Turning Your GHG Emission Reductions Into An Asset

Now that they have returned from two weeks in Copenhagen at the Climate Change Conference where they served as delegates from the Environmental Markets Association, Reed Smith lawyers Lawrence Demase and Jennifer Smokelin reflect on what transpired and offer some advice regarding what regulated entities should do next.

In what was likely the biggest international environmental event of 2009, the United Nations climate conference occurred December 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Technically, the climate conference was the 15th of its kind and is properly known as Conference of the Parties, or COP15, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). What was the COP15 outcome? In simple terms: no binding treaty, and a guaranteed future of more protracted climate talks. This does not mean that international GHG regulation is at a standstill. The Kyoto Protocol is still valid until 2012, and signatories have GHG reduction obligations. The European