International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance Formed

Eight of the world's leading carbon reduction and offset providers have formed the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA), The Climate Group announced.

According to the organization's website, ICROA will:

• Support rigorous standards for the voluntary carbon management industry.
• Help businesses and individuals achieve significant direct emissions reductions.
• Encourage the use of real, verified, permanent, additional and unique carbon offsets as part of an overall reduce-and-offset carbon management strategy.
• Establish best practice, through the promotion of the ICROA Code of Best Practice and adherence to that Code among its members.
• Provide an expert voice on carbon reduction policies, strategies, products, and services.

"Our goal is quite simple," says to Jonathan Shopley, ICROA Co-Chair in the United Kingdom, "To ensure that businesses and individuals reduce their GHG emissions."

"We encourage our customers to make changes to their daily activities and to complement those direct reductions with the purchase of high-quality offsets," Shipley says.

"ICROA will be an international voice to encourage the development and use of real and verified carbon offsets," says to Tom Stoddard, ICROA Co-Chair in the United States and vice president and general counsel of carbon offset firm NativeEnergy. "Such offsets channel financial support to projects that will achieve significant, near-term GHG reductions."

The founding ICROA member companies are:

• TerraPass, San Francisco, Calif.
• NativeEnergy, Charlotte, Vermont.
• Carbon Clear, London.
• The CarbonNeutral Company, London.
• ClimateCare, Oxford, UK.
• Climate Friendly, Sydney, Australia.
• co2balance, Somerset, UK.
• targetneutral, London UK.