Jan
25

If you have worked in the climate change space for very long, you have likely faced this question in one form or another. Try explaining carbon offsets to your sister-in-law and you have two choices. Either you give her a superficial response in an attempt to change the subject or you dive in and try and explain offsets. If you chose the latter, you will find it near impossible to avoid the concepts of a baseline and additionality.

Read More»

Dec
21

It’s December, a month best characterized in many parts of the world by holiday cheer, winter revelry, and reflection of the year that’s about to draw to a close. But for those following international climate negotiations, the end of the year also marks the season for another brand of reflection: deriving meaning from the annual UNFCCC Conference of the Parties.

Read More»

Oct
31

“Will failure to strike a post-Kyoto deal in Durban kill the carbon market?”

With the latest big annual United Nations climate conference just a month away in Durban, South Africa, this question is seeing attention from the press the world around. The question seems innocuous enough, but as with so much in climate policy —and particularly the UN process— answers come in pieces, with caveats, and almost exclusively in acronym-thick jargon difficult for anyone who doesn’t happen to be a full-time climate policy wonk to penetrate.

Read More»

Sep
21

It is easy to get pessimistic, if not outright depressed, in this business. After all, humanity keeps beating on the atmosphere with a sharp stick hoping that the climate will keep taking it with a smile. Meanwhile witnesses to this abuse expectantly turn to governments to intervene only to find a political horizon devoid of ambition for real change. Indeed, governments around the world seem overstretched already as they impotently struggle to calm markets and restart engines of economic development in the face of financial turmoil, the impacts of which continue to seep into and saturate the global economy. Drowned out by policy debates on economic woes and fiscal policy, climate change, it seems, rarely even makes the agenda anymore.

Read More»

Aug
25

There is no shortage of opinion on the concept and application of carbon offsets. The fervent debate these wonky mitigation instruments whip up runs an impressive multidisciplinary gamut from questions of morality to marginal cost of abatement. But while offsets have spurred a prodigious volume of discussion, there is a striking dearth of plain English analysis breaking down the complex commodities. Correspondingly there are startlingly few resources that dig beneath the veneer of marketing statements or go beyond a simple rehashing of basic concepts and statistics. In the face of this information shortfall, researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) have shown notable leadership. Over the past few years SEI has published a valuable catalogue of clear, accessible, and rigorous reports on the technical bits (e.g., greenhouse gas accounting and other programmatic rules) that underpin offset programs. In an effort to make this information even more user-friendly and digestible, SEI translated these materials into an interactive website: Carbon Offset Research & Education (CORE).

Read More»

Jun
30

Your response to the launch of the EP(GHG) professional certification over the last three weeks has been tremendous, confident, and unequivocal. Indeed, the reaction from the international GHG community has obliterated even our most ambitious expectations. Professional certification is the capstone initiative under our mission as a non-profit organization. Therefore, we want to say thank you those of you that have already expressed your support. (If you would like to add you voice to the list of supporters email us at: info@epghg.org. We will be excerpting some of these responses in future dispatches.)

Read More»

Jun
7

The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute is elated to today announce that it has partnered with the Environmental Careers Organization of Canada (ECO Canada) to launch a groundbreaking new professional certification for GHG practitioners: the EP(GHG).

If you’re curious about the specifics of what the EP(GHG) entails, the press release announcing this new certification is provided below and further information is available at www.epghg.org. But first, we’d like to take this opportunity to provide some background on how this new professional certification fits into the broader need for professionalization across GHG measurement, reporting, verification (MRV), and carbon management.

Read More»

May
19

I think we all realize that eventually governments and society will reach a point of dramatic transition characterized by the implementation of serious measures to address climate change. Indeed, the question today is not whether this transition will happen, but when and how. As we so often say, it is our mission at the GHG Management Institute to help build the capacity to prepare for and enable this transition to occur.

Our focus is on you, the professional class that will make up the human resource infrastructure upon which this transition is built. To date, our discipline has lacked a key institution common to almost every other field of professional practice: a credible and well-recognized personnel certification. We have been working towards this objective, which we see as the pinnacle of professionalization, since the inception of the GHG Management Institute. In doing so, we have consciously chosen the slow and deliberate path, focusing on quality rather than speed because ultimately the success of a professional certification is dependent on its credibility.

Read More»

Apr
12

Here’s a test to see how long you’ve been part of the GHG expert community: Do you remember the old GHG Experts Network?

If the answer is yes, then I have good news for you, the Institute is recreating the old Experts Network listserv as a part of our membership program. Of course this is good news even if you’ve never heard of the GHG Experts Network, but it’s exciting to finally have a resource to point the “old timers” who have for years been asking what happened to the GHG Experts Network listserv.

Read More»

Mar
24

The professional lexicon of climate policy has an air of maturity. Melding climate science terminology, esoteric domain concepts, and countless three letter acronyms (TLAs), carbon wonks are known to dialogue in an inaccessible jargon so rich it may, to the uninitiated, appear to border on another language. Yes, by this hollow measure, climate policy would seem to have the trappings of more established professional fields. Yet, a cursory look at the definitions associated with carbon’s work bank rather nakedly underscores our discipline’s immaturity. Nowhere in climate policy is language and definition more confused than the concept of additionality.

Read More»

Mar
10

For the climate policy news junkies and carbon geeks that follow greenhouse gas reporting for work or (sadistic?) pleasure, the last few weeks have seen a particularly high churn of new developments. It’s hardly news that the new U.S. Congress isn’t terribly keen on continuing to classify GHGs as pollutants. Likewise, new decisions from the European Commission on the EU Emission Trading Scheme may not please participants and environmental watchdogs alike, but its movements and process are at least well understood.

Read More»

Feb
23

I am thrilled to announce the release of the first issue of Greenhouse Gas Measurement & Management (available for free download here) on behalf of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, Earthscan, and the journal’s editorial board. On the occasion of this launch I’d like to highlight an article Tinus Pulles and I wrote introducing the new journal.

Read More»

Feb
9

At the Institute, we are constructing the intellectual and other infrastructure needed to grow a global professional community of climate change professionals. Later this month we are proudly introducing the latest component of this infrastructure: a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The title of this new journal, as you have hopefully heard by now (if not from us, then perhaps on the BBC), is Greenhouse Gas Measurement & Management. This title is our way of simplifying down to two concise terms the scope of our professional field.

Read More»

Jan
26

I am proud to announce the Institute’s first greenhouse (GHG) gas emissions inventory report . As a leader in education and professional development on GHG management, one of the Institute’s objectives in developing this inventory is to lead by example, publishing an estimate of the GHG emissions related to our operations consistent with the international best practices we teach.

I think you will find our story unique and inspiring. We have successfully created an organization designed to operate with minimal GHG emissions and achieve maximum global impact. We hope our experience will serve as an encouraging example for other organizations, particularly other NGOs focused on climate change.

Read More»

Dec
14

Earlier this month, against the backdrop of a busy first week of international climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, GHGMI – in collaboration with Sequence Staffing – released a report detailing the findings of the 2010 GHG & Climate Change Workforce Needs Assessment Survey. (The full report is available here.)

Read More»

Nov
22

Introduction

In a wave of reorganization initiated by Her Majesty’s Treasury Spending Review, the British government has brought reform to the UK’s gleaming new climate program: the Carbon Reduction Commitment and Energy Efficiency Scheme (the CRC). The CRC, an ambitious organizational GHG trading scheme, is facing substantial restructuring under the banner of simplification. As a part of this reconfiguration, the program will: shed some of its more complex elements including a carbon trading regime with indirect linkages to the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS); reduce the scope of its reporting requirements; and, in a development that has raised eyebrows around the world, scrap its revenue recycling provisions, effectively converting the program’s performance-based economic incentives into an ad hoc carbon tax levied across participants and expected to deposit £1bn per annum into public coffers (the program was previously revenue neutral).

A yawning deficit in Britain easily explains the overnight amendments to the CRC’s revenue provisions. But the sudden and sweeping reform of the program’s other design elements demand closer consideration and a number of tough questions regarding the British approach to regulatory complexity and capacity in climate programs.

Read More»

Nov
10

In the wake of last week’s “wave” election in the United States significant attention has turned to sifting through the new political realities for climate policymaking in the US and beyond. As the climate world grapples with this political shift we would like to offer a slightly different take on the state of GHG management by pausing to examine a separate announcement that came out of the US just in advance of the elections, the meaning behind which is particularly instructive in this time of change and upheaval.

Read More»

Oct
26

Earlier this month the European Environment Agency (EEA) released a report (http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/progress-towards-kyoto/) detailing Europe’s progress towards emission targets set under the Kyoto Protocol. Europe’s relative success in limiting its emissions can be explained by a number of factors, which could monopolize this entire post (and more), but for the purposes of this blog I think it’s timely to give a nod to Europe’s laudable and substantive policy response to climate change. At the same time, the news coming out of the EEA provides a good opportunity to critically reassess the state of global climate policy, which is due for a reality check. Some have referred to climate change as the mother of all collective action problems, and indeed it is an inherently global problem that demands a global (or near global) response. Europe is not able to, nor can it afford to, do it alone. Meanwhile, it doesn’t require sophisticated policy analysis to conclude that other major emitters (e.g., the United States, China, India, and Brazil) do not view the issue of climate change with the same political imperative that they do in Europe, at least not yet. Read More»

Oct
19

This blog is not strong on subtlety. Whether you’re a committed reader or a casual “skimmer,” you have likely gleaned that we use this forum to highlight our vision for greenhouse gas measurement and management. Central to this vision, and at the heart of the Institute’s mission, is the critical need to build the capacity to measure, report, and verify GHG emissions.
Read More»

Sep
28

Earlier this summer GHGMI convened a group of international experts to examine and systematically address the question of competency in greenhouse gas management. This Institute-initiated “Committee on Professional Competency Requirements” (the Committee), a top priority of GHGMI’s professional programs has since begun to lay the groundwork for the realization of the Institute’s capacity building mission. While a priority, this initiative is but one component of GHGMI’s professional programs. Read More»

Sep
15

The environmental community at the international level and here in Washington DC is coming to terms with failure. It is well accepted that global action to address greenhouse gas emissions is largely being held up by inaction in the United States. And so, U.S. legislative failure has been functionally equivalent to global failure. You will be hard pressed to find someone with high hopes for an international deal in Cancun. Read More»

Aug
26

Here at the Institute a good amount of our external communications are dedicated to describing just why GHGMI is an important and necessary institution. The talking points are likely familiar to anyone who has previously read this blog, seen Institute staff speak at a conference, or been cornered by any of us at a cocktail reception. This approach, and the context, tends to be more formal. So to put a slightly different and more personal spin on why the Institute is valuable, we turned the question around and asked ourselves why we found this cause important enough to deserve our professional attention. In other words, why do we work at the Institute? Read More»

Aug
11

We now have ample evidence to come to firm conclusions about the much-discussed controversy and manufactured scandals surrounding climate change science. Instead of recreating the wheel, I am simply going to repost a summary on the topic here from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and also provide a link to a similar factual recap from the World Resources Institute (here). This is something of a departure from the usual subject matter on this blog, but this is an issue that frequently arises in conversation on climate change and one that has been frustratingly underserved and misunderstood by traditional media outlets. The Pew and WRI summaries clearly and succinctly present the facts of a case which clearly exonerates the apparent defendant: climate science. In the face of any perceived doubt let me unambiguously state what any objective analysis will confirm: the science is still intact. The attention and false seeds of doubt this political hatchet job sowed, however, have served their intended purpose weakening the political resolve for action in the face of a grave and imminently looming challenge.

Comments welcome. Read More»

Jul
26

Sometimes it feels quite lonely here at GHG Management Institute headquarters. Toiling away trying to do what we think is needed to support the future of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policy. While most people who pay attention to the issue are obsessed with the politics of the moment, we work away behind the scenes thinking about and building infrastructure for the long-run. Indeed in today’s world of economic near-depression and policy gridlock, the unfortunate reality is that long-term infrastructure garners minimal attention. Read More»

Jul
13

In this third blog post on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and Global Warning Potential (GWP) values, I want to focus on a unique characteristic of methane (CH4).

I would venture to guess that many of you are unaware that most GHG emission inventories and offset project methodologies underestimate actual emissions from fugitive emissions of methane. This is the case because these methodologies systemically forget to include an emissions category: “indirect CO2 from the atmospheric oxidation of CH4.” Read More»

Jun
28

This question is not as silly as it may seem, and is so fundamental to GHG management that many practitioners are probably afraid to seek clarification out of fear of looking bad. Since not everyone in the field has studied atmospheric chemistry (I admit I have, but wouldn’t expect the range of folks working on these issues to have the same background), I’ll try and give a primer here on it. But first you should read my previous blog post on greenhouse gases. Read More»

Jun
15

OK, I am going to be a little lazy this time.  The two posts that will follow this one deal with issues related to greenhouse gas (GHG) Global Warming Potential (GWP) values and how we account for GHG emissions.  As I was writing these later blog posts, I realized that maybe I should not assume everyone has a deep understanding of what we mean when we say “greenhouse gas.” Read More»

May
26

I promised in a recent blog post to return to the question of what is a voluntary carbon market.  Specifically, I laid out a framework for thinking about voluntary carbon programs and markets more broadly with the following list: Read More»

May
2

Acceptance of the fundamental process of global warming has grown over time and is increasingly widespread, albeit with some notable exceptions within the political community. The most important statement of the problem was given in 2001, when the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that human activities are the cause of the changes in the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere and that these changes are likely to cause global average temperature to increase. Read More»

Apr
8

This Friday all eyes in the climate world will return to Bonn, Germany for the next rounds of the UNFCCC-convened Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-KP 11 and AWG-LCA 9). Or in less jargon-laden terms, the formal resumption of international climate negotiations under the United Nations. Read More»

Mar
24

The U.S. SEC’s decision at the end of January to release interpretative guidance on corporate climate risk disclosure unleashed an impressively diverse maelstrom of articles, briefs, and alerts. Simultaneously, legal, financial, and policy analysts seized on the release and scoured the SEC document for hints regarding the shape of the SEC’s new climate risk regime. Read More»

Mar
16

This blog post is going to be slightly more academic than my past ones.  Comments or questions are welcome.

Before jumping into what makes a voluntary carbon market, lets define more broadly what we mean by a voluntary program or market in the context of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Read More»

Feb
17

We get this question quite often. Where is our office? Our headquarters’ address is in the Washington, D.C. area. Specifically, we are incorporated in the State of Maryland as a nonprofit organization with an address just outside of Washington, D.C. proper (literally, just a few hundred meters from the District border). For those of you familiar with Washington, you will know that most of the D.C. area is actually in Maryland and Virginia. Read More»

Feb
10

Now that we have the Copenhagen Accord, which gives us some hope that eventually we will have a treaty that includes the United States and active engagement from developing countries, it seems like a good time to open our history books and look at some lessons from the Kyoto Protocol. Read More»

Jan
27

In the climate change policy world there is plenty of talk about capacity building, especially for developing countries — though occasionally for developed countries as well. Less frequently, however, is what is meant by “capacity building” specified. The concept comes from the broader field of international development. Read More»

Jan
15

Why e-learning?

Inside the Institute Posted by Michael Gillenwater -2 Comments

Here at the Institute, we are consistently amazed at the number of people who blindly assume we deliver training in a standard classroom setting. Indeed one of the most common inquiries we receive is where and at what time we are offering classes. After more than two years of responding to such format questions, we have gotten pretty good at explaining the how and why of the online learning tools (i.e., e-learning) we utilize. Read More»

Dec
27

As we close out this year, now is a good time for some refection before we charge into a new calendar. At the Institute, we have done just that, by releasing a report on our first two years of operation.

Read More»

Dec
23

It has taken this observer a few days (critically complemented by well overdue restful nights) to fairly assess the results of the Copenhagen fortnight. This delayed consideration is in part due to access, an issue I will raise first, not in order of importance, but due to the immediate impacts on my final days at the COP. Read More»

Dec
16

On Saturday evening the Institute had the distinct pleasure to co-host an official COP15 side event with the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSE) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Read More»

Dec
14

As the first week came to a close at Copenhagen’s Bella Center, I took a moment to record a few impressions on the grueling COP process and an overview of some issues the Institute will be watching as the negotiations advance.

Read More»

Dec
10

You know that the times are getting a little weird when Sarah Palin starts talking about historical reconstructions using proxy data of average global surface temperature (see her recent opinion piece in Washington Post). Read More»

Dec
9

Please join me in welcoming one of our alumni and members as guest blogger this week for Inside the Institute. Don Bain is a highly successful management consultant, software expert and professional engineer.  He recently participated in the stakeholders’ workshops at WRI on new draft standards and is guest posting on Inside the Institute to stimulate a conversation with our Membership. Read More»

Dec
9

To say my first two days at COP15 in Copenhagen have been a whirlwind, would not only be a tired cliché, but would also horrendously underestimate the speed at which the wind has proverbially encircled this program associate cum international correspondent. Read More»

Dec
7

A group of climate activists have just produced an entertaining animated short called “The Story of Cap & Trade.” Although the film is correct to worry about market manipulation and the transaction costs of those we now love to hate on Wall Street (some of which seem to believe they create value in the economy equal or greater than their inflated salaries), it misses the point on policy. Read More»

Nov
30

In an interview the other week I made the lazy mistake of oversimplifying GHG measurement with a tired colloquialism. While this may read as a statement of regret, I’m actually quite pleased I made this little slip as it spurred alumnus, member, and all around friend of the Institute Don Bain to take me to task in a succinct clever synopsis. Please read on for more on the actual relationship between GHG accounting and rocket science. Read More»

Nov
24

Those of us constantly sniffing the political winds during the numerous negotiations leading up to this December’s Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen have known for some time that the chance of a real deal on a new protocol were near zero. Read More»

Nov
21

The GHG Management Institute is a founding member of the Offset Quality Initiative. OQI is a consensus-based effort that brings together the collective expertise of its six nonprofit member organizations: The Climate Trust, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Climate Action Reserve (formerly CCAR), Environmental Resources Trust/Winrock International, Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, and The Climate Group.

Read More»

Nov
16

Interest in North America’s trilogy of regional cap-and-trade schemes has seesawed since a group of northeastern US states first came together in the early half of this decade to put up a united and ambitious climate policy front in the face of federal inaction.

Read More»