Bringing Caribbean’s attention to Carbon Markets and related mechanisms

OECS gathered GIZ, World Bank, UNFCCC, and other experts to introduce carbon pricing, Article 6, and related projects for the Caribbean’s interest

WORKSHOP REPORT

On Jul 1, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), in coordination with the World Bank Transformative Carbon Asset Facility (TCAF), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Global Carbon Market Project (GCM), and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) St. George’s, organized the workshop on Carbon Markets and related mechanisms. The goal was to explore the strategic development of market mechanisms and carbon pricing instruments for NDC implementation.

The meeting was organized into three parts: carbon pricing, Article 6, and introduction to TCAF and GCM projects.

Crispin D’Auvergne, Climate Change & Disaster Risk Management Coordinator of OECS, opened with remarks about climate action and collaboration in the Caribbean.

Starting with the carbon pricing session, Eduardo Piquero, General Director of MéxiCO2, introduced carbon pricing, emission trading system, and carbon taxes. He provided a basic knowledge of its concept at the beginning of the workshop. It filled a gap of understanding among participants who answered in a poll that they have a different level of preliminary knowledge of the concept. Another speaker from this session, Nicolas Muller, Associate Programme Officer in Mitigation Division of UNFCCC, introduced Carbon pricing initiatives in the region and support from the UNFCCC Collaborative Instruments for Ambitious Climate Action (CiA-CA) Initiative. He explained the need for carbon pricing and how the support can be tailor-made concerning the domestic context.

Moving to Article 6 session, Perumal Arumugam, Programme Officer (Team Lead) in Regulatory Development Unit (MRV) of SDM at UNFCCC, gave the up-to-date status of negotiations of Article 6. He argued Article 6’s importance as it’s the only part of the Paris Agreement that directly engages the business and private investment sector, and it has strong real-world potential for cooperative action. Stephan Hoch, Managing Director of Perspectives Climate Group GmbH, and Sandra Greiner, Lead Consultant at Climate Focus, introduced Article 6 piloting in a different region and various possibilities Article 6 will enable. They shared previous experience from stakeholders and argued that the agreed rules of Article 6 in COP 26 are vital for piloting activities’ progress.

The later part of the discussion included an introduction to TCAF and GCM projects. Klaus Oppermann, Senior Economist of Climate Fund Management Unit in World Bank, shared their first experiences from TCAF. To bring a better understanding of TCAF, he introduced various carbon crediting approaches, including sectoral, jurisdictional, and policy crediting; payments and accounting structures; TCAF’s two-part pricing approach, safeguarding strategy to prevent overselling, and first experiences. Several participants were interested in TCAF taking note of the scale required for TCAF operations. Lydia Ondraczek and Patrick Munyaneza from GIZ introduced their Global Carbon Market (GCM) projects. Intending to promote the use of carbon pricing, the GCM Project shared the experience of activities implemented in Uganda, Chile, Tunisia, and India. Through this workshop, the CGM project introduced potential support for the Caribbean region, including but not limited to Capacity building on carbon pricing instruments, Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance and other collaborative initiatives, and Article 6 negotiations under UNFCCC.

Vintura Silva, regional lead of UNFCCC RCC St. George’s, wrapped up the workshop summarizing today’s discussion. Shanna Emmanuel, Programme Officer of Environmental Sustainability Division at OECS, gave a closing remark pointing out the timely topic of a carbon market for the Caribbean, and thorough discussion aroused thanks to experts from various organizations.

RCC St. George’s remains available to support Caribbean countries interested in Carbon Markets and related mechanisms. For more information, please get in touch with rccstgeorges@unfccc.int