EcoSecurities to Retire Offsets to Mitigate Emissions Associated With Governor Schwarzenegger’s Global Climate Change Summit Nov 18-19th

EcoSecurities, a world leader in sourcing, developing, and selling offsets from emission reduction projects, has agreed to donate voluntary carbon offsets from its portfolio to mitigate the emissions associated with Governor Schwarzenegger’s Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills on November 18^th and 19^th.

Sonia Medina, EcoSecurities US Country Director said "EcoSecurities is very pleased to participate in the Governor’s summit and to use some of our portfolio to help offset the emissions generated by bringing these world leaders to California. As a global firm involved in emission reduction projects across many technologies and countries, we appreciate Governor Schwarzenegger’s recognition that both global and local efforts are needed in the climate change fight.”

UC Berkeley will estimate the conference’s footprint to determine the quantity of offsets required from EcoSecurities to ensure the event is carbon neutral. CalEPA has also been working closely with the conference organizers to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the event and to minimize the need for offsetting as much as possible, for example, by encouraging composting and recycling, and sourcing local, organic, recycled, and biodegradable goods which tend to have a lower carbon footprint.

The Verified Emission Reduction (VER) credits being used to offset the event were selected to highlight high quality projects with geographic and technological diversity. The portfolio’s breadth is intended to honor the visiting developing country representatives, as well as to highlight the first two agricultural methane projects listed by the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) under its Livestock Project Reporting Protocol.

The donated VERs have been or are in the process of being registered with and verified to the VCS or CCAR standards¹. All the international projects have also been registered with the United Nation’s CDM Executive Board, so in addition to meeting the vigorous requirements of the voluntary standards, these projects have met the rigorous requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.

"We commend EcoSecurities for ensuring emissions from the Governor’s Global Climate Summit are truly balanced. By only using credible reduction projects that meet requirements for additionality, transparency and integrity, they are bringing real benefit to the environment and actions to address climate change,” said Gary Gero, President of the California Climate Action Registry. "Additionally, we are very pleased that EcoSecurities is investing in livestock projects using our protocols for these offsets. Once these projects are officially verified and registered through our Climate Action Reserve program, they will be the first livestock projects to be issued Reserve carbon credits, Climate Reserve Tonnes.”

In addition to the rigorous third party review all the projects underwent for approval, CalEPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have also vetted all the project credits EcoSecurities will be providing to offset the conference, to ensure they meet the Governor and the State’s high standards for quality.

In an effort to promote transparency and education, EcoSecurities’ staff will also be present at the event to discuss the projects that generated the carbon offsets used to neutralize the emissions associated with the Governor’s Summit.

Editor’s Notes:

About EcoSecurities: Established in 1997, EcoSecurities is one of the world’s leading companies in the business of sourcing, developing and trading carbon credits. EcoSecurities structures and guides greenhouse gas emission reduction projects from beginning to end, working with both project owners/developers and with buyers of carbon credits.

EcoSecurities has been involved in the development of many of the global carbon market’s most important milestones, including developing the world’s first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project to be registered under the Kyoto Protocol.

In 2007, EcoSecurities was voted ‘Best CDM/JI Project Developer – Kyoto Project Credits’ by readers of Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance magazines, alongside the award for ‘Best Advisory – Kyoto Project Credits’ for the seventh year in a row. At the end of 2007, CNBC European Business Magazine ranked EcoSecurities 22 in their ‘Top 100 Low Carbon Pioneers’ list. EcoSecurities was also recognized as one of the top 30 offset providers in the world by the Environmental Data Services (ENDs) 2008 Guide to Carbon Offsets.

EcoSecurities’ Global Consulting Services has provided expert climate change advisory services to more than 500 clients in the public and private sectors, as well as many UN agencies, NGOs and governments.

More complete information about EcoSecurities is available online at www.ecosecurities.com.

Carbon Standard VERs: The VCS project validation and verification process is modeled after the Clean Development Mechanism, a UN approved mechanism that allows industrialized countries to invest in emission reduction projects in developing countries to stimulate sustainable development and emissions reductions while giving regulated emitters industrialized countries some flexibility in meeting their emission reduction obligations. VCS projects must be verified by Designated Operational Entities (DOE’s), auditors that are accredited by the UN to ensure that emissions reductions are real, permanent and additional.

VER+: The VER Plus (VER+) is a full-fledged carbon offset standard that closely follows the Kyoto Protocol’s project-based mechanisms (CDM and JI). The VER+ standard was developed by TÜV SÜD, a Designated Operational Entity (DOE).

CDM VERs: Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) VERs” or "pre-registration VERs,” originate from projects that have been registered by the United Nations Executive Board under the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol, widely recognized as the most rigorous standard in the industry. These VERs have been verified by UN approved verifiers like Den Norske Veritas and TUV SUD according to the methodologies of the CDM standard. The VERs represent the emission reductions that occurred between the time that each project became operational and the time it received CDM registration. They were underwritten by EcoSecurities, a leading aggregator of project based emission reductions.

¹ Please see Editor’s Notes for more information on these standards.