After exploring some of the key questions in Waxman-Markey’s tropical conservation provisions here, Andrew teamed with RFF’s Nigel Purvis and Ray Kopp to write this issue brief proposing the creation of a new U.S. regulatory entity to the administration of international forest carbon offset program.
According to authors, “Existing federal agencies are ill‐equipped to manage new programs in ways that produce genuine climate change benefits, reduce the cost of climate action for the United States, and advance other foreign policy objectives, including poverty alleviation and economic development.”
The authors recommend the creation of a new entity— International Forest Conservation Corporation—to take on the following functions:
- Negotiate and monitor bilateral agreements with developing nations
- Build capacity and market-readiness in developing nations to prepare countries to participate in global carbon markets
- Verify benefits for local people and environmental integrity
- Serve as financial intermediary to negotiate prices and purchase verified emissions reductions
- Monitor volume of offsets to lessen price volatility and maintain market price signals that drive innovation
Read Purvis, Kopp, and Stevenson’s Managing Climate-Related International Forest Programs.
