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North American Corporations Embrace Forest Carbon Projects

Posted on: Monday, 20 April 2009, 08:00 CDT

NEW YORK, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- EcoSecurities a leading company in the business of sourcing, developing and trading carbon offsets from greenhouse gas abatement projects, together with Conservation International, The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance and ClimateBiz, announce the findings of their 'Forest Carbon Offsetting Survey 2009', one of the first research studies to focus on corporate attitudes concerning carbon offsets from forestry projects.

Highlights of the research, which sampled 120 global, multinational and regional organizations, and 21 carbon companies, included:

- General attitude to forestry projects is far more positive in North America and the Rest of the World (74% and 76% respectively) than it is in Europe (36%);

- Respondents from North America found not only the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) widely acceptable (74% and 56%) but also California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) and the Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) standard combined with a carbon accounting standard (56% and 55%);

- North American buyers were more positive towards virtually all project types than buyers from Europe. This was especially true for agroforestry (92% vs. 72%) and reduced impact logging (75% vs. 57%) but even more clear for commercial plantations (52% vs. 29%);

- Respondents from North America showed a strong preference for purchasing carbon credits from domestic forestry projects (46% rated them as highly desirable vs only 16% of European buyers);

- North American regional trends show an interest in exploring forestry as a learning and preparation exercise for upcoming regulation (78% agreed or strongly agreed), compared with the European sample (where only 34% agreed or strongly agreed).

Pedro Moura Costa, President of EcoSecurities, commented, "With the US significantly increasing its focus on climate change and the UN COP15 negotiations taking place at end of 2009 this is an extremely important year for forestry. It's tremendously encouraging to see that companies are starting to recognize the benefits from forestry projects, not only in terms of the robustness of the carbon offsets, but also in creating sustainable co-benefits and helping to reduce the problem of climate change and deforestation."

"A growing number of offset buyers recognize the significant role forestry can play in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions while also delivering community and ecosystem benefits," said Matthew Wheeland, Managing Editor of ClimateBiz. "The importance buyers place on carbon standards and project developer track records, however, shows forestry offsets must meet strict additionality and permanence criteria to prove they work."

"Over the past few years forestry activities have really come into their own in the carbon market, and are now recognized as capable of generating high-quality, cost-effective emissions reductions along with unique multiple benefits. Clearly the survey responses reflect this," said Toby Janson-Smith, Senior Director of Forest Carbon Markets of Conservation International. "There is no doubt this has been aided by the growing number of robust forest carbon projects being implemented around the world, and the development of rigorous carbon accounting standards like the VCS, and multiple-benefit standards like the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards."

The survey received 141 responses from a mix of global, multinational and regional companies, covering a diverse range of sectors and industries. It provides significant insight into companies' perceptions of forest carbon offsets and the forestry sector. Support for this research initiative was provided from a number of organizations which include: 2Degrees, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Borealis Offsets, Cleantech.org, GreenBiz, The Karo Group and Westgate.

For a full version of the Forest Carbon Offsetting Survey 2009, please visit http://www.ecosecurities.com/Standalone/Forest_Carbon_Offsetting_Trends_Surve y_2009/default.aspx#19721

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if one exists.)

Notes to Editors:

About EcoSecurities:

EcoSecurities has spent the last 11 years focusing on climate change mitigation activities and is now one of the world's leading organizations in the business of sourcing, developing and trading emission reductions. EcoSecurities' emission reduction portfolio is one of the largest in the industry covering a wide range of emission reduction standards (Gold Standard, CDM, VCS etc), technology types and geographical locations.

EcoSecurities Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM (ticker ECO). Additional information is available at http://www.EcoSecurities.com.

Conservation International

Conservation International (CI) is one of the world's leading international conservation NGOs with projects or programs in about forty countries. CI's mission focuses on the linkage between the protection of natural systems and human well-being.CI's integrated climate change program includes science, policy, communications, and the development of market-based approaches, which includes developing incentives for the protection and restoration of tropical forests to achieve aggressive global greenhouse gas emissions reductions. CI, with its international partners, is one of the leading developers and marketers of multiple-benefit forest carbon projects in the voluntary market, with a growing portfolio of forest restoration and reduced emissions from deforestation (REDD) projects located in sixteen countries.

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) is a partnership between leading companies, NGOs and research institutes seeking to promote integrated solutions to land management around the world. With this goal in mind, the CCBA has developed voluntary standards to help design and identify land management projects that simultaneously minimise climate change, support sustainable development and conserve biodiversity.The CCB Standards are now widely used by projects and demanded by buyers in the forest carbon market. As of March, 2009 more than 100 projects around the world are being designed to meet the standards.

About ClimateBiz:

ClimateBiz is the business resource for climate management. ClimateBiz informs CFOs, CIOs, supply-chain, operations and other executives on the key business issues in climate and carbon. The website and its free fortnightly newsletter ClimateBiz News offer news, best practices and resources in such areas as carbon measurement, reduction and trading; renewable energy; and carbon offsets.

ClimateBiz (http://www.climatebiz.com) is a website of Greener World Media, the leading media and information services company focused exclusively on the greening of mainstream business.

SOURCE EcoSecurities

Source: PR Newswire

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