Providing Agriculture with Access to the Carbon Markets:

American Carbon RegistryAgriculture and Carbon Markets: Making Carbon Count

June 17, 2010Washington DC

American Carbon Registry

• First U.S. private voluntary GHG registry

– Founded 1997 by Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Resources Trust

– Over 30 million tons issued to date

• Established industry standard for transparent on-line reporting and serialization of verified project-based offsets

• Joined Winrock International in 2007

• Large variety of currently registered project types:

– Forestry, livestock manure, landfill gas, wastewater treatment, carbon capture & storage, industrial gas substitution, fugitive methane in oil & gas sector, transportation efficiency

Winrock carbon expertise• Internationally recognized team of AFOLU carbon experts

– Long history of expertise: designed methodologies for earliest REDD projects (e.g. Noel Kempff and Rio Bravo)

– Major contributor to 5 IPCC reports, methods manuals, and the like

– Member of CDM EB Afforestation/Reforestation Working Group

– Board member now Executive Secretary of UNFCCC

• Terrestrial carbon analyses, protocols, methodologies, methods manuals for – – US EPA, US Forest Service, USDOE 1605(b), USAID, World Bank,

International Tropical Timber Organization

– Two DOE Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships

– EPRI and electric utilities

– CDM, ACR, CCAR, CCBA, RGGI, VCS

Protocol Development Process

• ACR publishes general and sector-specific standards

• Flexibility in methodology choice– Use ACR-published methodology– Use approved CDM methodology (as applicable)– Propose/modify existing methodology – Submit new methodology for approval

• Public consultation and blind scientific peer review of all standards and methodologies – Shortest time to market and lowest cost– Emphasis on scientific rigor – Balance environmental integrity with commercial flexibility

Recent and Forthcoming Standards, Methodologies and Tools

ACR Standard v2.0 Published Feb 2010

Forest Carbon Project Standard v2.0 Published Jun 2010

Livestock Manure Management Project Standard & Methodology Public comment closed, peer review in progress

Conversion of High-Bleed Pneumatic Controllers in Oil & Gas Systems Published March 2010

Improved Forest Management Forthcoming

REDD Forthcoming

Landfill Gas Combustion Project Standard & Methodology Forthcoming

Reducing N2O Emissions through Fertilizer Management Forthcoming

Improved Grazing Land Management In development

Biochar Scoping

Coastal Wetland Restoration In development

Panda Standard AFOLU specifications, IFM methodology, Grassland Improvement Methodology

In development

ACR Tool for Risk Analysis and Buffer Determination In development

ACR Tool for the Demonstration and Assessment of Additionality in Forest Carbon Project Activities

Forthcoming

N2O from Fertilizer in the U.S.• Analysis of 129 M acres

wheat, corn and cotton in 31 states– 61 M t CO2e emissions (0.12 -

1.45 tCO2e /ac.yr)

– 70% corn, 25% wheat, 5% cotton

• Analysis includes direct and indirect emission estimates– Investigated several models– Takes into account fertilizer

quantity& type, soil texture. drainage, pH, soil C, climate

(Pearson et al. 2010 with support from Packard Foundation)

N2O Methodology Development

• Based on first phase of work—concluded for project scale need to use well parameterized and calibrated process model:– DNDC model is peer reviewed, highly verified, and widely used– Estimates direct N2O emissions from fertilizer, and indirect

emissions from nitrate leaching and ammonia volatilization– Can be used to estimate baseline and with-project N2O

emissions due to changes in fertilizer type, quantity, timing, placement

– Accounts for site-specific and temporal factors– Data-intensive but rigorous results; cost-effective for aggregated

projects

Future Work in Ag Space• Agricultural Sector Standard

• Integrated Improved Grazing Land Management– Soil carbon enhancement, enteric methane, manure management

• Agricultural soil carbon

• Reducing N2O emissions from poultry operations

• Reducing CH4 emissions from rice operations

• Australia: rangeland management/holistic grazing, fallow crop and residue retention, fertilizer application

• China: enhancing grassland productivity and reducing livestock methane emissions

Further Information

Nicholas MartinChief Technical Officer, American Carbon Registry

nmartin@winrock.orgwww.americancarbonregistry.org

(703) 842-9500