Overview Webinar Grassland Project Protocol V2.0 February 24, 2017 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Overview Webinar

Grassland Project Protocol V2.0 February 24, 2017

This material is based upon work supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under number 69-3A75-16-025

Agenda

• 1. Background
• 2. Presentation of v2.0 updates
• 3. Registry software updates
• 4. Audience questions

BACKGROUND

Section 1

Climate Action Reserve

• 501(c)3 nonprofit, founded in 2001
• Voluntary offset registry, and approved Offset

Project Registry for CARB

• Adopted 18 offset project protocols in the US

and Mexico

• More than 87M credits issued to voluntary and

compliance offset projects

Background

• July 22, 2015: GPP v1.0 adopted
• September 2015: Awarded USDA NRCS Conservation

Innovation Grant for outreach, implementation, pilot projects, and protocol update

• Spring 2016: Released Project Development Handbook,

conducted stakeholder outreach

• July 2016: Listed 2 pilot projects in Colorado
• September 2016: Initiated protocol update
• January 2017: GPP v2.0 Adopted by Reserve Board

[hold for project map]

GPP overview

• Avoided conversion of grassland to cropland
• Eligibility:

– Financial threshold as proxy for conversion pressure – Suitability threshold to limit projects to arable land

• Quantification:

– Baseline avoided loss of soil C, as well as emissions from cultivation – Project emissions from grazing, compost, fuels, etc. – Calculation tool is provided by the Reserve

GPP overview (con’t)

• Permanence ensured through conservation

easement, or transfer to federal ownership

• Project area must be grassland for at least 10

years prior to the project

• Verification can be conducted remotely
• Multiple projects can be managed together as a

“Cooperative”

• Flexible verification schedules
• Crediting period is up to 50 years

UPDATES FROM V1.0 TO V2.0

Section 2

GPP v2.0 highlights

Major changes in bold

• Allow for irrigation of project area
• New start date option
• New options for suitability threshold
• New ecosystem health assessments
• Removed accounting for shrubs
• Reduced buffer pool contribution for accredited

land trusts

• Updated soil texture class names
• Minor language improvements

Terminology change

“Project Developer” is now “Project Owner”

• GPP v1.0 used “Project Developer” as a legal

term, referring to the entity with ownership of the GHG emission reductions

• v1.0 usage caused confusion among users
• “Project Owner” has the same definition

Irrigation allowed in project

Irrigation now allowed during project

• GPP v1.0 prohibits irrigation of the project area
• Stakeholders suggested that moderate irrigation can

improve rangeland health without significant drawbacks

• v2.0 allows for irrigation

– Any increases in electricity emissions related to pumping must be accounted for – Also need to account for N2O emissions from leaching, volatilization, and run-off

New start date option

New option allows project submittal to define start date

– Very common approach for forestry – Project is “submitted” when the form is uploaded and the “submit” button is clicked in the registry software

• Only applicable before the project easement is recorded
• Easement must still be in place prior to completion of

initial verification

• Simplifies cooperative management

– Submit all cooperative projects at once and they will all have the same start date

Suitability threshold options updated

Replaced national default with two options:

– Option 1: Default value by Major Land Resource Area – Option 2: Local assessment

• Stakeholder feedback that national default was too restrictive for some

areas

• Staff analysis concluded that national default was too low for some

areas and too high for others

• Staff conducted GIS analysis of the Land Capability Classification of

existing cropland, controlling for irrigation

• Non-irrigated threshold by default
• Irrigated threshold available if project can prove access to irrigation in

the baseline

91% 94% 50% 80% 50% 93% 86% 97% 90% 91% 92% 93% 95% 89% 50% 84% 86% 93% 52% 87% 94% 67% 87% 95% 97% 90% 91% 84% 95% 88% 89% 93% 75% 76% 86% 90% 90% 60% 74% 78% 50% 92% 93% 92% 92% 83% 93% 92% 98% 61% 78% 93% 94% 93% 85% 87% 96% 98% 95% 98% 98% 96% 97% 94% 86% 58% 90% 82% 84% 84% 94% 98% 82% 92% 89% 92% 97% 74% 93% 91% 90% 67% 84% 97% 83% 97% 91% 92% 50% 92% 77% 97% 88% 85% 97% 94% 92% 91% 50% 50% 94% 91% 82% 95% 93% 96% 87% 50% 77% 94% 83% 63% 98% 85% 75% 85% 87% 90% 97% 89% 90% 78% 95% 61% 99% 93% 97% 97% 73% 98% 85% 70% 90% 98% 94% 63% 94% 91% 85% 98% 98% 80% 97% 50% 88% 83% 90% 96% 93% 89% 90% 93% 86% 94% 88% 85% 94% 92% 93% 90% 83% 89% 85% 98% 91% 77% 85% 96% 78% 93% 88% 83% 93% 98% 93% 85% 83% 78% 78% 86% 78% 90% 93% 93% 66% 78% 85% 83% 94% 66% 94% 94% 66% 94% 94% 66% 78% 77% 66% 66%

Non-irrigated results

Irrigated results

99% 95% 97% 97% 97% 97% 99% 99% 78% 98% 97% 96% 93% 95% 99% 97% 94% 97% 99% 99% 94% 96% 97% 98% 96% 93% 95% 87% 88% 99% 93% 73% 95% 96% 94% 75% 99% 97% 94% 87% 98% 75% 96% 92% 87% 95% 75% 99% 95% 99% 73% 97% 99% 95% 92% 95% 99% 99% 97% 99% 99% 99% 95% 99% 99% 99% 99% 73% 99% 99%

Ecosystem health assessments

Periodic ecosystem health assessments now required for eligibility

– Follow the BLM Rangeland Health Assessment protocol – Assessments at least every 6 years – Seriously degraded lands must show improvement

• Allows for a long-term view of the health of the project

area, ensuring stability of belowground carbon pools

• Can help identify non-event-related reversals
• Assessment can be completed with minimal training and
• nly a few hours of site activity

https://jornada.nmsu.edu/monit-assess/manuals/assessment

Rangeland Health Assessment protocol

• Ecological Site Description for reference

conditions for 17 different metrics

• Assess each metric on a scale of deviation
• Adaptive management to

improve degraded areas

• Ineligible for reporting period if

condition worsened over time for avoidable reasons

https://jornada.nmsu.edu/monit-assess/manuals/assessment

None to slight Slight to moderate Moderate Moderate to extreme Extreme

Accounting for shrubs removed

Woody shrubs removed from v2.0 quantification

• Optional pool in GPP v1.0
• GPP v1.0 does not properly account for shrubs in

the context of fire and reversals

• Over two years of outreach, zero stakeholders

have expressed interest in accounting for shrubs

• Adds significant effort and complexity to

quantification and verification

• Could be re-worked and added back in the future

Risk of financial failure updated

Buffer pool contribution updated: RiskFF = 0% where the Project Owner is accredited land trust

• V1.0 applies 10% RiskFF for projects without the

Recorded PIA, subordination clause Type I

• Land Trust Accreditation Commission requires

proof of financial resources to support the easement into the future, including legal costs

• Accredited land trusts can, categorically, be

viewed as a stable counterparties for the PIA

• V2.0 applies 0% risk to these organizations

Soil texture class names updated

Renamed the three soil texture classes

• V1.0 names can be confusing with the various

qualifiers used in the soil survey

– E.g., “Sandy loam” = “Sand”

• Recommended by contractors

GPP v1.0 GPP v2.0 Sand = Coarse Loam = Medium Clay = Fine

REGISTRY SOFTWARE UPDATES

Section 3

Registry software updates

• New account type: “Project Owner” (PO)

– Used by Cooperative participants who are the “Project Owner” as defined in the protocol

• Reduced fee
• Limited functionality

– Cooperative Developers use “Project Developer” account type

• Cooperative developer submits and manages projects

– Cooperative ID assigned by the Reserve Administrator – Selects a PO for each project – CRTs will be issued to the PO by automatic forward transfer

• Common buffer pool among project types

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

Section 4

Thank you!

Join us at the following events: Contact: max@climateactionreserve.org (213) 785-1233

Event Location Date

Navigating the American Carbon World

San Francisco, CA April 19-21

Northwest Grazing Conference

Pendleton, OR May 10-11

Montana Grassland Workshop

TBD, MT TBD (summer)