None The Nature Conservancy in California Press Releases Search All Press Releases Jordan Peavey Phone: (415) 281-0492 E-mail: jpeavey@tnc.org Louis Blumberg Phone: (415) 271-3749

The Nature Conservancy Applauds California Air Resources Board Action to Address Climate Change

Endorsement of Forest Protocols Will Spur Critical Emission Reductions and Provide Important Environmental and Economic Benefits

Sacramento, Calif. — October 25, 2007 — The Nature Conservancy commends the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and its chair, Mary Nichols, for taking historic, significant measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change.

In particular, The Nature Conservancy applauds the state for adopting California Climate Action Registry’s (CCAR) forest protocols. This vote creates a foundation to spur more voluntary projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase forest conservation and positions California at the forefront of an emerging new economic market.

“By adopting these forest protocols the Air Resources Board has hit a grand slam for California,” said Mike Sweeney, executive director of the California chapter of The Nature Conservancy. “It advances our efforts to mitigate climate change, helps preserve our native forests, positions our forest owners to be successful in the marketplace and maintains the state’s leadership on this critical issue.”

CARB’s decision represents important progress on four fronts:

• It adds credibility and economic value to forest carbon projects in California, providing certainty to an emerging carbon market and increasing incentives for landowners to participate in voluntary projects.
• These “gold standard” protocols ensure that projects attain real reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and provide other public benefits such as clean water and wildlife habitat.
• It allows CARB to confidently track and report on progress toward meeting the emission levels mandated by Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
• It positions California as a leader in sustainable forestry and the growing global carbon market, a market that is estimated to exceed $40 billion in revenue this year.

Deforestation currently contributes to 20 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. In California, carbon dioxide is emitted from the 35,000 acres of forests lost annually to other uses, such as development.

“Losing our forests is a significant part of the climate change problem. Today, California is recognizing forests also need to be a significant part of the solution,” said Louis Blumberg, director, California forest and climate policy for The Nature Conservancy. “We hope California’s decision will send a signal to the U.S. Congress and the international negotiators at the upcoming United Nations climate change conference in December that methods exist for reliably accounting for forest carbon – that forest carbon projects are a viable strategy for addressing climate change.”

With this vote California becomes the first state to adopt emissions reductions standards that incorporate the natural climate benefits of forests. The CCAR Forest Protocols, developed through an extensive public process, are the most rigorous set of standards for forest greenhouse gas reduction projects in the world. Credits certified under these standards have a higher market value and provide assurance to Californians, the rest of America and the international community that emission reductions from forests are permanent, measurable, verifiable and economically valuable.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 1.2 million acres of land and 3.8 million acres of ocean in California. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.