Where is the GHG Management Institute located?

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»

The Treaty Compliance Challenge: Enforcement under the Kyoto Protocol

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»

How we do international capacity building

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»

The UNFCCC Expert Reviewer Training Programme is Ongoing

The GHG Management Institute is the host of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) training programme for greenhouse gas inventory review experts for the technical review of greenhouse gas inventories of Parties included in Annex I to the Convention. This programme is being organized by the UNFCCC secretariat in response to decision 10/CP.15 of the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth session (COP15). Read More»

Professionalising GHG Verification

From Environmental Finance

The recent suspension of a leading CDM verification company has highlighted the need to ‘professionalise’ the auditors of greenhouse gas emissions, say Tim Stumhofer and Michael Gillenwater. Read More»

CNN.com asks Michael Gillenwater about Carbon Trading

Will carbon trading work?

December 14, 2009 11:41 p.m. EST – From CNN.com

(CNN) — Carbon trading — with its mix of free-market principles and government regulation — holds global appeal as a way for businesses to reduce emissions. But lack of a global market for carbon trade and questions over surveillance and accounting for pollution offsets raises questions about its viability.

The factors complicating accurate carbon-trading reportage begins with the “product” — in this case the absence of an invisible gas. Adding to the intangibility is the crediting of businesses for projected reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Read More»