 Participating jurisdictions of the Western Climate Initiative | |
| Formerly | Western Regional Climate Action Initiative |
|---|---|
| Company type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| Founded | February 26, 2007; 18 years ago (2007-02-26) inWashington, D.C.,United States (Reincorporated 2011) |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | 1107 Ninth Street, Suite 1070,, United States |
Area served | North America |
Key people | Jason Hollett, Chair Liane Randolph, Vice-Chair |
| Members | |
| Website | www |
Western Climate Initiative, Inc. (WCI) is a501(c)(3) non-profit corporation which administers the sharedemissions trading market between the American state ofCalifornia and the Canadian province ofQuebec as well as separately administering the individual emissions trading systems in the Canadian province ofNova Scotia and American state ofWashington. It also provides administrative, technical and infrastructure services to support the implementation of cap-and-trade programs in otherNorth American jurisdictions. The organization was originally founded in February 2007 by the governors of five western states with the goal of developing a multi-sector, market-based program to reducegreenhouse gas emissions; it was incorporated in its current form in 2011.[1]
Since its reincorporation in 2011 as a non-profit corporation, WCI is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the participating jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction appoints two voting directors to the Board.[2]
| Position | Name | Jurisdiction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chair | Jason Hollett |  Nova Scotia | Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Environment and Climate Change |
| Vice-Chair | Liane Randolph |  California | Chair,California Air Resources Board |
| Treasurer | Jean-Yves Benoit |  Quebec | Director General of Carbon Regulation and Emissions Data,Ministry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change |
| Secretary | Lilani Kumaranayake | Nova Scotia | Executive Director of Fiscal Policy, Economics and Budgetary Planning, Department of Finance |
| Additional Voting Directors | Jared Blumenfeld | California | Former Secretary,California Environmental Protection Agency |
| Kim Ricard | Quebec | Director of Carbon Market Division,Ministry of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change | |
| Laura Watson |  Washington | Director,Washington State Department of Ecology | |
| Luke Martland | Washington | Climate Commitment Act Implementation Manager,Washington State Department of Ecology |
The Western Climate Initiative was founded as theWestern Regional Climate Action Initiative on February 26, 2007, by the governors ofArizona, California,New Mexico,Oregon andWashington. The founding agreement stated the goal of the WRCAI was to evaluate and implement ways to reduce their states's emissions of greenhouse gases and achieve related co-benefits.[3] These states and future participants in the initiative (collectively known as WCI "partners") also committed to set an overall regional goal to reduce emissions (set in August 2007 as 15 percent below 2005 emission levels by 2020),[4] participate in a cross-border greenhouse gas registry to consistently measure and track emissions, and adopt clean tailpipe standards for passenger vehicles. By July 2008, the initiative had expanded to include two more U.S. states (Montana and Utah) and four Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec). Together, these partners comprised 20 percent of the U.S. GDP and 76 percent of the Canadian GDP.[5]
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2019) |
The most ambitious and controversial objective of the WCI was to develop a multi-sector, market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Detailed design recommendations for a regionalcap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were released by the WCI in September 2008 and July 2010.[6] By December 2011, California and Quebec adopted regulations based on these recommendations. (The WCI has no regulatory authority of its own.) Key administrative aspects of the regional cap-and-trade program are being implemented in 2012. Power plants, refineries, and other large emitters must comply with the cap in 2013. Other greenhouse gas emission sources, such as suppliers of transportation fuels, must comply with the cap beginning in 2015. Among other things, the Western Climate Initiative lays the foundation for a North American cap-and-trade program, not only in its design and implementation, but in its potential acceptance of greenhouse gasemissions offsets from projects across North America.
Some observers[who?] described the entire project asgreenwash designed to avoid committing to theKyoto Protocol, and cited evidence that much more drastic cuts, up to 40%, could be achieved without affecting investment yield in equities, a good indicator that such cuts would not affect economic prospects in the economy as a whole.[7]
Several U.S. partners, although active participants in the design of the program, announced in 2010 that they would either delay or not implement the program in their jurisdictions. The partnership was therefore streamlined to include only California and the four Canadian provinces actively working to implement the program. As of January 2012, regulations have not been issued by British Columbia, Manitoba, or Ontario, although a carbon tax in British Columbia will be increasing to $30/tonne ofCO2 equivalents in July 2012.[8] Several WCI partners also remain active in theInternational Carbon Action Partnership, an international coordinating body for several such regional carbon trading bodies.
Alberta andSaskatchewan object to cap-and-trade and in July 2008 called WCI's plan a "cash grab by some of Canada's resource-poor provinces."[9] However, Alberta already had legislatedits own emissions trading system for large emitters in 2007. The objections seem to be more related to the reporting and disclosure requirements that would be much higher for a North American project than for one based strictly in Alberta. Some of the states that withdrew by late 2011 also intended to developoil shale,hydraulic fracturing ofnatural gas andcoal resources that would have broad impacts beyond climate on water, including more ocean acidification.
Until late 2011, the initiative included two types of participants: partners and observers.[10]
For several years, the partners were theU.S. states ofCalifornia,Montana,New Mexico,Oregon,Utah, andWashington, and theCanadian provinces ofBritish Columbia,Manitoba,Ontario, andQuebec. All states/provinces except California and Quebec withdrew in 2011.See below: Membership changes.
The observers included at various timesAlaska,Colorado,Idaho,Kansas,Nevada,Wyoming, the province ofSaskatchewan (which objects to WCI plans for acap and trade system[9]), and theMexican states ofBaja California,Chihuahua,Coahuila,Nuevo Leon,Sonora andTamaulipas.
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As of December 2011, the remaining WCI partners were California and the Canadian provinces British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.
AfterBritish Columbia ceased participation inemissions trading in 2018, it remained a participating jurisdiction under WCI by-laws until amendments were made.[27][28]
As of 2022[update], the participating WCI jurisdictions are the American states of California and Washington; and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Quebec.
{{cite web}}:Cite uses generic title (help){{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help)Mr. Rodriquez commented that while Mr. Lesiuk has resigned from the Board, British Columbia remains a Participating Jurisdiction and may choose to appoint new directors or participate more actively in the future.
List of Western Climate Initiative, Inc's participating jurisdictions. Last updated March 23, 2020.
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