Vancouver – West Coast Environmental Law, a non-profit environmental law organization, today released a report – Professionals and Climate Change: How professional associations can get serious about global warming. This report is perhaps the first in the world to examine the implications of climate change for professional associations regulating the qualifications and activities of resource and planning professionals, such as engineers, biologists, lawyers, architects and others.

West Coast Environmental Law has sent Professionals and Climate Change to over 70 professional associations across Canada inviting them to become climate leaders by specifically recognizing the professional obligations of their members in relation to climate change.

“Biologists, city planners, foresters, and other professionals are already dealing with the reality of climate change on the ground,” said Andrew Gage, the report’s lead author. “Our report highlights how professional associations can play, and in some cases are playing, a leadership role – giving their members guidance how to address climate-related issues competently and in a way that protects the public.”

“Climate change is an issue that affects all of us, and managing our activities should be a responsibility for all of us – including professionals in all sectors,” agreed Tom Baumann, P.Eng., co-founder of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. “There is a growing need for expertise in greenhouse gas management and this report provides important recommendations to engage professionals and their associations in ways that can achieve more progress towards managing and limiting the impacts of climate change.”

The Report identifies some examples of climate leadership already taken by Canadian and international professional associations, but invites professional associations to go further. Professionals and Climate Change challenges professional associations to (among other things):

• Recognize the urgency of climate change and call for governments to act;
• Require members to receive education and training on the implications of climate change for their professional work;
• Give direction to their members on best practices related to climate change; and
• Recognize their members’ professional obligations in relation to climate change.

For more information contact:

Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer and Acting Executive Director, West Coast Environmental Law – 604-601-2506 or 250-412-9784

Tom Baumann, PEng, Co-founder, Greenhouse Gas Management Institute – 613-795-1158

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Beijing and Washington, DC – The Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation (iCET), a leading think tank on climate change and sustainable development in China, and the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI), an international non-profit organization founded to build professional capacity in measuring, reporting, verifying, and managing GHG emissions, have partnered to bring an international training curriculum on GHG accounting and verification to climate change practitioners throughout China.

The world is facing the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period, yet on the eve of the latest round of climate talks in Durban, South Africa, international climate negotiations are at a political stalemate. Moreover, while climate programs are emerging and expanding in some regions, financial turmoil and political gridlock have stymied efforts in key major emitting countries to comprehensively mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Against these political headwinds China is charting an ambitious path, committing to carbon reduction targets in its 12th five-year plan and recently announcing an “exploratory phase” of a nationwide carbon trading program. Chief among the investments necessary to move down this path is the development of a competent emission monitoring and carbon management workforce. From developing the metrics upon which climate policies are implemented to assuring the accuracy of the data underpinning carbon markets, iCET and GHGMI’s joint initiative is fundamental to addressing the challenge of climate change.

This initiative will build on iCET’s Energy and Climate Registry (ECR) – the first voluntary and comprehensive online carbon reporting platform in China – and GHGMI’s carbon management education program –the world’s largest and most comprehensive GHG measurement, reporting, and verification course curriculum. The initiative aims to equip businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and communities throughout China with the capacity to manage GHG emissions. The partners will develop the workforce necessary for China to pursue a low carbon development pathway by working to improve the quality of Chinese greenhouse gas emissions data.

The GHGMI-iCET initiative will deliver a professional development curriculum in both Chinese and English complemented by comprehensive examinations assessing competency in GHG quantification and verification in line with international standards and best practices. The partnership’s first course on Organizational GHG Accounting will commence 8 February 2012 in Beijing, China. Other courses on Project-level GHG Accounting, GHG Verification for Inventories and Projects, and GHG Information Management Systems will follow.

About the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation

The Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation (iCET), a leading policy think-tank in the area of low-carbon development and climate change, is an independent non-profit organization registered in Beijing, China and California, USA. iCET’s mission is to mitigate climate change through the promotion of low-carbon transportation, clean energy, energy efficiency and carbon management best practices in China. iCET pursues its goals by actively developing programs with wide range of stakeholders, including Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Energy Foundation. For more information, please visit www.chinaclimateregistry.org or email luciagw@icet.org.cn.

About the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI), an international nonprofit organization, trains, certifies, and networks the global community of experts that account for, audit, and manage greenhouse gas emissions. The Institute’s membership includes individuals and organizations, from those new to the field to certified professionals, working on all aspects of climate change. GHGMI works with a number of leading climate change institutions and a globally distinguished faculty to develop and deliver training and professional development programs designed to build a robust workforce to support market mechanisms and other policy responses to climate change. For more information, please visit ghginstitute.org or email media@ghginstitute.org.

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This course launch comes on the wave of renewed and invigorated interest in forest carbon accounting. Indeed the course is perhaps the Institute’s most widely anticipated.

Enrollment for the course, instructed by forest carbon expert Penny Baalman, is now open. Sign up information and a more in-depth course description is available on the course page.

For more on the Greenhouse Gas Measurement & Management journal please visit the journal’s homepage.

Full survey report available for download by clicking here.

A video of Michael’s presentation and the entire discussion is available online at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1421&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=635366

Green Jobs Training: Promoting Accountability in Carbon Markets

Taking Quality Assurance Seriously in Carbon Markets

As a quality assurance measure, the survey is by invitation only for leading GHG / climate change practitioners and requires a password code to participate. A straightforward password request form is also available on the website.

The 2010 survey aims to expand on the industry’s complex workforce needs by polling practitioners on personnel needs, training requirements and future projections. As with our previous survey, this year’s assessment again will take a policy-neutral approach to information gathering. Our focus is to acquire valuable industry data without compromise, and as such the survey does not promote policy or any specific protocols, standards or programs. All data is collected on a blind, anonymously recorded IT infrastructure to ensure the most detailed, statistically accurate response possible.

The survey is divided into six sections covering many aspects of climate change and GHG measurement and management. This year’s survey was designed to build on trends and impressions established in last year’s survey; as such you may find it to be a bit more in-depth than other industry questionnaires. While this format may come at a marginal increase in the time required to complete, the resulting snapshot of the industry will offer invaluable perspective on current and future points of stress and opportunity in this unique time for climate change.

While we hope you will be able to complete the survey in one short setting, you can save your answers and come back at a future time to finish by clicking the “Finish Later” tab and using your unique survey password code to re-enter.

This year’s questionnaire is a follow up to last year’s precedent setting survey, which for the first time, confirmed and quantified climate change HR impressions and the ascendency of greenhouse gas management as a professional discipline. Results will, as with last year’s survey, be published in a free comprehensive GHGMI-Sequence report later this year.