The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking information from the public on protocols that may be considered for inclusion in a new Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program, the main program of the Growing Climate Solutions Act. The input is being collected through a Request for Information and will be considered in the preparation of a proposed rule to establish the program. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the release of the Request for Information at an event at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC this morning entitled, “Advancing a Low-Carbon American Economy Through High-Integrity Voluntary Carbon Markets and Industrial Strategy.”
“High-integrity voluntary carbon markets offer a promising tool to create new revenue streams for producers and achieve greenhouse gas reductions from the agriculture and forest sectors,” Vilsack said. “However, a variety of barriers have hindered agriculture’s participation in voluntary carbon markets and we are seeking to change that by establishing a new Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program.”
The program is authorized under the Growing Climate Solutions Act (GCSA), part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. As part of USDA’s implementation of the GCSA, in October 2023 the Department published A General Assessment of the Role of Agriculture and Forestry in the U.S. Carbon Markets (PDF, 1.7 MB), a comprehensive look at current market activity, barriers to participation, and opportunities to improve access to high-integrity carbon markets for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners.
Establishing the new Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program is the next step in implementing the GCSA. The new program would facilitate better technical assistance by providing a list of qualified technical assistance providers and third-party verifiers who work with producers to generate credible carbon credits, enabling USDA to share trusted information and reduce market confusion. USDA would also list widely accepted voluntary carbon credit protocols designed to ensure consistency, reliability, effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.