BRE FB31 PDF

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This research, commissioned by BRE Trust, responds to strong demand from BRE clients, donors to PURE (THE Clean Planet Trust) and others for a way to fund project based emission reduction projects in the UK in the absence of a recognized mechanism that will generate carbon credits from such projects. The research has:

• Surveyed potential sources of supply and demand for such emission reductions.

• Examined the regulatory hurdles that need to be overcome to put such a mechanism in place.

The majority of companies that were interviewed are engaged, or planning to engage, in offsetting and expressed a strong preference for supporting UK-based carbon reduction projects for at least part of their overall portfolio of projects. The degree to which they wish to switch from international offsets to supporting UK-based projects strongly correlated with the degree to which their customer based and supply chain is UK-based.

This preference was so strong that several companies stated that, if carbon reductions from UK-based projects are not priced competitively against international offsets, they would be prepared to drop the requirements f or a one-to-one match between emission reductions supported and the volume of emissions from the activity to be offset. Their key requirements for the support of UK-based projects is the creation of a standard that has:

• Widespread adoption

• Endorsement by an environmental organization recognized by their customers