North American Firms Increase Carbon Commitments Despite Economy

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 /CNW/ - EcoSecurities, a leading company in the business of sourcing, developing, and trading carbon credits from greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, has partnered with Baker & McKenzie LLP, a leading climate change law firm, and ClimateBiz, the resource for climate management, to launch the second year of its Carbon Management and Offsetting Trends Survey Report 2009.

The Carbon Management and Offsetting Trends Survey was originally undertaken in 2008 to establish what the business consumer thought about the voluntary carbon market and understand the varying views and opinions about the use of carbon offsets as part of a wider, integrated carbon management strategy. Now, one year on, there is still the same underlying impetus that climate change must be addressed, with businesses playing vital and important roles in helping society as a whole in its transition to a low carbon economy.

Highlights of the research, which sampled 280 global, multinational and regional organizations, and 31 carbon companies, included:

    
    -  Over three quarters of companies have implemented or have started
       developing a carbon management strategy
    -  Two thirds of respondents have already offset their carbon emissions
       or will consider offsetting in the future
    -  Environmental benefits (91%) were highlighted as one of the main
       motivations for interest in carbon offsets, closely followed by carbon
       neutrality and marketing (89%)
    -  72% of participants nominated the US as the most desirable geographic
       region for purchasing offsets; this may reflect the desire for
       domestic projects as 56% of the respondents came from North America.
       Africa and South America were also rated as highly desirable locations
       for emission reduction projects
    -  Respondents prefer renewable energy projects above any other project
       type with solar scoring 92% and wind 86%
    

"It's highly encouraging to see this growth in interest from companies taking climate action, despite the doom-and-gloom outlook on the global economy this year," said Matthew Wheeland , Managing Editor of ClimateBiz. "Although there's still plenty of room for improvement, these survey results show that companies are keeping green issues high on their agendas."

Lisa Ashford , Global Head of Voluntary & New Markets at EcoSecurities, commented, "It is great to see from these survey results that the voluntary carbon market is continuing to gain more credibility, moreover it is hugely encouraging to see the marked level of interest from North America who made up 56% of the total respondents. What is also significant to note is that renewable energy is undoubtedly still the winner for buyers purchasing carbon offsets, a trend that has continued to gain momentum from the results of last year's survey."

The survey received 311 responses from a mix of global, multinational and regional companies, covering a diverse range of sectors and industries. It provides significant insight into companies' perceptions of carbon offset projects and the voluntary carbon market. Support for this research initiative was provided from a number of organizations, which include: 2Degrees, Borealis Offsets, Carbonoffsetsdaily.com, GreenBiz, The Karo Group and Westgate.

To download your free copy of the Carbon Management and Offsetting Survey results 2009, please visit http://www.ecosecurities.com/Standalone/Carbon_Management_and_Offsetting_Trends_Survey_Results_2009/default.aspx

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Notes to Editors:

About EcoSecurities:

EcoSecurities has spent the last 12 years focusing on climate change mitigation activities and is now one of the world's leading organizations in the business of sourcing, developing and trading emission reductions. EcoSecurities' emission reduction portfolio covers a wide range of emission reduction standards (Gold Standard, CDM, VCS etc), technology types and geographical locations. In addition, EcoSecurities provides clients with carbon management services, helping them to understand and deal with an increasingly carbon constrained world.

EcoSecurities Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM (ticker ECO). Additional information is available at http://www.EcoSecurities.com.

About Baker & McKenzie LLP

Baker & McKenzie LLP was the first law firm to recognize the importance of global efforts to address climate change and the importance of such legal developments to our clients. For more than ten years, the firm's dedicated team of over 60 lawyers have worked on numerous pioneering deals, including writing one of the first carbon contracts, setting up the first carbon fund, advising on the first structured derivative transaction and the first REDD project. In 2008 and 2009, legal directory Chambers Global ranked the practice as Tier 1 for climate change law.

About ClimateBiz:

ClimateBiz is the business resource for climate management. ClimateBiz informs CFOs, CIOs, supply-chain, operations and other executives on the key business issues in climate and carbon. The website and its free fortnightly newsletter ClimateBiz News offer news, best practices and resources in such areas as carbon measurement, reduction and trading; renewable energy; and carbon offsets.

For further information: Rachel Mountain, EcoSecurities, [phone], [email protected]