IETA Network Connection – December 2020

Eyes on 2021

Here at the dawn of December, IETA is reflecting on a difficult year – and looking ahead to some exciting possibilities for 2021.

The policy wheels are turning in many governments as they consider new, more ambitious NDCs for COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021. We had hoped that the Glasgow meeting would be done by now, giving markets clarity for the next phase of international cooperation through Article 6. Instead, we’re looking ahead to making Glasgow even more profound, with a growing number of governments and businesses setting net-zero targets. These help show us how markets can encourage greater ambition – if negotiators can coalesce around a credible and workable set of guidelines. Hopefully, the extra time can be used wisely.

New potential in the US?

The Biden administration is beginning to take shape. We know that rejoining the Paris Agreement is a top priority. The President-elect is also raising the stakes on the White House’s climate engagement, with the appointment of true climate heavyweights to key roles.

The new climate envoy, former Senator John Kerry, knows how markets can drive climate action – and bring business and environmental advocates together. As Secretary of State in the Obama years, he knew markets are essential in making the goals of the Paris Agreement achievable.

Kerry’s interest in market-based approaches dates back to the Kyoto days, when he was in the Senate. I remember briefing him in the halls of the Kyoto negotiations on the potential of market mechanisms to deliver benefits. Or maybe he briefed me? Let’s say my job was easy, since he already knew the score.

Janet Yellen, Biden’s nominee for treasury secretary, also has a long history with market incentives from carbon pricing. When she was head of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, I helped prepare her for Senate testimony on the Administration’s economic modelling of the Kyoto Protocol and how its mechanisms could improve cost effectiveness. I saw how the Kyoto opponents on Capitol Hill found her to be a tough opponent – they didn’t want to tangle with her on the merits, given her expertise.

As I write, some key administration positions are yet to be filled. But, suffice it to say, the US climate posture will turn from night to day. On the substance, I expect the early focus will be on COVID-19 and economic recovery, which will undoubtedly involve climate-friendly investment. As time progresses, the US will need to engage in international markets if it is to achieve Biden’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

I’m optimistic that IETA can be a constructive partner in working on practical market solutions that fit the US political scene. More on that next year!

In lieu of COP, our first virtual Carbon Markets Pavilion – with ICAP

I hope you were able to tune in for some of the events in our Carbon Markets Virtual Pavilion last month. We teamed up with our friends at the International Carbon Action Partnership to co-host about 50 events with a number of other partners. We’ve posted recordings of all the sessions, which you can find on the pavilion’s website.

Even without a COP this year, the Virtual Pavilion provided a platform to advance the understanding of the value of carbon markets in meeting the Paris goals. The sessions spanned time zones quite effectively, giving an opportunity to review progress from New Zealand to Asia, and to Europe and the Americas, in both compliance markets and voluntary initiatives.

New opportunity with ITN Productions

Finally, in November IETA launched a collaboration with ITN Productions to co-produce a news-style programme called Blue Sky Thinking: The Race to Achieve Net Zero Emissions. The producers wanted me to describe the role of markets in getting to net zero, but we didn’t know that the film crew would arrive at my house just a few days after we got hit by Hurricane Sally so the intro film took a slightly more personal turn than originally intended.

ITN will work with us to produce this programme over the coming year, of how markets are driving change towards net zero goals. It will be aired next autumn during the Glasgow summit.

Please keep safe and stay connected. We’ve got a lot to do together in the coming weeks, in spite of the COVID constraints. 2021 is already shaping up to be exciting – it’s not too late for you to get involved.

Dirk Forrister
President & CEO, IETA

For more information about IETA and our work, check out www.ieta.org

IETA Live: Carbon Market Virtual Series

IETA Member’s Corner

How is ProClima involved in the carbon market?

ProClima is an international programme for climate change mitigation projects registration and certification, and a key player in the carbon market in Colombia. The main objective of ProClima is the development and management of carbon standards and methodologies for quantifying GHG reductions or removals, that promote actions to mitigate climate change.

ProClima registers and certifies GHG mitigation projects in various sectors of the economy including AFOLU, energy, transportation and waste management. Through ProClima’s certification, verified GHG reductions or removals can be transformed into a Verified Carbon Credit (VCC), which corresponds to the principal unit of measurement and the main instrument that adds social, environmental and economic value to the GHG mitigation projects.

As part of our strategy, ProClima is concerned about the adoption of a management system and an adequate corporate governance model, that aims to continuously improve the company´s overall performance. Also, ProClima’s competitiveness is based on assuring quality of certification standards, methodologies and processes, business ethics and compliance.

ProClima has positioned itself as a reference strongly aligned with national and international policies, good practices, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), supported on our corporate values: transparency, truthfulness, coherence, integrity, responsibility, quality and ethics.

Why did you join IETA?

At ProClima, we understand that the Latin American and global carbon market is constantly changing, mainly governed by the need to improve the way in which economy and development process relates to environment. There is no doubt that the resources we consume exceed the limits of what the earth can provide us. In this sense, worldwide initiatives are being developed, as well as methodologies, projects, ideas, management frameworks, goals, objectives, political and economic instruments, organisations, and many other innovative ways of thinking and actions that focus on the conservation of natural resources while counteracting their excessive consumption, and in changing the perception of these as inexhaustible sources. All of this connected with sustainable development and low carbon growth.

ProClima is a member of IETA thanks to its interest in being an active participant of that change. Through IETA, ProClima can reciprocally share strengths, best practices, challenges, and lessons learned, and we can understand emerging market needs to strengthen our standards and offer assertive solutions.

ProClima finds in IETA a means of integration with other interested parties, also we understand that it is possible to work collectively to develop a reliable and efficient carbon market that contributes and promotes real results for mitigation of climate change, and adaptation to new forms of climate economics.

Angela Duque
CEO, ProClima

IETA Publications

The cap-and-trade programme in California should become the workhorse of the state’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and expanded to set caps that decline to net zero by 2045, says IETA’s position paper on achieving carbon neutrality in the state. Technology, including carbon removals and sequestration, are key to containing costs, and revisions to rules on offsets could increase cost-effectiveness. 

Carbon leakage is a clear threat to the EU’s target of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. The imposition of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism has the capacity to address carbon leakage, safeguard the competitiveness of European industry, and encourage global climate ambition. This paper sets out IETA’s vision of how such a mechanism should be designed.

The EU should extend its ETS to new sectors and set more ambitious medium-term targets in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, finds a new report from IETA. Meeting the EU’s Climate Ambitions: The Evolution of Carbon Pricing to 2050 sets out how the bloc can realise its long-term climate goal through the use of market mechanisms, including removals and international cooperation.

This message was sent to you by IETA. Copyright 2020.
IETA continues to value your data privacy, so we do not share our lists with other firms. We want to stay in touch with you and share information on our work.
If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time

www.ieta.org