Over 100 Million Tonnes of Carbon Offset Credits
PROJECT NAME: American Carbon Registry (ACR)
SYNOPSIS: Develops transparent, science-based methodologies to incentivize carbon
reductions in agriculture, transportation and other industries.
YEARS ACTIVE: 1996-present
FUNDER: USAID
In August 2017, the American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, announced that it has issued more than 100 million tonnes of carbon offset credits — the equivalent of taking over 21 million cars off the road for a year. Each credit represents a metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) removed from the atmosphere.
“We are very excited by this milestone, which shows we are successfully harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment,” said John Kadyszewski, ACR Director. “We aim to enhance market confidence and to catalyze transformational emissions reductions through the development of innovative methods to measure, report and verify GHG emissions reductions in sectors such as agriculture, land use and forestry, high global warming potential refrigerants, transportation and energy. We hope better methods and metrics can increase private sector investment and ambition so
we can surpass targets set under the Paris Agreement.”
The high-quality, serialized credits arefrom a wide range of voluntary and California-regulated carbon market projects, including reforestation, forest management, avoided conversion of forests, destruction of ozone-depleting substances, mine methane capture, advanced refrigeration systems, transportation fleet efficiency, livestock manure management, avoided conversion of grasslands, rice cultivation, advanced formulation foam-blowing agents, landfill gas capture, industrial processes and renewable energy. Voluntary credits can be retired by corporations or individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, while California market credits can be used by regulated entities in the state and in linked jurisdictions such as Quebec toward their emissions reduction obligation.
ACR, the first private, voluntary greenhouse gas registry in the world, was founded in 1996 and joined Winrock in 2007 to help Winrock fulfill its mission to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources. Winrock believes that climate change will
have a profound impact on the poorest populations around the world and that markets are the quickest and most effective path to mobilize actions to reduce emissions.