The San Francisco Carbon Collaborative was coordinate by David Pascal, Clean Technology and Green Business advocate for the City of San Francisco. The meeting was hosted by law firm Morrison and Forester on the 18th and 19th of February 2009. David Pascal thanked everyone who participated for “their enthusiasm and willingness to explore the possibility of anchoring the US environmental markets here in San Francisco”.

David has said that the City of San Francisco has a number of advantages including, “our legacy as a financial and IT centre, our position as an environmental leader, and our economic linkages with China and the rest of the Pacific Rim”. This is a case of think global and act local. San Francisco can host the carbon market players throughout the whole chain of carbon credit creation to trade credits within California, the United States and the rest of the world. Others are thinking along these lines too like Bill Joy, partner at KP who is advocating that the skills of Silicon Valley be put at the disposal of Carbon Valley. Bill Joy was Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems.

Over 60 companies attended the afternoon and following morning including global carbon credit auditor - DNV, global carbon brokers - CantorCO2e, Evolution Markets, global carbon project developers - EcoSecurities, First Climate, California green building companies - Studley, California Green attorneys - Morrison and Foerster, Binghams, Gordon and Rees, U.S and California policy makers and registries - Center for Resource Solutions, UC Berkeley, CARB, Climate Registry, software providers - APX, Carbonflow, U.S. Carbon and Clean Tech investors Clean Pacific, Jane Capital, Vantage Point and Tech companies like Fluid Trade, Media - San Francisco Business Times, Climatebiz and Sustainable Industries. Additionally, local businessman Barry Hoffner of HFS is interested to set up a San Francisco Carbon Exchange.

This was the first meeting of the Carbon Collaborative with future meetings planned in March. David noted that, “The impact of the policy position of the U.S government and the California response to that took up much discussion” Furthermore he said that San Francisco must also develop a Consensus Opinion on AB32 the California Emissions Trading Scheme.

The most important discussion agenda item is the San Francisco City policy position and how it fits into the national U.S Cap and Trade, AB32 and finally to be truly global the international revised Kyoto Protocol to be undertaken in Copenhagen December 2009. The policy position will make or break the notion of San Francisco as an anchor for the carbon markets. This is the nexus between policy and innovation - it is just this juncture, which either leads to green business activity or not.  If for example a carbon tax was to be put forward it would not lead to the same outcome. A tax on carbon polluting industries does not lead to much change in behaviour - it is inelastic. Double your cost of electricity or petrol prices for your car - and you still do not go out and buy photovoltaic cells for your house or a new Toyota Prius, do you? You just pay the tax! Also a carbon tax is not in line with global positions on ways to combat Climate Change. See this blog on the Carbonflow Carbon Game, which showed that as long as you auction the carbon permits,(not grandfather them, meaning give away the permits, the criticism of the European Emissions Trading scheme),  Emissions Trading will lead to a move away from coal fired power stations.  Interestingly, the Bay Area emitters like PG & E did not attend. David indicated that, based on discussions with those parties prior to our meetings, they expressed interest, but appear to be taking a “wait and see” approach to our initial moves. Once a clearer picture of our coordinated activities begins to emerge, San Francisco city will re-approach them with more specific opportunities for engagement.

Also for future meetings, there was mention of reaching out to key SF-based organizations that represent carbon interests in China and India which were also not present. It appears, these organizations may be looking to the US to solidify their standards and practices before they would participate in any new, SF-based market initiative. The U.S position on the post Kyoto framework will have a great impact on Indian and Chinese policy. Will they accept a cap on their emissions or a sliding cap perhaps - a bit less than the industrialized world?

The City of San Francisco has secured a place to meet regularly and continue formulating policy responses and projects that the city can undertake.

• Policy and markets - 3/19 @ 8:30am
• Communications - 3/18 @ 8:30am
• On-going collaboration - 3/26 @ 5pm
• Capacity building - 3/25 @ 5pm
• Energy Efficiency - 3 / 30 @ 2pm

The working group on Energy Efficiency and Agricultural Offsets in the U.S Cap and Trade has been included at my request in order to maximize green business activity, create more green jobs, greater transparency and auditability. According to a study, Defining, Estimating and Forecasting the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Industries in the U.S and Colorado by The American Solar Energy Society, Boulder, Colorado, and published on Climatebiz it found that with appropriate federal and state government policies, Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE) could by 2030 generate over 37 million jobs per year in the U.S. The study goes onto report that the stronger the policy settings the stronger the job creation potential from RE and EE”. The inclusion of Rnewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE) in the U.S Cap and Trade will unleash the private sector to create the green businesses of the future around transport, energy efficiency and agriculture.

The consequence of good policy will be all the myriad of activities people want to see including a diverse range of companies prospering in a Carbon Valley hub of entrepreneurs, investors, policy people, educationalist and technology companies, which would support a  Carbon Valley Carbon Exchange.

To assist this process a web portal communication center or clearing house will be established by the City of San Francisco with education material focusing on carbon capacity building and communications. The Web portal clearing house would include the following content: Early Carbon Action / Showcase projects / Best practices / ANSI standards /Carbon policy / FAQ’s / Sharing of baseline data  / Summit - case studies (national and international), conferences / Website - city sponsored, blog, education, events, SF version of Open Carbon World / Cluster Building - incubators, think tanks, networking events/ Calendar of local events, local emission reduction projects / Use BC3 as network platform / Capital introductions.