30 September 2021
Venue: WebEx (Online)

Webinar on Country Perspectives: Opportunities and Challenges for International Voluntary Carbon Markets

Webinar on Country Perspectives

>>WATCH WEBINAR RECORDING HERE<<

September 30, 2021

9:00 - 10:30 am EDT I 3:00 - 4:30 pm CEST

The Paris Agreement, with its universal requirement on all countries to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs), marks a significant change for the framework of international cooperation through carbon markets. With all countries committing themselves to climate action to reduce emissions and achieve their NDCs, the ability to exert exclusive claims over the emissions impact from carbon market investments and count them towards emission targets is becoming increasingly complicated. And increasingly, companies are adopting net-zero emission targets, which has been accompanied by a surge of interest and investment in the voluntary carbon market. Indications are that voluntary action and voluntary demand for credits is on an upward trajectory and expected to witness substantial growth in the coming years. A greater understanding of host countries’ roles in international voluntary carbon markets, aligned with the Paris Agreement, will help to build on this momentum.

In this context, the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR), with the support of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA), prepared a discussion paper to understand perspectives of potential host countries on the role international voluntary carbon markets might play in the context of their NDCs and the Paris Agreement. In doing so, it explored emerging issues and challenges these markets may face and clarified key aspects host country governments may need to consider in relation to their market participation.

With this background, the webinar aims to present the key findings of the paper and discusses what it means for the development of prospective voluntary markets in the future also considering recent developments like the Scaled up voluntary carbon markets taskforce, the voluntary carbon markets integrity (VMCI) initiative etc. and the critical work that some countries and independent standards started doing on this.

Agenda

Introduction and Opening Remarks

Wendy Hughes, Practice Manager, Carbon Markets & Innovation unit, World Bank

Presentation on the PMR study:
Country Perspectives: Opportunities and challenges for international voluntary markets in the context of the Paris Agreement

Andrew Howard, Koru Climate

Panel Discussion

Moderator

Chandra Sekhar Sinha, Advisor, World Bank

Discussants

Chris Leeds, Head, Carbon Markets Development, Standard Chartered Bank

Jonathan Shopley, Co-Chair, ICROA

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Global Leader of Climate & Energy, WWF; Steering Committee Member of VCMI

Owen Hewlett, Chief Technical Officer, Gold Standard

Mikkel Larson, CEO, Climate Impact eXchange

El hadj Mbaye Diagne, Directeur Général, Afrique-Energie-Environment, Senegal

Q & A

Closing Remarks