By David Boles

The clever use of benchmarking has been integrated into the Californian Cap and Trade mechanism to enable the Air Resources Board to compare GHG emissions performance across similar industrial facilities. These benchmarks will be a key factor in deciding performance standards. Industrial facilities will be allocated free credits on product based GHG emission intensity benchmarks. This measure will favour the production of the least GHG intensive products, and will reward early action to produce a given product in the cleanest way possible. The basic premise is this, a facility that is more efficient than the predetermined benchmarks will receive extra allowances relative to their emission levels. Assistance will be provided to the various industrial sectors to allow for the transition into a carbon economy.

The Benchmarking system will use two benchmarks, Product based benchmark and an energy use benchmark. Product based benchmarks will be favoured wherever possible as it incorporates the complete life cycle of products. The following tables illustrates which facilities will use product based or energy use benchmarks.

Energy use benchmark:

Product based benchmark:

These measures will be enforced to encourage early action on GHG mitigation.

Other News:

By David Boles

The clever use of benchmarking has been integrated into the Californian Cap and Trade mechanism to enable the Air Resources Board to compare GHG emissions performance across similar industrial facilities. These benchmarks will be a key factor in deciding performance standards. Industrial facilities will be allocated free credits on product based GHG emission intensity benchmarks. This measure will favour the production of the least GHG intensive products, and will reward early action to produce a given product in the cleanest way possible. The basic premise is this, a facility that is more efficient than the predetermined benchmarks will receive extra allowances relative to their emission levels. Assistance will be provided to the various industrial sectors to allow for the transition into a carbon economy.

The Benchmarking system will use two benchmarks, Product based benchmark and an energy use benchmark. Product based benchmarks will be favoured wherever possible as it incorporates the complete life cycle of products. The following tables illustrates which facilities will use product based or energy use benchmarks.

Energy use benchmark:

Product based benchmark:

These measures will be enforced to encourage early action on GHG mitigation.

Other News: