California Air Resources Board
Future Perfect Partnering with California Air Resources Board (CARB)
In the winter of 2008, Future Perfect (FP) began collaborating with the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The advent of Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), introduced the mandatory reporting of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions for industry sectors like Refining, Cement, Electricity Transactions and General Stationary Combustion. The goal was to establish a comprehensive training and accreditation programme for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) verifiers to establish a competent and professional pool of verifiers with the personnel and material capacity to undertake verification of the reports provided by reporters under AB32. Verifiers also required awareness of the potential implications of moving from a mandatory reporting model, to one where reporters would be subject to a cap and trade system.
Future Perfect have a long and distinguished track record of providing training, consultancy and verification services in the United States, and had worked with among others, The Climate Registry and The California Climate Action Registry prior to being commissioned by CARB to provide training for verifiers. The program requested of FP was to specifically address California’s immediate need for qualified GHG Verifiers who must be trained, accredited, and available for GHG auditing.
California Assembly Bill 32 was a significant step in the United States, and it put GHG reporting and management on a statutory footing, the first of its kind in the United States. GHG reporting previously was subject to voluntary scheme or broader sustainability reporting but did not have a statutory footing. Subsequently the Clean Air Act at a Federal Level has started the process at a National Level.
FP Support
Future Perfect’s main area of support for CARB has been in creating the training content, workshops, and accreditation exams for the programme. The design was a series of courses, given in tandem or triplicate by FP trainers over the course of a six month period. CARB had set an ambitious target of establishing a large pool of over 200 qualified verifiers for general classifications of GHG emissions verification, and a smaller pool of specialists in the refinery, cement, and electricity transactions sectors.
Verifiers completed training and assessments for general stationary combustion, with smaller numbers of pre-screened sector specialists completing additional training in the refining, cement and electricity transactions sectors. Working closely with CARB Future Perfect designed, delivered, and assessed the delegates, with frequently asked questions being compiled jointly by Future Perfect and CARB throughout the process.
The primary support provided by FP throughout the entire programme consisted of:
- Consultancy and guidance on training programme design and setup
- Designing and running interactive workshops for verifiers
- Consultancy and guidance on the implications of cap and trade schemes for verifiers, reporters and regulators
- Designing and delivering general stationary combustion verifier training to cover AB32 requirements
- Designing and delivering sector specialist training for refinery, cement and electricity transactions
- Creation of accreditation exam materials
- Provision of training manuals, additional reference materials and electronic handouts and online resource documents
Outcomes
By the end of June 2009, FP had successfully created and delivered the GHG Verifier training programme and accredited (with CARB) more than 200 GHG Verifiers in the State of California.
