The Climate Registry

One day, reporting greenhouse gas emissions will be the law of the land.

Until then, more than 270 North American organizations have already agreed to report their emissions—voluntarily.

Credit: ©Lilli Day, iStockphoto.com

Those organizations—including corporate, nonprofit, and government entities—are part of The Climate Registry.

Formed in March 2007, the nonprofit registry was created to develop a standard system for calculating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions for all of North America.

Greenhouse gases (GHG) contribute to global warming and are released through the burning of fossil fuels and other agricultural and industrial activities.

The Registry was designed to give organizations that want to report their emissions a consistent, verifiable, and transparent way to do it, said Justin Bilow, a Climate Registry representative.

“A small number of regional registries with varying standards existed before The Climate Registry formed. The Climate Registry has built upon the rigor, transparency, and voluntary nature of these registries to provide common, complete, and accurate GHG inventory reporting standards for all of North America,” Bilow said.

One of those regional registries is the California Climate Action Registry (California Registry), a voluntary GHG registry that provides emissions inventories for organizations with operations in California.

Organizations that report to the California Registry are being encouraged to make the switch to The Climate Registry, allowing the California Registry to focus on emissions reduction programs and on becoming a regional climate change think tank.

The Climate Registry is governed by its members, made of U.S. states, Mexican states, Canadian provinces, and Indian tribes (see map). The reporters are the individual organizations—such as utility companies, consulting firms, and universities—who agree to inventory, calculate, and publicly report their annual GHG emissions.

“Our goal is to involve every large business and utility in North America,” Bilow said.

Once a company becomes a reporter, it agrees to meet The Registry’s following requirements:

• calculate GHG emissions from all North American operations
• report emissions using The Climate Registry Information System, an online tool that will grant public access to emissions reports starting in 2009
• verify emissions calculations with a certified third party

Companies must report 2008 emissions by June 30, 2009 and have them verified by Dec. 15, 2009.

Participation Motivation

Many companies join The Registry as a way to demonstrate their environmental leadership, Bilow said.

Tucson Electric Power (TEP), Arizona’s third largest electric utility, is one such company. “We hope it shows our company’s commitment to responsible environmental stewardship,” said TEP spokesman Joe Salkowski.

For businesses looking to develop an emissions reduction plan, discovering what their emissions are and how much they are emitting is a necessity, Bilow said.

Companies are also joining as a way to prepare for the future.

“Managing carbon emissions and tracking those emissions is going to be part of our future. We want to work to come up with a standard that works properly,” Salkowski said.

“We hope The Climate Registry will achieve uniform reporting that could serve as a baseline for any future government actions,” he added.

Cap-and-Trade

That hope is coming to pass, as the Climate Registry’s work will play a role in the creation of a mandatory cap-and-trade program by the Western Climate Initiative (WCI).

The WCI is a collaboration of governors from seven U.S. states—Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—and four Canadian provinces working to curb climate change.

The WCI’s cap-and-trade system would set a limit on carbon dioxide emissions in the participating regions and give regulated entities access to a market where they can buy or trade permits to pollute.

While there are several major greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide gets the most credit for advancing man-made global warming. In 2006, carbon dioxide accounted for 82 percent of all GHG emissions in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration.

By 2020, the WCI hopes that participating states and provinces will have reduced GHG emissions to 15 percent lower than they were in 2005.

To achieve that goal, baseline emissions and emission reductions must be reported. That’s where the registry comes in.

“We are working with the folks from The Climate Registry to make sure our reporting rules are adequate,” said Sandra Ely, Environment and Energy Policy Coordinator for the New Mexico Environment Department.

Because The Climate Registry’s program is voluntary, the protocols can’t simply be adopted into the WCI’s mandatory program.

One problem with taking on The Climate Registry’s protocols deals with third party verification. The Climate Registry is currently designed for voluntary reporting and requires a certified third party to check reporters’ emissions inventories to ensure accuracy.

Those third party verifiers may not be needed under the WCI’s cap-and-trade program.

“If we have these agencies with enforcement authority, do we still need to have a third party verifier? We could treat the data requirements for GHG emissions just other regulated pollutants under the Clean Air Act. That’s something we’re still wrestling with,” Ely said.

The voluntary language used in the Climate Registry’s protocols will also have to be adjusted to fit in with the mandatory program, she said.

“We are all committed to creating consistent reporting rules,” Ely said. “We’ll continue to work to make sure that happens.”