New York landfill becomes first carbon reduction project to earn credits outside of California

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Climate Action Reserve, CCAR’s premiere carbon offset registry for the US carbon market, announced that it has issued its first carbon credits for a project located outside of California. These credits, known as Climate Reserve Tonnes (CRT), also represent the first to be issued under the Climate Action Reserve’s Landfill Project Reporting Protocol. This is a milestone expansion of its program of credits, which meet the highest standards for quality and integrity.

The credits were issued to the Development Authority of the North County (DANC) Landfill Gas Destruction Project. The project, located in Rodman, New York, is a sanitary landfill that combusts and generates electricity from food waste, garden and park waste, wood, paper and textiles, plastics, concrete, metal and other inert waste. Detailed information regarding the project is available on the Climate Action Reserve website.

“We are pleased to see the Reserve has issued credits to the DANC landfill project,”

said Ron Luhur, Carbon Markets Specialist for Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

“After rigorously reviewing more than 70 projects against our quality criteria for credible offsets, the DANC is one of 11 projects featured on CarbonOffsetList.org, EDF’s independent guide to credible offset projects. These selected projects were reviewed by a committee of independent experts and thought leaders in science, engineering and public policy.”

The DANC Landfill Gas Destruction Project qualifies for CRTs under the Landfill Project Reporting Protocol, which provides guidance to quantify and report GHG emission reductions associated with installing a landfill gas collection and destruction system at landfill operations. Like all of the Climate Action Reserve’s protocols, the Landfill Project Reporting Protocol was developed through a thorough, transparent process and upholds its projects to the highest standards. The quality and credibility of the protocol help influence CRTs’ high market selling prices.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the first CRTs issued both outside of California and under the Landfill Project Reporting Protocol. The DANC project represents the first of many upcoming projects that are going to expand the Reserve’s geographic reach and influence on a wide variety of high-quality, environmentally-sound carbon reduction projects,”

said Linda Adams, Chair of the CCAR Board of Directors and Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

“The project also represents a significant achievement toward our goal of 1.5 million real, permanent, and additional credits issued within the Reserve’s first year of operation.”

The Climate Action Reserve is a program of the California Climate Action Registry that provides accurate and transparent measurement, verification and tracking of greenhouse gas reduction projects and their inventories of Climate Reserve Tonnes (CRTs), assuring a high degree of environmental integrity in the voluntary carbon reduction market. For additional information, please visit http://www.caclimateregistry.org/reserve.

The California Climate Action Registry is a private nonprofit organization committed to solving climate change through emissions reporting and reduction. It serves as a voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) registry for entity-wide emission inventories and also establishes protocols for GHG emission reduction (offset) projects through its Climate Action Reserve program. The protocols are created through a rigorous, transparent process and are widely regarded as among the highest quality standards for offset projects. The Climate Action Reserve also accredits and oversees independent verifiers and tracks the transactions of project offset inventories, adding confidence and credibility to the voluntary carbon market. The accuracy, transparency and integrity of all of the California Registry’s standards have earned it the reputation as a respected and internationally recognized leader in climate change issues.

The California Climate Action Registry was originally formed by the State of California in 2001 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. For additional information, please visit www.caclimateregistry.org.