Quality Shake-Down in U.S. Pre-Compliance Carbon Registry Market Moves Closer

WASHINGTON, Nov 13, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Winrock International launches the American Carbon Registry

As federal cap and trade legislation took one step closer to reality last week with the election of Barack Obama as President, so too did the race to become the EPA 'feeder' greenhouse gas registries of choice. The quality bar for prospective pre-compliance registries was raised even higher today when Winrock International launched the American Carbon Registry during the Point Carbon Conference in Washington D.C.

Formerly the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Registry (the world's first carbon registry), the non-profit American Carbon Registry opens for business today as one of the largest and most respected online registries for the U.S. voluntary and pre-compliance carbon markets. With 25 million registered offsets and stamps of approval from both Fortune 500 companies like Nike and mission-driven institutions like the World Bank, the American Carbon Registry enters the pre-compliance market as a leading domestic registry. This position is further strengthened by American Carbon Registry's recognition in the Senate's "America's Climate Security Act of 2007" (Lieberman-Warner bill) as a pre-compliance registry of choice.

"American Carbon Registry is an imprimatur for low risk and high quality. We add value by helping our members position themselves to earn early-action credit towards future federal and international GHG regulatory programs," says Wiley Barbour - Founder and Chief Technical Officer.

Today's launch also sees the publication of the American Carbon Registry Standard, the overarching standard which details GHG accounting principles as well as carbon offset and corporate GHG inventory eligibility requirements. Forestry and Agriculture sector standards will be released this year as the first in a series of sector standards that will be published by early 2009 to complete a full range of easy-to-use protocols for its members.

"The American Carbon Registry provides the much needed quality and transparency lacking in today's domestic market," says Wiley Barbour. "Every single one of our carbon offsets has a real story behind it and our published standards lead industry standards on environmental quality."

To ensure high quality offsets, the Registry will only accept projects that meet its own offset eligibility criteria and allows the use of other quality methodologies in the market including Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), U.S. EPA Climate Leaders, the European Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and WRI/ WBCSD GHG Protocol.

"This will allow our members the flexibility to choose among other specific high-quality protocols, methodologies and tools for greenhouse gas measurement," says John Kadyszewski, Director of the American Carbon Registry. "Members of the Winrock team have been participants in the development of standards and methodologies for CDM and VCS, among others."

The American Carbon Registry and Winrock International not only boast three co-Nobel prize winners for their contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but also numerous co-authors of IPCC methodologies and leaders in clean energy, biofuels, methane capture, agriculture practices, nitrogen management, land use change, afforestation, reforestation, forest management and avoided deforestation.