Quote highlights from NACW 2016

May 8, 2016

As the nation’s longest running and most anticipated conference for discussing climate policy and carbon markets, Navigating the American Carbon World (NACW) has a well-established history of providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on these topics and serving as the best event for networking with colleagues from the business, government, nonprofit and academic sectors.

In its fourteenth consecutive year, NACW 2016 took a close look at domestic and international climate policy, carbon markets and green investments. Session topics included U.S. and North American climate policy, the road after Paris, the current status and future growth of California’s historic cap-and-trade program, other established and emerging carbon markets, state-level activity under the Clean Power Plan, green bonds, risk management strategies and other innovative environmental initiatives.

Below are some quote highlights from NACW 2016:

We try to integrate ESG throughout our thinking in the Treasurer’s office. We want better governance practices, we want better human rights practices, we want to be sensitive to climate change.
– Hon. John Chiang, State Treasurer, State of California
Climate action has made our economy more resilient, more innovative, and more competitive. California’s policies and our renewable energy innovators have helped to create a new global clean tech industry. Now in California, we have over a half million jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
– Hon. Kevin de León, President pro Tempore, California State Senate
We consider this to be a pause. No court has spoken to the substance of the Clean Power Plan and we are absolutely confident that it will withstand legal scrutiny. We have been so careful over the years at EPA during this administration to make sure our rules are squarely within our legal authorities and are founded on an absolutely solid factual record.
– Janet McCabe, Assistant Administrator, U.S. EPA
A lot of the practices that we can address to improving the productivity of our soils, forests, range, and pasture areas, are the exact same practices that help us adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
– Jason Weller, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service
We started to work as a North American bloc – that is a powerful idea – it was a powerful statement in Paris. And now it is a powerful vision of the future.
– Rodolfo Lacy, Undersecretary for Environmental Policy and Planning, Mexico Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources
There’s no pathway to a carbon neutral world or economy without a price a carbon.
– Glen Murray, Minister, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Ontario
We need to manage land for resilient carbon storage, and keep in mind the cobenefits that the land provides and co-manage for the co-benefits like watershed production, productive agriculture and forestry, sustainable communities, recreation, wildlife, habitat.
– Claire Jahns, Assistant Secretary, Natural Resources Climate Issues, California Natural Resources Agency
CA is looking at whether we can incorporate sector based emissions reductions. These are emissions reductions that could happen in foreign jurisdictions that come from an entire sector. The sector that is most ready for this right now is international forestry. And so we’ve been holding workshops that talk about REDD, a jurisdiction wide REDD model, how we can incorporate that, what kind of safeguards we would need to put in.
– Edie Chang, Deputy Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board
Subnational approaches are useful and necessary. California is truly a leader. I can speak from many years of experience in the electric power sector, there’s nothing in the US like the policies that CA has put together to attract investment and capital.
– Steve Corneli, Board Member, Climate Action Reserve
There is a risk for some issuers to issue green bonds that are not green. So that brings uncertainty to the market and it requires a better and clearer infrastructure.
– Jean-Philippe Brisson, Partner, Latham & Watkins, LLP
ARB has used the broad authority that AB32 gave it responsibly and effectively, and that’s provided a really solid foundation to defend against these lawsuits that have come along and future lawsuits that may come along.
– Erica Morehouse, Senior Attorney, Environmental Defense Fund
These markets don’t have the depth of an equities market with tons of participants. One person or entity can swing the market with a big move.
– Scott Hernandez, Head of Sales & Trading, North America, Carbon Trade Exchange
Generally if prices are low, that means either your program is doing really well in terms of reducing emissions or you might want to reconsider your ambition.
– Judith Schröter, Lead Analyst – US Carbon & Global Offsets, ICIS
ICAO evaluated different options: cap and trade, carbon offsets, pure carbon tax. And ultimately came to the conclusion collectively that a global carbon offset program would provide the most effective, administratively simple, cost-effective approach to meeting our carbon neutral growth goal through this market mechanism.
– Sean Newsum, Director, Environmental Strategy, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
We must never forget the voluntary sector has a critical role in creating the onramp to ARB bringing in new protocols.
– Sean Penrith, Executive Director, The Climate Trust
For offsets, the ceiling is the allowance price, the floor is zero. So the more offsets that are put out there, the more supply you get, the closer you get to 200 million, you run the risk of oversupply.
– Sean Carney, President, Finite Carbon
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