Navigating the American Carbon Market

Gary Gero is president of Climate Action Reserve, an LA-based nonprofit that has drafted four protocols adopted by CARB to evaluate businesses seeking to sell carbon offsets in California’s newly established cap-and-trade program. In advance of Climate Reserve’s 11th annual “Navigating the American Carbon World” conference, held in San Francisco April 16-18, Gero provides The Planning Report with a comprehensive look at the role of offsets in the carbon market, from how they are created and measured, to their ability to boost both profits and employment.

Gero additionally details the framework through which the public may measure the success of the cap-and-trade program, noting that a successful program works by, "setting a price on carbon that actually motivates the reduction of emissions—because the ultimate goal of the program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—but does so in a way that is protective of our economy and that actually helps build toward a new cleaner economy."