The Canadian province's greenhouse gas emissions reduction program, the only one in Canada, currently allows industrial emitters to purchase offset credits from other sectors. This includes certain agricultural sectors that have voluntarily reduced their emissions level in Alberta. Farmers who meet the requirements under various protocols can sell their credits once they have complied with the quantification and verification rules for different types of qualifying projects, such as zero or reduced tillage.
Alberta Environment recently announced important changes to the system which will affect farmers and aggregators.
Farmers will now have until March 31, 2012 to ensure retroactive credits earned from 2002 to 2011 are verified and entered into the registry for sale.
As of January 1, 2012 the system will move to “go forward” credits which will now be verified to a higher standard of reasonable assurance, similar to that of a full financial audit. Once the “go forward” system commences farmers can expect aggregators to require more verification procedures to meet the new tests.
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