Climate Change has emerged over the last several years as a major issue for many of IIEC’s traditional constituency.  Multilateral and bilateral donors and AID agencies, multilateral development banks (MDBs), utilities, foundations, and countries see not only the need for action on this issue, but also the opportunity that some of the emerging international mechanisms may bring to sustainable energy and infrastructure projects.  This opportunity for many of our clients (local entities, not necessarily funders) is represented by the potential financial infusion that climate offset trading can bring.  Many are motivated by higher policy goals, but at the end of the day, most are focusing on the potential for recurring income or for one-time buy-downs that come from the carbon trade.  IIEC has undertaken several projects on behalf of a variety of funders that attempt to develop either policies, programs or projects (and sometimes all three) that create, monitor, verify and even trade carbon offsets.  We provide three types of services.

Offset Project Evaluation

IIEC has performed several assessments of leading edge projects that can lead to the generation of carbon dioxide offsets.  In the nineties, IIEC performed one of the first assessments on a wind power site in the Latin America.  Recently, IIEC worked with the US Department of Energy’s Joint Implementation Program to assess the potential for two municipal applications in India and Thailand.  IIEC is currently evaluating the tremendous potential for efficiency improvements in the electricity distribution systems in India and the related carbon offset benefits that may follow.

The Climate Legacy Project

One of the critical issues at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was the impact of climate change on the global environment and its disproportionate impact on the poor.  There was an enormous irony in discussing this at the WSSD in that merely holding the summit was adding a predicted 300,000 to the GHG problem.  Therein was the seed for a program to have the Summit be climate neutral through a program called the Johannesburg Climate Legacy (JCL).

The next issue for summit organizers and participants came from the desire not to leave the summit with only documents and promises – but instead to create some real legacies of it for local people.  The combination of these two pressures created the incentive for the Climate Legacy Program – an attempt to link the need to offset carbon dioxide tons, with the energy development needs of local enterprises.  IIEC worked with a number of other groups to create the JCL to link the potential funding from delegates and donors (at a value of $10/ton) with a portfolio of projects vetted in SA for their carbon offset impact as well as their sustainable development impact. An enormous amount of time and effort was spent on engaging stakeholders, developing processes, evaluating projects, creating monitoring and verification protocols, and engaging in education and fund raising activities.  IIEC is currently undertaking the monitoring and verification of the first South African projects being implemented. While a number of lessons were learnt in implementing the JCL, such as the need for marketing, IIEC has developed three models for extending the Climate Legacy idea worldwide.

·        The Climate Legacy for Events: Under this method, the process of the JCL would be repeated for specific events. Through engagement with the event sponsor, there would be early adoption of the CL process and commitment to fund, either directly or through participant contribution, the implementation of local carbon offsetting energy projects.  IIEC works with local entities to transfer the process and leave not only a legacy of projects, but also a process legacy.  One such event would be the next COP meeting, or the International Parks Conference.

·        Climate Legacy for Cities: Under this system, two options are possible: The simplest is to work with a given city to help it achieve functional carbon offset through implementation of local sustainable energy projects. Offsets generated could be used to retire their own requirements or could be traded to provide additional funding for local programs.  This could be done in a developed or developing country.  The likely partner would be ICLEI and their Cities for Climate Protection program.  The second might be to pair developed and underdeveloped cities and to transfer know-how and funds from the former to latter in order to implement sustainable energy projects. Offsets generated could be transferred to the developed city to satisfy requirements or could be traded to generate funds for additional projects.

·        Climate Legacy for Transportation:  Under this concept, transportation industry members (airlines, travel agencies, etc) could commit to channeling portion of their proceeds to a fund for CL projects.  This could be done as either a check off on a ticket purchase (much as hotels do now), or through gross allocation of funds based on total estimated tons of CO2.  This fund would then find and develop legacy projects in the countries that they serve, working through local NGOs and private sector entities to build capacity and generate new projects.