Hello ClearSky friends and climate change concerned citizens,

I’m still in Cancun and feeling very inspired by the action from 3:30AM this morning. Quite honestly, this is a truly impressive feat of diplomacy by the Mexicans. This is a big win for REDD, CCS, and a new Green Fund (World Bank is interim trustee). All major players are happy (with the exception of a small block headed by Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela).

Specific elements of the Cancún Agreements include:

• Industrialized country targets are officially recognized under the multilateral process and these countries are to develop low-carbon development plans and strategies and assess how best to meet them, including through market mechanisms, and to report their inventories annually.
• Developing country actions to reduce emissions are officially recognized under the multilateral process. A registry is to be set up to record and match developing country mitigation actions to finance and technology support from by industrialized countries. Developing countries are to publish progress reports every two years.
• Parties meeting under the Kyoto Protocol agree to continue negotiations with the aim of completing their work and ensuring there is no gap between the first and second commitment periods of the treaty.
• The Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanisms has been strengthened to drive more major investments and technology into environmentally sound and sustainable emission reduction projects in the developing world.
• Parties launched a set of initiatives and institutions to protect the vulnerable from climate change and to deploy the money and technology that developing countries need to plan and build their own sustainable futures.
• A total of $30 billion in fast start finance from industrialized countries to support climate action in the developing world up to 2012 and the intention to raise $100 billion in long-term funds by 2020 are included in the decisions.
• In the field of climate finance, a process to design a Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties, with a board with equal representation from developed and developing countries, is established.
• A new Cancun Adaptation Framework is established to allow better planning and implementation of adaptation projects in developing countries through increased financial and technical support, including a clear process for continuing work on loss and damage.
• Governments agree to boost action to curb emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with technological and financial support.
• Parties have established a technology mechanism with a Technology Executive Committee and Climate Technology Centre and Network to increase technology cooperation to support action on adaptation and mitigation.

With renewed hope I begin to think that we are moving slowly forward.  The T-shirt from the youth delegation of the Solomon Islands claiming “You have been negotiating about this for longer than I have been alive.  You can’t tell me you need more time.” Somehow seems less of an indictment this morning.  Let’s see where we go from here.

Excited and hopeful,

Keegan

The heavy interest in REDD+ projects is palpable here in Cancun.  What is not so evident is that the compliance markets are going to be ready to move the REDD+ agenda forward.  Even if an agreement comes out of this COP, it will effectively be authorizing the technical working groups to begin work on the REDD+ protocols and methodologies for national level REDD.  I repeat, to BEGIN work.  That leaves the non-UN markets to lead the way and pioneer the path forward for REDD+.

Timed to coincide with the COP meetings, the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), has approved two distinct methodologies for use in the market, and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) of California has formally begun the process to include REDD+ from the States of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico.  So the voluntary carbon market is releasing REDD+ project methodologies for use around the world, and CAR is beginning to formally push sub-national action for the California compliance cap and trade market.  The development of these two tracks is vitally important for REDD+.  It formally opens a path to market for actions that have been contemplated, or are currently being worked on, in the field to access the market, NOW.  It also demonstrates the interest of the marketplace for REDD+ credits – and that the world has moved on.

There is a bit of a feeling like the UN process is already behind the Voluntary Market and the regional compliance carbon markets with respect to REDD+.  This may not be true forever, but there is certainly a window for the next few years when the voluntary market and the CAR market will dominate the action on the ground.  I hope that the UNFCCC process will embrace the work done in those markets and learn from them for the CDM – and not decide to reinvent the wheel. 

In the short term, I look forward to implementing some REDD+ projects – under the newly validated VCS methodologies or in Mexico under CAR!

Saludos a todos,

Keegan

Dec. 9^th, 2010

As the Cancun Climate Meetings enter the final stretch there is cause to be cautiously optimistic.  There appears to be relative progress on a number of issues: REDD+, Adaptation, Technology Transfer, Capacity Building and parts of the Financing.  The newly proposed Adaptation financing mechanism is not defined at all, and issues relating to Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) remain very contentious.  Overall, the question of having a market mechanism that uses offsets from developing countries is agreed upon, with significant exceptions from a few countries.

When I ask delegates “what looks good?”, they unanimously answer REDD+ seems to be looking good!  That is Great News!  But it is also a result of the significant work done to get agreement on REDD+ prior to everyone arriving in Cancun.  That said, Bolivia and a few other countries are very opposed to a market mechanism for REDD+, and may have some influence on the final nature of the agreement and the language of the agreement. 

I attended a high profile session last night where the message of REDD+ as a mainstream idea was evident.  The event, put on by the Avoided Deforestation Partners, included Presidents and Prime Ministers of some countries, as well as Presidents and CEOs of the World Bank, big conservation organizations and Wal- Mart.  The idea that REDD+ would be promoted publicly by the president of the World Bank, The President of Wal Mart and Jane Goodall is a snapshot of the broad consensus forming around REDD+ at this meeting, and globally.  There were times I felt the assembled community of REDD+ supporters was surreal, it did drive home the point that there is broad support for REDD+ because it has the potential to be so good for so many constituencies in the world. 

Keegan

The REDD negotiating text contains two options – Option 1 (from the meetings previously held in Tianjin) and Option 2 (from last year’s COP15 in Copenhagen) .  Most groups thought that Option 2 would likely prevail at the negotiations in Cancun.  Thus, preparations were made to comment on and suggest text as it pertains to Option 2.  However, the Chair’s text (CRP.1) was introduced just prior to the opening of COP-16 in Cancun.  The consensus among most NGOs is that the Chair’s REDD text sets a good starting point, but most are refraining to officially comment until the delegations have indicated which option they wish to pursue.

I notice that numerous groups are working at attempting to incorporate language that includes international demand side drivers and safeguards in all options.  These organizations are adamant that REDD will not be a success until these international drivers are considered and addressed.  This was further emphasized at the UN REDD Programme’s side event on biodiversity, where Michael Bucki of the European Commission (EC) indicated the importance of international drivers and that the EC will be commencing a study on international drivers in January, to be concluded in May.  This, and the universal support of Partners and Stakeholders of the REDD+ Partnership to prioritize the need to address international demand side drivers, will hopefully provide the necessary impetus to ensure a successful outcome for REDD.

Many different discussions are taking place and the negotiations are truly beginning as this is the second week of the COP.  It will be interesting to see what moves through the process and is passed on to the technical working groups.

Alternatively, it is very interesting to note that the voluntary market has approved a number of REDD methodologies in the last week.  With both the REDD Toolbox from Avoided Deforestation Partners and the Mosaic REDD Methodology from Terra Global Capital having completed the double validation process and being released for use by all project developers under the VCS.  This is now the driver of the REDD program, in any real market sense, and is complicating the negotiations as well – as the voluntary market is way out front of the regulatory carbon market on developing methodologies and protocols for REDD projects.  It is an interesting time – to watch the compliance markets rush to stay in front, while already behind.

I can’t wait to see what the outcomes are.

Cheers from warm Cancun (relative to frozen Missoula, Montana!),

Keegan

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Climate Ride California, was a success!  Keegan Eisenstadt, ClearSky CEO, and Devin Trainor, ClearSky’s new intern, cycled together as part of the first California Climate Ride.  Over 100 riders rolled along the northern coast of California as part of a fundraising bike ride for climate change awareness and bike advocacy.

Here Devin reports on his experience:

It took a full week of dedication and extreme logistics but we pulled it off!  The sleep deprivation and sweat was well worth it.  Each rider raised $2,400 for the event.  This money was donated to 1 Sky, Rails to Trails Conservancy, and Green America.  Riders were cyclists, non-cyclists, educators, students, business people, advocates, young, and old.  The ride was a forum for creating climate action connections through an untraditional platform – the bicycle.   The bicycle took us through the impressive coastal redwoods.  Cycling 320 miles created a common experience for all of us to struggle through.  As we were pushing up hills, a comparative simile came to mind of the climate policy struggle our nation has been pushing on Capitol Hill.  We endured these long hills and full days to contemplate, connect, raise money, and raise awareness.

The ride is best summarized by day 3:  A 100 mile day.

• A 7am departure,
• A 10 hour ride,
• Devoured every edible part of a pasta dinner,
• Listened to captivating lectures from University of Pennsylvania’s, Dan Garofalo, and an internationally acclaimed photographer, Chris Jordan,
• With images of decaying seabirds and colorful plastics piles where their stomachs should have been, the riders set up camp and go to sleep while the staff summoned energy to plan the entire next day.

As part of my ClearSky internship, I am positioned to gain a foot into the complex world of current climate action.  The issues are immense and often intimidating.  Educating oneself goes as far as your mind is willing to participate, then what?  Information does not act on its own, it must be translated into action.  Climate Ride is one approach, and it all adds up!

Three re-posts from Worldchanging caught ClearSky’s eye this week.  While we can’t see our greenhouse gas emissions, artists and writers continue to use their disciplines to reveal the impacts of our energy use.

Photograph: Black River Productions/Mitch Epstein, 2009

Artist Mitch Epstein:  Altamont Pass wind farm, California, 2007.  He also photographed many of the things that the Earth’s most energy-profligate nation does with that power – such as build golf courses in the desert.

Writer Eric De Place:  Equates US CO2 emissions to a BP-size leak every 3 hours.  BP’s Gulf oil spill is about five million barrels of oil total.  Compared to what the United States emits in greenhouse gas emissions, our carbon pollution is so huge that it’s like taking that five million barrels of oil, burning every drop of it, and then doing the same thing again every 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Photograph: Screenshot from Save Power

An advertising campaign used by the New South Wales government:  Utilizes the black balloon image, one black balloon contains 50g of carbon pollution, as part of it’s Save Power advertising campaign.

While ClearSky Climate Solutions found these posts on Worldchanging (see linked photos), Worldchanging found the original posts on We Make Money Not Art, Sightlines Daily Score, and Save Power.

As jet-lag refuses to abate, I find myself writing this post at 4:40AM.  It is early morning in Cambodia, and I’m here to have a look at the new Avoided Deforestation project being designed in Northern Cambodia.  The Oddar Meanchey Community Forest REDD Project, implemented by The Forest Administration of Cambodia, Terra Global Capital, and Pact Inc.  There is a novel experiment happening in the forest of Cambodia – rural, forest-dependent communities are being engaged in the international carbon market in a way not previously seen.  Numerous communties along a river valley, that leads eventually to the Mekong River, are aggregating their good stewardship of their forests in an avoided deforestation project.  The rural communities are all being vested with secure land title from the national forestry authority.  This is something of great importance to the communities, and something they have never had.  It is also considered to be a lynchpin to achieving sustainable management by forest communities around the world.  If the people become owners of the lands, are they apt to manage it differently than if they are users of the forest?  That’s the question.  It is often taken for granted that a homeowner treats the home beter than a tenant renting the space.  Is that true of forests as well?

The accumulation of rural farming villages, tree resin collectors, and buddhist monks leading the various communities have aggregated their efforts to protect their forests.  It is now “their” forests.  In exchange for protection and monitoring, guarding and measuring their forests against threats of harvest from outside, the communities also hope to gain access to the voluntary carbon marketplace.  The project is in the finals stages of validation/verification under the Voluntary Carbon Standard.  It will soon generate revenues from the sale of carbon credits, which will be shared amongst the Forest Administration, TerraGlobal Capital and the communities themselves. 

ClearSky is keenly interested in seeing the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) carbon credit marketplace take off in a robust manner.  It has a unique opportunity to be a win-win-win scenario.  By intimately involving communities in the design/implementation and rewards of a carbon project, the carbon funds can bring about more secure livelihoods for forest-dependent peoples around the world.  At the same time, REDD proejcts can protect the atmosphere and climate regime as well as the forests and biodiversity from areas that have not been significantly impacted. 

If the experiment works – it can achieve numerous goals at the same time.  That is something well worth looking into!

There’s been a great surge of action among businesses who are eager to be responsible corporate citizens by measuring and reducing their carbon footprints.  ClearSky Climate Solutions has helped several businesses be completely carbon neutral, by measuring their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and retiring an equivalent number of certified carbon offsets to balance their carbon output.

Many businesses are going carbon neutral - but is it necessary?

Recently, a client of ours posed an interesting question: “Is it absolutely necessary to follow the fad and become a carbon-neutral business?”  The motivation behind this question wasn’t that they’re skeptical about climate change, or that they don’t feel a responsibility to reduce their company’s carbon footprint.  Rather, they were wondering if there is a level of GHG pollution that’s actually sustainable, given the fact that our earth’s natural processes are able to store a large quantity of CO2 every year.

This is an excellent question!  For example, the world’s oceans absorb ~2 Gt carbon/year.  We also know that forests have a huge potential to absorb carbon, but actually this sink is now a source of atmospheric carbon due to deforestation and land-use changes.  Fossil fuel burning contributes ~6 Gt carbon/year to the atmosphere.  Theoretically, then, we only need to reduce our global GHG emissions by 67% in order to achieve a sustainable level of CO2 emissions that the oceans could absorb, assuming that we can halt the problem of deforestation. If this is the case, then a business could reduce or offset 67% of their carbon footprint and claim to be atmospherically sustainable – right?

The issue with this approach is that the earth is already way over-budget in atmospheric carbon.   Global CO2 concentrations are currently 389 ppm, and scientific consensus says we need to reduce to 350 ppm in order to avoid significant temperature rise.  Also, the excess carbon that we’ve been emitting for the past 100 years has a very long residence time in the atmosphere, meaning that it’s not going to be absorbed very quickly.  Finally, those of us in the USA and Europe are responsible for the vast majority of the CO2 in the atmosphere, even if China has recently surpassed our rate of pollution.  Therefore, we don’t have the luxury of choosing a sustainable level of CO2 emissions – it’s our responsibility to reduce our carbon emissions as much as possible, as quickly as possible.  After reducing, offsetting the remaining carbon footprint and becoming  carbon neutral is one of the best ways for businesses to take full responsibility for their climate impacts.

In 2009, ClearSky was named the “Sustainable Business of the Year” by the Montana Sustainable Business Council (SBC).  Last Thursday, ClearSky entered into the winners’ circle, and was honored to announce this year’s award winner:  Biga Pizza of Missoula, MT.

Hip, hip, hurray for fennel, squash blossoms, chutneys, and pork shoulder!

Biga Pizza’s owner and chef, Bob Marshall, tries to obtain ingredients within 100 miles of Missoula whenever he can.  Biga works with local farms, food, and wine vendors – both to contribute to the local economy and for the quality of products.  To name a few:  Montana Flour and Grain, The Orchards at Flathead Lake, Clark Fork Organics, and Farm to Market Pork.  Sourcing local ingredients reduces the carbon footprint of his pizzas, by reducing the GHG emissions associated with ingredient transportation.

When asked how other restaurants can begin to source locally, Bob advised other proprietors to challenge what they were taught in school.

ClearSky Business Developer, Jon Kuennen, greeting guests at the 2010 SBC Awards Ceremony.

In his words, most chefs are taught in culinary school to begin a restaurant with a menu.  Contrary to this approach, Bob explained that he’s been able to source a lot of local food because he began his restaurant with a list of ingredients.  For example, you shouldn’t have surf and turf if you have no surf.

Biga is a dynamic local business working with constant regard for not only what they present on our plates, but also for the future of our atmosphere.  At ClearSky, we’re excited about their approach to sustainability, and we also love their pizzas.  Congrats Bob, you’re in the winners’ circle now!