The World Bank Group offsets GHG footprint through Chicago Climate Exchange® (CCX®) with emission credits from Precious Woods
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The World Bank Group announced on World Environment Day 2006 that it has offset 100 percent of its Greenhouse Gas emissions produced by its Washington, D.C. operations and business transportation tracked from its headquarters in fiscal year 2006. Emission credits purchased through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) contributed to reaching this goal. The World Bank Group becomes the first multi-lateral organization to become a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange.
CCX Carbon Financial Instruments equivalent to 22,000 metric tons of the World Bank Group's emissions were acquired and retired. These verified and registered credits originate from a reforestation project in Costa Rica realized by the Precious Woods Group, a sustainable forest management company based in Switzerland with operations in South and Central America.
Precious Woods is involved in reforesting approximately 4,600 hectares of degraded pasture land in compliance with the strict environmental and social criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the forestry offset protocols of CCX. The Precious Woods project is the world's first registered forest offset project in a major operational GHG trading system.
Richard L. Sandor, Chairman and CEO of CCX said "We are delighted that the World Bank is setting the pace in the climate change issue for other multilateral bodies by offsetting its GHG emissions. The CCX is proud and welcomes the Bank to the CCX family. This is further validation that CCX provides high quality, credible credits from offset projects from around the globe. We look forward to active participation by the World Bank in CCX."
About Precious Woods:
Precious Woods is active in the reforestation and sustainable management of tropical forests; downstream wood processing and trading of FSC certified timber and non timber forest products. The shares of Precious Woods have been listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange since March 2002. See www.preciouswoods.com.
About The World Bank Group:
The World Bank Group is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. It is made up of five development institutions owned by 184 member countries - the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a different but supportive role in the Group's mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards. For information about the World Bank Group, and its work on sustainable development, please see www.worldbankgroup.org.
About Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX):
Chicago Climate Exchange is North America's only, and the world's first, legally binding multi-sector, rule-based and integrated greenhouse gas emissions registry, reduction and trading system. CCX is the only available mechanism through which US based entities may engage in the integrated carbon market with a linked reduction and trading system and is a vital tool for understanding the price of carbon in all operations. CCX members range from large industrial concerns such as DuPont, International Paper, Baxter Health and Temple-Inland, to utilities such as American Electric Power, Tampa Electric and Green Mountain Power, to universities such as Iowa and Minnesota, to non-governmental organizations such as World Resources Institute and Rocky Mountain Institute, to cities such as Portland, OR, Oakland, CA and Chicago, IL, to farmers in Iowa and Nebraska and the Iowa Farm Bureau, to the State of New Mexico, the first U.S. state to join CCX. Eligible emission Offset projects include agricultural soil carbon sequestration, reforestation, landfill and agricultural methane combustion and switching to lower-emitting such as biomass-based fuels. See www.chicagoclimateexchange.com.
Contact:
Kristyn Schrader
World Bank
Tel. +1/202/458-27-36
E-Mail: Kschrader@worldbank.org
Christoph Buholzer
Precious Woods Holding Ltd.
Tel. +41/44/245'80'10
E-Mail: projects@preciouswoods.ch
Rafael Marques
Chicago Climate Exchange
Tel. +1/312/554-33-84
E-Mail: rmarques@chicagoclimateexchange.com