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Participation in the Western Climate Initiative
This page last reviewed March 21, 2012
Since its inception in 2007, California has participated in the Western Climate Initiative
(WCI). The WCI is a collaboration of independent jurisdictions
working together to identify, evaluate, and implement emissions trading
policies to tackle climate change at a regional level. Following
extensive consultation with stakeholders, the WCI Partner jurisdictions
released comprehensive recommendations for designing and
implementing an emissions trading program. The WCI recommendations are consistent with the design of the ARB cap-and-trade program.
In November 2011, the WCI Partner jurisdictions created Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated
(WCI, Inc.), a non-profit corporation formed to provide administrative
and technical support to state and provincial greenhouse gas emissions
trading programs.
The
administrative services that WCI, Inc. will provide to its
participating jurisdictions include:
- developing, implementing, and maintaining a system for tracking compliance instruments for emissions trading programs;
- developing, implementing, and maintaining capability to execute allowance auction and reserve sales; and
- developing, implementing, and maintaining capability to conduct market monitoring.
ARB’s agreement
with WCI, Inc. provides ARB access to the administrative systems that
WCI, Inc. is developing. The agreement furthers the goals of AB
32. The benefits of participating in WCI, Inc. will include
reduced administrative costs through cost sharing with other
jurisdictions and enhanced security and effectiveness of program
infrastructure across programs, including the tracking system, auction
operation, and market monitoring.
As shown in the agreement, ARB’s share of the WCI, Inc. budget
is approximately $3.7 million over two years. Quebec’s share of
the budget over the same time period is approximately $1.6
million. Thus, the preliminary WCI, Inc. budget for its
first two years of operation is $5.3 million. The distribution of
funding across jurisdictions is based on the number of participating
jurisdictions and the total emissions covered by each jurisdiction’s
emissions trading program. WCI, Inc. is in its formative stages,
and consequently its budget is expected to be revised based on updated
information. Further, once fully operational, it is anticipated
that other jurisdictions will join WCI, Inc. which will benefit all
participating jurisdictions by further reducing administrative costs.
