ClimateSmart™—Our Projects

• Print Page
• Email Page

By enrolling in the ClimateSmart™ program, customers pay a separate amount on their monthly utility bill (based on actual energy usage) to balance out the emissions associated with the energy they use. Pacific Gas and Electric Company uses 100 percent of the payments from customers to fund new projects in California that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo of Lompico Forest, courtesy of Sempervirens Fund. This project was selected in our 2007 ClimateSmart competitive selection process.

Our First Projects

"Voluntary carbon storage projects like the Garcia River and Lompico Headwaters illustrate the important role California forests and forest landowners can play in helping the state achieve its ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020," said Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). "By purchasing offsets that are verifiable under CARB-approved protocols, PG&E has demonstrated that corporations can make progressive decisions about investing in real, measurable reductions of greenhouse gas emissions."

We are proud to announce the first projects resulting from our 2007 competitive selection process. Both projects will achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions through conservation-based forest management.

• Learn more about the Garcia River Forest project
• Learn more about the Lompico Headwaters Forest project

Selecting Projects through Competitive Bidding

PG&E uses a formal, competitive process to select offset projects in which to invest your ClimateSmart program contributions. Based on PG&E's renewable and conventional energy purchasing process, the ClimateSmart program’s competitive bidding process follows clear and stringent criteria.

Using this rigorous process, PG&E enters into contracts for projects that invest in new greenhouse gas emission reductions that would not have otherwise occurred. The contract terms will purchase enough greenhouse gas reductions to offset the energy emissions from participating ClimateSmart customers.

Eligible Projects

PG&E only invests in greenhouse gas reduction projects for which there are approved project protocols from the California Climate Action Registry (Registry), a nonprofit organization established by California law as the voluntary registry for greenhouse gas emissions, and accepted by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Currently, the Registry's only approved protocols are for forestry-based carbon sequestration, livestock manure management projects, and landfill methane gas projects. As a result, PG&E's first 2008 ClimateSmart Request for Proposals will be limited to these types of projects.

• Forest sequestration projects: Trees naturally remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and can help fight climate change by storing carbon in their trunks, roots, and branches. These projects will also benefit wildlife and water quality by permanently protecting and restoring California's native forests.
• Livestock manure management projects: These projects capture the methane emissions associated with manure from livestock operations, such as dairy cattle. The projects will provide significant environmental benefits, in part because methane is on a per ton basis at least 21 times more potent than CO₂. These projects also afford other local air quality benefits and help farmers.
• Landfill gas projects: These projects collect methane gas from landfills, preventing its release into the atmosphere. The projects will provide significant environmental benefits similar to the livestock manure management projects by reducing emissions of methane which, on a per ton basis, is at least 21 times more potent than CO₂.

For all projects, the greenhouse gas emission reductions will be independently verified and registered with the California Climate Action Registry. Further, all of the ClimateSmart program's verified greenhouse gas emission reductions will be permanently "retired," which means the reductions cannot be used for other emissions reduction obligations or commitments by PG&E or anyone else.

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions

In its competitive selection process, PG&E gives preference to projects that produce early emission reductions. PG&E will invest in new projects where the emission reductions, in some cases, may not be immediate but accrue over time and last into the future. Further, PG&E has established robust tracking and monitoring systems to ensure that all contracted emission reductions are realized over the lifetime of each project.

Support for Future Protocols

The ClimateSmart program is designed to be flexible and is intended to expand over time to enable investments in other types of projects as the Registry completes and approves a broader range of project measurement protocols.

To support this goal, the program is helping fund the Registry-led development of three more protocols. This will help to "road test" new greenhouse gas emission reduction project measurement, reporting, and verification protocols.

 

The ClimateSmart program is being funded by PG&E customers in accordance with a decision of the California Public Utilities Commission. To make participating customers climate neutral, PG&E may enter into greenhouse gas emission reduction contracts where the reductions occur over time into the future.