COP28 high-level roundtable emphasizes advancing high-integrity carbon markets

In a move towards bolstering global efforts to combat climate change, the Conference of the Parties 28 (COP28) Presidency organized a High-Level Roundtable on 'Unlocking High-Integrity Carbon Markets'. This gathering brought together leaders from multilateral institutions, including COP28 President Dr Sultan Al-Jaber, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, and GFANZ Co-Chair and UN Special Envoy for Climate Finance Mark Carney, along with senior representatives from nations committed to fostering and scaling high-integrity carbon markets.

The roundtable underscored the importance of carbon pricing schemes, compliance markets, and high-integrity voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) in the global net-zero transition. Emphasizing the complementary roles of these mechanisms, speakers highlighted their critical contributions. Carbon markets were identified as key channels to finance high-quality decarbonization projects in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell acknowledged the substantial progress made by the Article 6.4 supervisory body. World Bank Group President Ajay Banga unveiled plans for the growth of high-integrity global carbon markets, with 15 countries poised to generate income from carbon credits through the preservation of their forests.

Participants acknowledged the achievements of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity initiative in establishing essential guardrails for high-integrity credit supply and demand in the voluntary market. However, they stressed the need for ongoing capacity building to empower EMDEs, enabling their active participation in international carbon markets.

The roundtable participants recognized the imperative need for coordination among key stakeholders to seamlessly integrate the remaining components of the global carbon markets architecture by 2024 and 2025. While acknowledging significant progress in 2023, the call for coordinated action extended across governments, multilateral institutions, principles-setters, carbon credit standards, businesses, financial institutions, and the broader carbon markets value chain, including verification and validation bodies and project developers.

The objective is to ensure a cohesive and mutually reinforcing global carbon market architecture, aligning with climate mitigation goals. This high-level gathering marked a crucial stride towards intensifying coordination efforts, ensuring the effective functioning of high-integrity carbon markets, and bolstering commitments under the Paris Agreement. The united vision expressed at the roundtable signifies a concerted global push towards creating robust frameworks that can effectively address the challenges of climate change.