Western Climate Initiative

Last updated
Western Climate Initiative, Inc.
FormerlyWestern Regional Climate Action Initiative
Company type 501(c)(3) organization
FoundedFebruary 26, 2007;17 years ago (2007-02-26) in Washington, D.C., United States
(Reincorporated 2011)
Founders
Headquarters1107 Ninth Street, Suite 1070,
Sacramento, California
,
United States
Area served
 North America
Key people
Jason Hollett, Chair
Liane Randolph, Vice-Chair
Members
Website www.wci-inc.org

Western Climate Initiative, Inc. (WCI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation which administers the shared emissions trading market between the American state of California and the Canadian province of Quebec as well as separately administering the individual emissions trading systems in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and American state of Washington. It also provides administrative, technical and infrastructure services to support the implementation of cap-and-trade programs in other North American jurisdictions. The organization was originally founded in February 2007 by the governors of five western states with the goal of developing a multi-sector, market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it was incorporated in its current form in 2011. [1]

Contents

Structure

Since its reincorporation in 2011 as a non-profit corporation, WCI is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the participating jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction appoints two voting directors to the Board. [2]

PositionNameJurisdictionNotes
ChairJason HollettFlag of Nova Scotia.svg  Nova Scotia Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Environment and Climate Change
Vice-ChairLiane RandolphFlag of California.svg  California Chair, California Air Resources Board
TreasurerJean-Yves BenoitFlag of Quebec.svg  Quebec Director General of Carbon Regulation and Emissions Data, Ministry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change
SecretaryLilani KumaranayakeFlag of Nova Scotia.svg  Nova Scotia Executive Director of Fiscal Policy, Economics and Budgetary Planning, Department of Finance
Additional Voting DirectorsJared BlumenfeldFlag of California.svg  California Former Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency
Kim RicardFlag of Quebec.svg  Quebec Director of Carbon Market Division, Ministry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change
Laura WatsonFlag of Washington.svg  Washington Director, Washington State Department of Ecology
Luke MartlandFlag of Washington.svg  Washington Climate Commitment Act Implementation Manager, Washington State Department of Ecology

History

The Western Climate Initiative was founded as the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative on February 26, 2007, by the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. The founding agreement stated the goal of the WRCAI was to evaluate and implement ways to reduce their states's emissions of greenhouse gases and achieve related co-benefits. [3] These states and future participants in the initiative (collectively known as WCI "partners") also committed to set an overall regional goal to reduce emissions (set in August 2007 as 15 percent below 2005 emission levels by 2020), [4] participate in a cross-border greenhouse gas registry to consistently measure and track emissions, and adopt clean tailpipe standards for passenger vehicles. By July 2008, the initiative had expanded to include two more U.S. states (Montana and Utah) and four Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec). Together, these partners comprised 20 percent of the U.S. GDP and 76 percent of the Canadian GDP. [5]

Goals and design

The most ambitious and controversial objective of the WCI was to develop a multi-sector, market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Detailed design recommendations for a regional cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were released by the WCI in September 2008 and July 2010. [6] By December 2011, California and Quebec adopted regulations based on these recommendations. (The WCI has no regulatory authority of its own.) Key administrative aspects of the regional cap-and-trade program are being implemented in 2012. Power plants, refineries, and other large emitters must comply with the cap in 2013. Other greenhouse gas emission sources, such as suppliers of transportation fuels, must comply with the cap beginning in 2015. Among other things, the Western Climate Initiative lays the foundation for a North American cap-and-trade program, not only in its design and implementation, but in its potential acceptance of greenhouse gas emissions offsets from projects across North America.

Criticisms of WCI

Some observers[ who? ] described the entire project as greenwash designed to avoid committing to the Kyoto Protocol, and cited evidence that much more drastic cuts, up to 40%, could be achieved without affecting investment yield in equities, a good indicator that such cuts would not affect economic prospects in the economy as a whole. [7]

Partners vs. observers

Several U.S. partners, although active participants in the design of the program, announced in 2010 that they would either delay or not implement the program in their jurisdictions. The partnership was therefore streamlined to include only California and the four Canadian provinces actively working to implement the program. As of January 2012, regulations have not been issued by British Columbia, Manitoba, or Ontario, although a carbon tax in British Columbia will be increasing to $30/tonne of CO2 equivalents in July 2012. [8] Several WCI partners also remain active in the International Carbon Action Partnership, an international coordinating body for several such regional carbon trading bodies.

Alberta and Saskatchewan object to cap-and-trade and in July 2008 called WCI's plan a "cash grab by some of Canada's resource-poor provinces." [9] However, Alberta already had legislated its own emissions trading system for large emitters in 2007. The objections seem to be more related to the reporting and disclosure requirements that would be much higher for a North American project than for one based strictly in Alberta. Some of the states that withdrew by late 2011 also intended to develop oil shale, hydraulic fracturing of natural gas and coal resources that would have broad impacts beyond climate on water, including more ocean acidification.

Until late 2011, the initiative included two types of participants: partners and observers. [10]

For several years, the partners were the U.S. states of California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. All states except California and Quebec withdrew in 2011. See below: Membership changes.

The observers included at various times Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, Wyoming, the province of Saskatchewan (which objects to WCI plans for a cap and trade system [9] ), and the Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora and Tamaulipas.

Membership changes

As of December 2011, the remaining WCI partners were California and the Canadian provinces British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.

After British Columbia ceased participation in emissions trading in 2018, it remained a participating jurisdiction under WCI by-laws until amendments were made. [27] [28]

As of 2022, the participating WCI jurisdictions are the American states of California and Washington; and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Quebec.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF WESTERN CLIMATE INITIATIVE, INC" (PDF). Documents. Western Climate Initiative. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  2. ↑ "By-Laws of Western Climate Initiative, Inc" (PDF). Western Climate Initiative. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  3. ↑ "WCI Governors' Agreement".
  4. ↑ "Emission Reduction Goal Aug 2007".
  5. ↑ "WCI Brochure (May 2010)".
  6. ↑ "General Documents".
  7. ↑ Strasser, Kurt A. (1 January 2011). Myths and Realities of Business Environmentalism: Good Works, Good Business Or Greenwash?. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN   9780857933188 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Strategy, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. "British Columbia's Carbon Tax - Province of British Columbia". www2.gov.bc.ca.
  9. 1 2 3 "Ontario to sign cap-and-trade climate plan".
  10. ↑ "Western Climate Initiative Update" (PDF). California Climate Change Portal. 2007-08-07. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  11. 1 2 "Milestones".
  12. ↑ Premier, Office of the (24 April 2007). "B.C. JOINS WESTERN REGIONAL CLIMATE ACTION INITIATIVE".
  13. ↑ "Huntsman Signs Global Warming Pact". KSL-TV . 2007-05-21. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  14. ↑ Carr, Matthew (2007-06-13). "Manitoba to Join U.S. States in Program to Cut Carbon Emissions". Bloomberg News . Archived from the original on 2007-09-30.
  15. ↑ News-Miner, Fairbanks Daily. "404 Error".{{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  16. ↑ Bureau, MIKE DENNISON of the Missoulian State (20 November 2007). "Governor releases goals on emissions".{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  17. ↑ Québec, Services. "Communiqués diffusés le 24 april 2017 - Portail Québec".
  18. ↑ "Executive Order 2010-06, Governor's Policy on Climate Change" (PDF). www.azclimatechange.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-07-24.
  19. ↑ Roosevelt, Margot (30 June 2011). "California delays its carbon-trading program until 2013" – via LA Times.
  20. ↑ "Quebec Delays WCI Carbon Market Scheme". July 18, 2011.
  21. ↑ "Six US states leave the Western Climate Initiative" (November 18, 2011). S&P Global Platts. www.platts.com. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  22. ↑ "6 States Pull Out of Western Climate Initiative" (November 22, 2011). SustainableBusiness.com News. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  23. ↑ Jaccard, Mark; Dowlatabadi, Hadi (2011-06-09). "Six reasons to delay joining California's cap-and-trade program". Vancouver Sun . Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  24. ↑ Scotia, Communications Nova (May 11, 2018). "Nova Scotia Joins Western Climate Initiative Inc". News Releases.
  25. ↑ Scotia, Communications Nova (October 20, 2014). "Government of Nova Scotia". climatechange.novascotia.ca.
  26. ↑ "Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018". Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
  27. ↑ "Minutes of the Board of Directors - Friday, February 9, 2018" (PDF). Western Climate Initiative. Mr. Rodriquez commented that while Mr. Lesiuk has resigned from the Board, British Columbia remains a Participating Jurisdiction and may choose to appoint new directors or participate more actively in the future.
  28. ↑ "By-Laws of Western Climate Initiative, Inc" (PDF). October 26, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2022. List of Western Climate Initiative, Inc's participating jurisdictions. Last updated March 23, 2020.
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