UNDERSTANDING EVOLVING CARBON MARKETS:HOW AGRICULTURE ‘FITS’

Debbie Reed

Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG)

June 17, 2010Washington, DCAgriculture & Carbon Markets: Making Carbon Count

Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG)

Multi-stakeholder initiative Seeks to advance agricultural GHG

mitigation solutions to benefit society, ag sector

Policy approaches to integrate GHG emissions abatement for ag with food/feed/fiber/fuel production and natural resource management

Incentive-based, market-based approaches that meet market demands, farming realities

Tap innovation, ingenuity

Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG)

C-AGG Report releaseApril, 2010 (V.1):

Carbon and Agriculture:Getting Measurable Results

www.c-agg.org

Agriculture’s Fit in C MarketsKey sector for political and technical path to

successful C mitigation programs Challenges:

Complexity of managed biological ecosystems Managing C and N cycles to retain nutrients MRV: balancing certainty, costs “Farming First”: Policies must balance

market, environmental assurances with ease of use, access: “farmer-friendly interface”

Agriculture’s Fit in C MarketsKey issues C-AGG has identified relative to

agricultural participation in C markets: Incentivizing and rewarding performance

(science-based) MRV: balancing certainty, costs

Ongoing data needs, R&D Permanence: durability, liability, fungibility

Managing risks of losses, reversals Of course: baselines, additionality,

leakage, metrics for measurement

Ag’s Access to C Markets

Key Issues to be Addressed: Match Climate Needs to Agricultural Realities, Needs

Policy Approaches: Certainty Demand/need – no false promises Economics/value – opportunities outweigh

costs Protocol development, road-tests Access, aggregation Opportunities across sector USDA institutional framework, development

C-AGG: future activities

Case studies: make issues “hang” Pilot projects – public/private

cooperation? Intensity-based metrics, approaches Scenarios for the future:

Caps? Voluntary Program Programmatic Approaches Other?

C-AGG: future activities

USDA, EPA, leg branch dialogue white papers scale, cost, risk

Outreach/communication

Joint C-AGG, T-AGG, M-AGG fall meeting