California will need more carbon offset credits
Although California’s carbon market will not begin regulating large emitters until January 2013, officials are urging carbon offset project developers to push their projects now.
Emitters will be able to use carbon offsets to meet 8% of their compliance target, which comes out to over 26 million credits. However analysts believe that supply is likely to fall well short of demand, perhaps by as much as half.
At a recent webinar held by the California Air Resources Board (ARB), Rajinder Sahota assured participants that while they are looking at additional project types to generate additional offsets, she recommends developers move forward with projects currently approved for use in the carbon market. These four project types include Forestry, Urban Forestry, Agriculture, and Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS).
ARB is finalizing its market rules and plans to have project verifiers ready to validate carbon offsets within the next few months.