On September 14, 2018, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued for public comment the proposed California Tropical Forest Standard. The proposed standard is not an attempt to address a future in which global warming has changed California’s redwood forests into tropical jungles; rather it is intended to allow reductions in carbon emissions from mitigation of rain forest deforestation in tropical countries to be linked with California’s cap-and-trade program.
California is already well-known for its influence on culture, economics and politics outside its borders. Here in Utah we sometimes feel like we are really just a big county in eastern California. Even outer space is not insulated from California. As the Global Climate Action Summit wound down in San Francisco last week, Governor Brown announced that California would send its own satellite into orbit to track and monitor pollutants. You can’t get more outside of California than that.
The proposed standard consists of detailed criteria for tropical forest credits and is accompanied by a 185-page draft environmental analysis prepared by CARB under the California Environmental Quality Act. The proposal is issued under CARB’s cap-and-trade program rules, which authorize CARB to consider reductions originating in developing countries or “subnational jurisdictions” (e.g., provinces or states) within those countries.
The proposed standard would require the jurisdiction seeking to link its emission reduction program with the California program to develop a “sector plan” demonstrating that the program was developed through a robust, transparent, and participatory process. The sector plan would detail the legal, policy and program tools used to reduce emissions; procedures for monitoring, reporting and verification of reductions; and provisions to avoid double-counting of reductions with any other program. The proposal also provides for establishing baseline emission levels, avoiding leakage, securing third-party verification, involving and protecting indigenous communities, and other elements designed to ensure that the reductions are robust and permanent.
The proposal does not include a mechanism for linking tropical forest credits to the California system; rather it is simply a proposal for standards for the credits which, after additional rulemaking by CARB, would be eligible for inclusion in the cap-and-trade program.
Carbon emissions released from tropical forest deforestation and degradation account for about one-fifth of carbon emissions across the globe. The president and Congress have been unwilling to address the issue. California has stepped into the breach.
Perhaps living in eastern California is not such a bad thing, after all.