carbon conservation and its opportunity costs under alternative user-defined moratorium scenarios. It also includes a mapping function, which displays the land areas in Kalimantan protected by the moratorium via a 'Googlemap' interface. This application is freely available at: http://reddcalculator.com (or mirror site:http://un-redd.lianpinkoh.com).

Additionally, we also developed a downloadable spreadsheet version of this application, which allows users to work locally on their computer. This version is freely available for download at:


http://reddcalculator.com/media/files/Koh_et_al_moratorium_tool.xlsm

*Note that this spreadsheet-based application minimally requires Microsoft Office 2007 (for Windows users), or Microsoft Office 2011 (for Macintosh users). Also note that due to a known floating-point arithmetic issue in Microsoft Excel, outputs from this spreadsheet-based application might differ slightly from the web-based version.

Authors

Lian Pin Koh, PhD
Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore

Holly K. Gibbs, PhD
Department of Geography and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Peter V. Potapov, PhD & Matthew C. Hansen, PhD
Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University, USA

Development of web-based interface

C. Cheng, S. Talpalaru, T. Munteanu and L. Chiributa of Odeon Consulting Group.

VCS issues 1st REDD credits to Wildlife Works!

Kenyan Carbon Project Earns First-Ever Voluntary REDD Credits.

VCS nested REDD+Initiative

California's Historic Vote on Climate Change and RED

Tonight at 7:07 pm, the California Air Resources Board voted to adopt the cap and trade regulations for AB32, California's global warming law. The final vote passed 9 -1.

The new regulations include, among many things, strong preliminary support for sub-national RED international emissions reductions.

Just before passing the new rules (resolution 1043), many CARB board members highlighted that more work lays ahead, in terms of details, the operation of a market, protocols, and oversight. The overarching suggestion from Board members to the staff was a call for transparency in implementation of this new market. "If things go bad, they can go really bad" said board member Sperling, as he called on ARB staff to report back to the Board on ensuring appropriate market oversight.

Anyone watching CARB's process today should be proud of the integrity and openness behind this new bold direction for California. Said CARB member Berg near the end of the meeting, "today is the beginning of a new level of details".

Congratulations CARB Board members, staff and of course California voters! A recent poll shows 64% of surveyed voters support the cap and trade parts of California's bill.

Text of CA, Chiapas, Acre MOU on REDD (11/16/2010)

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION BETWEEN THE STATE OF ACRE OF THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL, THE STATE OF CHIAPAS OF THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES, AND THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The State of Acre of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the State of Chiapas of the United Mexican States, and the State of California of the United States of America, hereinafter referred to as "the Parties":

ACKNOWLEDGING the friendship and excellent cooperation among the governments of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the United Mexican States, and the United States of America;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the global nature of environmental problems and the ability of joint efforts to enhance joint policies for environmental protection and sustainable natural resources, especially reducing emissions from deforestation;

RATIFYING the willingness to promote new mechanisms of dialogue and agreement that lead to the strengthening of relationships and productive mutual action;

CONSIDERING the opportunities for collaboration between the State of Acre, the State of Chiapas, and the State of California in combating climate change;

RECOGNIZING the importance and value of implementing climate mitigation and adaptation actions at sub-national levels, both in their own right and as a means to furthering national and international efforts;

Recognizing further the importance of focusing on issues of common interest between the Parties, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the forest sector by preserving standing forests and sequestering additional carbon through the restoration and reforestation of degraded lands and forest, and through improved forest management practices;

Recognizing further that the Governors' Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force is a unique subnational collaboration between 14 states and provinces from the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Mexico that seeks to integrate Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and other forest carbon activities into emerging greenhouse gas (GHG) compliance regimes in the United States and elsewhere. As such, the GCF represents an important foundation for identifying enhanced partnerships.

EXPRESS their willingness to cooperate, in the search of joint actions that improve environmental quality and optimize the quality of life in the State of Acre, the State of Chiapas, and the State of California.

ARTICLE 1

This Memorandum of Understanding is intended to promote broader cooperation regarding environmental issues among the Parties within their respective purview and based on principles of reciprocity, information exchange and mutual benefit.

ARTICLE 2

The Parties will coordinate efforts and promote collaboration for environmental management, scientific and technical investigation, and capacity building, through cooperative efforts focused particularly on:

a. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and land degradation - otherwise known as "REDD" - and sequestration of additional carbon through the restoration and reforestation of degraded lands and forests, and through improved forest management practices.

b. Developing recommendations together to ensure that forest-sector emissions reductions and sequestrations, from activities undertaken at the sub-national level, will be real, additional, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable and enforceable, and capable of being recognized in compliance mechanisms of each party's state.

ARTICLE 3

In furtherance of the priorities referenced in Article 2, the Parties will develop the following method of cooperation, among others:


a. The states will develop a Sub-national REDD Working Group that will convene monthly between December 2010 through October 2011 to begin the process for developing a state to state sectoral REDD linkage recommendation that will provide the foundation for an eventual submittal to the California Air Resources Board, as defined in California's cap and trade program (CCR, Title 17, Sections 95991-95997) and to other necessary state entities to approve such a recommendation amongst the Parties. This group will weigh the legal, technical and economic considerations in developing sector-based credits generated by the Parties. This group should include no more than 15 representatives with experience developing sector-based REDD programs or directly involved with the states supplying the credits, or from the California state government. The process should be led by a facilitator to ensure the group focuses on meeting the needs of ARB in their existing cap and trade regulations. Membership should be limited to a small number of representatives of each Party, a national representative from the selected states;, a limited number of NGO representatives and expert advisors including one on the social dimension of greenhouse gas mitigation, but no more than 2 project based standard organization representatives, and a facilitator.

b. Other methods developed between the Parties.

ARTICLE 4

The Parties will cooperate in the development of a workplan for the REDD Partnership Working Group containing cooperative actions.

The workplan will include all necessary provisions for implementing the cooperation activity agreed upon, including its scope, coordination and administration, resource allocation, expert and professional exchanges, administrative issues, and any other information deemed necessary for achieving the objective of this Memorandum of Understanding.

Independent of the formalization of work plans the Parties agree that collaboration proposals can be presented that allow the parties to optimize outcomes for achieving the objective of this Memorandum of Understanding.

ARTICLE 5

In activities of cooperation and information exchanges, if Parties deem it convenient, private and public sectors may be invited to participate, as well as public, academic and research institutions, or any other organization, as long as they can directly contribute to the achievement of the objective of this Memorandum of Understanding. Other states are also encouraged to participate as Observers to working group discussions.

ARTICLE 6

The Parties will finance activities referred to in this Memorandum of Understanding with resources allocated in their respective budgets, as these resources become available and as stipulated by their own legislation processes. Each Party will pay for expenses related to its own participation, unless alternative financial mechanisms can be used for specific activities, as appropriate and as approved by their respective appointing authority.
ARTICLE 7

Confidential or protected information, material or equipment will not be subject to transfer pursuant to this Memorandum of Understanding.

If information, material and equipment is identified to require or to potentially require protection and classification, during the development of cooperation activities as stated in this Memorandum of Understanding, the Parties will inform corresponding authorities and will establish the appropriate protections in writing. Transfer or use of information, material and equipment not protected or classified which is controlled by any of the Parties, shall be done in accordance with applicable laws of each state, province, nation, or institution and must be properly identified.

ARTICLE 8

Officials designated by each Party to implement cooperation activities under this Memorandum of Understanding will continue working for the party to whom they belong, and no labor relations will be created with any other Party to this Memorandum of Understanding.

Cooperative activities under this Memorandum of Understanding will in no way change the original employer/employee relationship of the officials working together under this Memorandum of Understanding.

The Parties will make all necessary arrangements with corresponding authorities to facilitate customs entrance and exit of participants officially taking part in cooperation projects under this Memorandum of Understanding. These participants will be bound by migration, fiscal, customs, sanitary and national security provisions existing in each respective country and are not authorized to do any other activity without previous permission from the appropriate authorities.

The Parties will ensure that their official representatives participating in cooperation actions have medical, liability and life insurance, to pay costs related to damage repair or indemnification, in case that an accident may occur as a result of cooperation activities related to the execution of this Memorandum of Understanding.

ARTICLE 9

Any differences of interpretation, management or execution of this Memorandum of Understanding will be resolved by mutual understanding of the Parties.

ARTICLE 10

This Memorandum of Understanding can be modified by mutual consent of the Parties in writing, specifying the date of the entry into force of any such modifications.

ARTICLE 11

Termination of this Memorandum of Understanding can be made by any of the Parties, through written communication directed to the other Parties with thirty (30) days advance notice.

ARTICLE 12

The Parties acknowledge that this Memorandum of Understanding is only intended to provide for cooperation between the Parties, and does not create any legally binding rights or obligations. To the extent any other provision of this Memorandum of Understanding is inconsistent with this paragraph, this paragraph shall control.

Executed at the University of California, Davis, during the Governors' Global Climate Summit 3, United States of America, on November sixteen of two thousand and ten, in three originals in the English language.


FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

________________________________
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger




FOR THE STATE OF ACRE IN THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL

________________________________
Governor Arnóbio Marques de Almeida Júnior



FOR THE STATE OF CHIAPAS
IN THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES

________________________________
Governor Juan Sabines Guerrero


WITNESSED BY:


Linda Adams
Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and Chair of the Climate Action Reserve

Mary Nichols
Chair of the California Air Resources Board


Edvaldo Magalháes
Deputy of Acre State and
President of Legislative Assembly
Of Acre State

Lourdes A. Lopez Moreno
Secretary for Environment, Housing and Natural History State of Chiapas

Ricardo Martinez
Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Tribal and Border Affairs State of California Environmental Protection Agency

Saving forests, cultures and carbon dioxide

Nature magazine covers some recent work by Ricketts et all on the overlap between carbon and indigenous lands and other protected areas.

The original work was published in PLOS Biology, and you can find it here:
http://dx.plos.org/ambra-doi-resolver/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000331

Coal States Lawmakers Seek to Delay Emission Limits

US federal legislation or regulation fades farther away...

Seeing forests through the cloud: Google launches Forest Carbon earth engine

You can see one post in the title and another one here:

http://blog.google.org/2009/12/earth-engine-powered-by-google.html

CA's cap and trade program accelerates

The carbon scheme would cap emissions of large emitters including power plants, refineries, cement plants and other big factories at 15 percent below today’s levels by 2020, and allow companies to buy and sell emissions allowances to meet their goal, according to the article. The scheme would also allow limited use of high-quality offsets outside of capped sectors to cover a portion of the overall emissions reductions, according to CARB.

EDF's A Day in the Life of a Carbon Credit for Reduced Deforestation

An interesting story (hyperlinked in blog title) by Environmental Defense Fund on what a hypothetical REDD credit could look like in Brazil.

Standard Bank Poised To Launch $230 Million Forest Fund

Another large new fund, which seems to be directed at reforestation and afforestation in Australia.

Radio sparring on tropical forest carbon credits

I had a fun but tough radio interview with Green Patriot Radio about the concept of can and trade legislation as well as the particulars of REDD credits. The link is in the title and the interview is about 2/3 the way through the program.

Brazilian researcher calls global deforestation "grossly overestimated"

Solid numbers for tropical deforestation are notoriously hard to come by. The director of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research in the article (hyperlinked in title) speaks of deforestation rates (and thus carbon emissions) much lower than prevailing estimates. While he may be right, deforestation numbers may be lower, there is usually more to statements from Brazil on deforestation than meet they eye. This could be part of a strategy by Brazil to frame the debate on REDD in Copenhagen. One should also remember that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the authoritative international body on climate change science, believes that approximately 17.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from land use change in the tropics. So for a leading Brazilian researcher to be quoted as saying,

"I'm not in favor of conspiracy theories," Camara (the Director of the Institute) told Reuters in a telephone interview on Friday. "But I should only state that the two people who like these figures are developed nations, who would like to overstress the contribution of developing nations to global carbon, and of course environmentalists."

...is probably a good reason to be skeptical.