28 May 2009 — The Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI) Global Climate Research program recently released the paper, "Key Issues in Designing Mechanisms for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. "  Natsource prepared the paper as background for a workshop held by EPRI on May 13, 2009 in Washington D.C. This workshop was the fifth in a series sponsored by EPRI in 2008 and 2009 focused on the design of a carbon offset program that could be incorporated into a U.S. cap-and-trade program. Participants in the workshops include experts from the industrial, energy and financial sectors, environmental organizations and government.

Natsource has worked with EPRI to facilitate each of the workshops in this series. In their capacity, Natsource develops the agenda for each meeting, secures the participants and speakers for each workshop, facilitates the meeting, and prepares background papers to educate workshop participants on the issues that will be discussed.

Workshops 1-3 during 2008 focused on benefits and risks associated with offset projects based upon experience drawn from existing offset programs, such as the Clean Development Mechanism. Natsource worked with EPRI to publish a technical update report to distribute the findings of these workshops.  Workshop 4, held in February 2009, focused on offset projects in the agriculture and forestry sectors. The most recent workshop focused on forestry offsets from reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in the international climate change negotiations.

The background papers and findings of each workshop to date are available to download at:
http://globalclimate.epri.com/Greenhouse_Gas_Emissions_Offsets.html

For additional information on EPRI's Climate Program, please visit www.epri.com/globalclimate