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, titled, “Advancing a Low-Carbon American Economy Through High-Integrity Voluntary Carbon Markets and Industrial Strategy.”
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. The USDA would also list widely accepted voluntary carbon credit protocols designed to ensure consistency, reliability, effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.
The USDA’s Request for Information will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, May 29th, 2024, and is seeking feedback on provisions of the GCSA including:
- Options for interpreting and applying criteria used to evaluate protocols that are designed to ensure consistency, reliability, effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.
- Information pertaining to specific protocols to be evaluated for inclusion in the program.
- The qualifications needed by covered entities who provide technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, or private forest landowners.
- The qualifications needed by covered entities who serve as third-party verifiers of processes described in protocols for voluntary environmental credit markets.
Anyone who is interested can submit comments during the 30-day public comment period at regulations.gov.
Following this request for information, the USDA will also seek industry participation in an advisory committee to further inform the development of this and related programs.
For more information about the Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program, visit ams.usda.gov/services/GCSA or contact Sasha Strohm, Program Manager, at sasha.strohm@usda.gov or 202-720-5705.
