Date: Saturday, December 9th,

Time: 12:15-13:30,

Venue: COP28, Amazon Pavillion, B87

OVERVIEW

The landscape of climate finance, shaped by international collaboration, carbon markets, REDD+, and diverse financial mechanisms, holds promise for fostering positive outcomes in greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation. However, a noticeable disparity persists in accessing sufficient resources and establishing effective frameworks to access these resources and meet established climate targets. This underscores the pressing need to prioritize resource allocation and ensure transparent fund distribution.

This event will aim to explore the potential and efficacy of forest-based climate mechanisms like carbon markets, REDD, Forests Funds, PES, among others, in propelling sustainable development and bolstering forest conservation efforts. Brazil and the Amazon are central to the discussions and climate solutions. Considering this, the panel will highlight innovative financial mechanisms and successful forest preservation practices drawn from the esteemed panelists' rich experiences. Furthermore, it will delve into the specific challenges within current forest-based climate finance opportunities such as carbon markets, REDD Results-based payments, and climate-for-debt swaps, seeking untapped potential to steer finance towards low-carbon economies and robust forest protection, thus identifying pathways for heightened efficacy.

OBJECTIVES

• Discuss the efficacy and potential future of forest-based climate mechanisms such as carbon markets, nature-for-debt swaps, and REDD in driving sustainable development and fortifying forest conservation efforts. 
• Showcase innovative financial mechanisms and successful practices in forest preservation from the panelist experiences. Challenges and opportunities for achievements at the necessary scale to address climate change.
• Dissect the specific hurdles and untapped potential within carbon markets, nature-for-debt swaps, and REDD for steering finance towards low-carbon economies and robust forest protection, pinpointing avenues for enhanced efficacy.

PARTICIPANTS

Opening remarks

• Ms. Mirey Atallah, Head of Nature for Climate Branch, United Nations Environment Programme 
• Mr. Richard Ridourt, Government of the United Kingdom

Panelists

• Mr. Mauro Ó de Almeida, Secretary of Environment, Government of Pará
• Mr. Gabriel Labbate, Head of Climate Mitigation Unit, UNEP & Co-Chair IC-VCM
• Ms. Juliana Santiago, Executive Vice-president Brazil, Emergent, LEAF Coalition
• Mr. Eugenio Pantoja, Senior Director of Public Policies, Amazon Environment Research Institute (IPAM)

Moderation 

• Ms. Val Kapos, UNEP-WCM

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Date: 8 Dec 2023 

Location: UNEP Pavilion

Speakers

• Kelley Kizzier, Board Member, ICVCM
• Gabriel Labbate, Co-chair of Expert Panel, ICVCM and Head Climate Mitigation Unit, UNEP/UN-REDD Programme 
• Pedro Barata, Co-chair of Expert Panel, ICVCM

Register here: https://lu.ma/ICVCM-UNEP-bringing-market-integrity

Date: 8 December 2023 (Friday)

Time: 13:30 - 14:30 (GST)

Venue: Blue Zone, Resilience Hub

Forests and Climate led – REDD+ participation via Zambia

FAO or Zambia to speak and present UN-REDD Zambia work.

This session will focus on best-practices, tools, and local initiatives that strengthen climate action and water resilience across landscapes. There will also be a discussion on how they can be upscaled and more systematically incorporated into global and national processes.

Organizers: Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), Australia Water Partnership, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), FAO

Date: 4 December;

Time: 9:00-10:20 GST

Venue: COP28 Indonesia Pavilion

FAO will present on advances, challenges and opportunities raising from the ongoing ASEAN Social Forestry UN-REDD Programme Initiative – Indonesia Pavilion. Topic: capacities to assess and monitor social forestry to the NDCs Frameworks.

UNEP works to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, as well as preserve other land uses including through wetland conservation and grassland restoration, to conserve rich biodiverse territories. This day will focus on scaling robust solutions that protect, restore and effectively manage natural ecosystems and forests, address drivers of nature loss, empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and create resilient livelihoods.

9:15 - 10:00
The Big Nature Turnaround: Repurposing $7 Trillion Financing Nature’s Loss

The State of Finance for Nature (SFN) is an annual report that monitors global financial flows related to Nature-based Solutions (NbS). It assesses the investment required to limit global warming below 1.5°C, halt biodiversity loss, and achieve land degradation neutrality. The upcoming 2023 report, to be unveiled at this event, introduces a significant enhancement from the first two editions by examining private financial flows that adversely impact nature, alongside the public harmful subsidies uncovered in 2022. SFN 2023 provides a comprehensive understanding of both public and private financial contributions to NbS within the broader economic context, encompassing both nature-negative and nature-positive financial flows. 

Panelists

• Heike Henn, Director for Climate, Energy and Environment and Commissioner for Climate Policy and Climate Financing, Germany
• Carina Pimenta, National Secretary for Bioeconomy, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Brazil 
• Niki Mardas, Executive Director, Global Canopy 
• Mirey Atallah, Head, Nature for Climate Branch, UNEP (moderator)

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Date: 9 December 2023 

Time: 10:30-11:15 am, GST

Venue: B87, UNEP Pavilion

Livestream: https://www.unep.org/unep-climate-cop28/pavilion#Sat9

The race to decarbonization requires an ‘everywhere, everything, all at once’ approach. Beyond the transport and energy sectors, forests offer an untapped mitigation potential of at least 4 gigatonnes of emissions reductions per year. Forests also have enormous potential to generate resources for the communities that inhabit them.  This high-level dialogue will bring together forest-rich countries and experts to discuss a toolbox of solutions, including the role of carbon markets, monitoring systems, and safeguards framework to supercharge the impacts of forest-based actions on climate.

Speakers

• Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP;
• Marina Silva, Minister, Ministry of Environment, Brazil (tbc); 
• Siti Nurbaya, Minister for Environment and Forestry, Indonesia (tbc);
• Annette Nazareth, ICVCM Chair (tbc)
• Cecile Bibiane Ndjebet,, UN Champion of the Earth 2022; 
• Eunsik Park, Director General, Korea Forest Service.

WHEN: 16 November, 11.00 - 12.00 

WHERE: Persada Annex 307

LINK TO JOIN ONLINE: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19:meeting_YzU2ZjdmN2YtMTFhOS00NWNjLTkwMmQtZWU5NjY3ZmE4MDI2@thread.v2/0?context=%7B%22Tid%22:%222a6c12ad-406a-4f33-b686-f78ff5822208%22,%22Oid%22:%229b1c9eec-0dda-4fbc-8d82-aa86530afdd2%22%7D 

WHAT:

The regional climate response falls short, closing emissions gap only partially, and still far from the required 43% for 1.5°C limits by 2030. Forests and carbon markets offer a promising solution, but the current price paid for carbon is not high enough to incentivize stronger climate ambitions and to tap into the mitigation potential of forests which often have high opportunity cost. The absence of international support, confidence-building measures, and supply-side signals for high-integrity forest carbon credits, including jurisdictional and nested credits, volume, and value targets, remain as barriers. 

This dialogue will explore the role of forest carbon in broader climate strategies and NDCs; policy levers for transitioning to high-integrity forest carbon markets; and how raising forest ambition could result in additional benefits whilst keeping the goals of the Paris agreement alive. It will formulate actionable recommendations to bridge the finance-ambition gap, thereby significantly contributing to the Global Stocktake process.

Framing questions

1. Where we are: How are countries maximizing the potentials of forest action in their NDCs?  What role can forest carbon play in broader climate strategies, and how can unlocking the potentials of forest action increase ambitions and result in additional benefits?
2. Where we are going: How can forest countries lead the transition to high-integrity carbon markets, and generate clear supply-side signals for forest carbon credits, including jurisdictional and nested credits, to attract greater private and public demand, especially considering minimum volume and value targets?
3. How do we get there: What actionable recommendations can be formulated to bridge the gap between climate finance and ambition, and how can they significantly contribute to the Global Stocktake process? How can these be monitored transparently? 

Expected Outcome of the event 

1. Increased dialogue between the buyers, sellers and intermediaries of forest carbon to build consensus on how to overcome barriers hindering the transition to high-integrity forest carbon markets.
2. Identified concrete entry points for integrating forest carbon within wider climate goals and policies such as NDCs by aligning it with other climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.
3. Forged new partnerships across multiple stakeholder groups to champion integrated forest management approaches, considering different scales and financing sources.
4. Co-created actionable recommendations to bridge the climate finance and ambition gaps, and significantly contribute to the Global Stocktake process.

Partners:  FAO, UNEP, UNDP (UN-REDD)

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Event Details:

• Date: 27 October 2023
• Time: 12:00 (GMT-5)
• Duration: 1 Hour
• Venue: Darien Room
• Language: Spanish

Agenda:

Panel Discussion I: How can high-integrity and finance for forests and climate be scaled up? (25min) - Moderation Maria Ruiz, UN-REDD

Panelists:

• Susana Vélez Haller, Senior Manager, Verra
• Rocio Sanz Cortez, Executive Vice President, Emergent
• Daniel Ortega Pacheco, Co-Chair of the Expert Panel, IC-VCM
• ART-TREES (TBC)

Panel Discussion II: Why integrity is the foundation of effective nesting approaches (20 min) - Moderation Judith Walcott, UN-REDD

Panelists:

• Milagros Sandoval, Director General for Climate Change and Desertification at the Ministry of Environment, Peru
• Leonardo Carvalho, Government of Acre, Brazil
• Maria Elena Herrera Ugalde, REDD+ Secretariat, FONAFIFO, Costa Rica

IV. Q&A Session (10 minutes) - Moderation Noelia Jover, UN-REDD

V. Recommendations and Closing Remarks (5 minutes)

• Lola Cabnal, IP representative, UN-REDD Programme’s Executive Board

Context:

There is an urgent need to scale up finance to achieve the full potential of forests to contribute to climate change mitigation goals to have a chance of meeting Paris Agreement ambitions. This requires targeting several options for the implementation and financing of REDD+, with the involvement of multiple stakeholders. In this context, the event will explore what conditions are needed to diversify sources of finance for forests and climate and how high integrity is the key to achieving this.

In the past few months, there has been a growing interest in channeling funding for forest conservation and restoration in a decentralized manner. Several jurisdictions have announced calls for forestry concessions, which include emission reductions and removal projects. Others are exploring direct agreements with project developers interested in generating carbon credits. This will a landscape where REDD+ projects and jurisdictional-level activities must coexist in order to ensure social, environmental and accounting integrity.

However, countries face challenges with REDD+ initiatives operating at different scales and through diverse funding sources. This can lead to difficulties aligning accounting, governance and safeguards frameworks, with strong involvement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and other key stakeholders.

 Nesting presents an opportunity to align activities, approaches, and systems at different scales and optimize resources for forests. Experiences and insights are emerging on key considerations and best practices for creating 'nesting models' to follow.

 This event will feature case studies from LAC countries that are developing nesting approaches for REDD+, including challenges to ensure high environmental integrity and social inclusion, and consistency in baselines, MRV and safeguards systems, among others. There will also be a discussion on challenges and barriers to finance for forests and climate, such as those related to carbon accounting, legal frameworks, governance, and risk management.  Some key considerations and recommendations will be provided to support the implementation of effective nesting approaches and for scaling up high-integrity finance.

Objectives:

1. Foster collaboration and build capacities for integrated and aligned REDD+ implementation approaches and systems, considering different scales and financing sources, with strong stakeholder engagement.
2. Identify opportunities to scale up sustainable finance for forests and climate, addressing barriers and ensuring high-integrity carbon accounting, governance and safeguards.

Impulsando el financiamiento con alta integridad para los bosques y el clima.

Detalles del Evento:

• Fecha: 27 de Octubre 2023
• Hora: 12:00 (GMT-5)
• Duracion: 1 hora
• Venue: Sala Darien
• Idioma: Español

Agenda:

I. Primer panel: ¿Cómo puede escalarse la alta integridad y la financiación para los bosques y el clima? (25 min) - Moderación Maria Ruiz, ONU-REDD

Panelistas:

• Susana Vélez Haller, Senior Manager, VERRA
• Art-Trees (TBC)
• Rocio Sanz Cortez, Vice Presidenta Ejecutiva, Emergent
• Daniel Ortega Pacheco, Co-Chair del Panel de Expertos, IC-VCM

II. Segundo panel: Por qué la integridad es la base de los enfoques de anidación eficaces (20 min) Moderación Judith Walcott, ONU-REDD.

Panelistas:

• Milagros Sandoval, Directora General de Cambio Climático y Desertificación at Ministerio del Ambiente, Perú.
• Leonardo Carvalho, Gobierno de Acre, Brasil
• Maria Elena Herrera Ugalde, Secretaria de REDD+, FONAFIFO, Costa Rica

III. Sesión de preguntas y respuestas (10 minutos) - Moderación Noelia Jover, ONU-REDD.

IV. Recomendaciones y Comentarios Finales (5 minutos)

• Lola Cabnal, Representative de Pueblos Indígenas, Junta Ejecutiva del Programa ONU-REDD

Contexto: 

Existe una necesidad urgente de ampliar la financiación para alcanzar todo el potencial de los bosques para contribuir a los objetivos de mitigación del cambio climático y tener la oportunidad de cumplir las ambiciones del Acuerdo de París. Para ello es necesario centrarse en distintas opciones para la aplicación y financiación de REDD+, con la participación de múltiples partes interesadas. En este contexto, el evento explorará qué condiciones son necesarias para diversificar las fuentes de financiación para los bosques y el clima y cómo la alta integridad es la clave para lograrlo.

En los últimos meses ha crecido el interés por canalizar de forma descentralizada la financiación para la conservación y restauración de los bosques. Varias jurisdicciones han anunciado convocatorias de concesiones forestales, que incluyen proyectos de reducción y eliminación de emisiones. Otras están explorando acuerdos directos con promotores de proyectos interesados en generar créditos de carbono. En este panorama, los proyectos REDD+ y las actividades a nivel jurisdiccional deberán coexistir para garantizar la integridad social, medioambiental y contable.

Sin embargo, los países se enfrentan a retos con iniciativas REDD+ que operan a diferentes escalas y a través de diversas fuentes de financiación. Esto puede dificultar la armonización de los marcos de contabilidad, gobernanza y salvaguardas, con una fuerte participación de los pueblos indígenas y las comunidades locales, así como de otras partes interesadas. 

El anidamiento presenta una oportunidad para alinear actividades, enfoques y sistemas a diferentes escalas y optimizar los recursos para los bosques. Están surgiendo experiencias y conocimientos sobre consideraciones clave y mejores prácticas para crear ‘modelos de anidamiento’ a seguir.

En este evento se presentarán estudios de caso de países de ALC que están desarrollando enfoques de anidación para REDD+, incluyendo desafíos para asegurar una alta integridad ambiental e inclusión social, y consistencia en las líneas de base, MRV y sistemas de salvaguardas, entre otros. También se debatirá sobre los retos y obstáculos a la financiación para los bosques y el clima, como los relacionados con la contabilidad del carbono, los marcos jurídicos, la gobernanza y la gestión de riesgos.  Se ofrecerán recomendaciones claves para apoyar la aplicación de enfoques de anidación eficaces y para ampliar la financiación.

Objetivos:

• Fomentar la colaboración y crear capacidades para enfoques y sistemas de implementación de REDD+ integrados y alineados, considerando diferentes escalas y fuentes de financiación, con un fuerte compromiso de las partes interesadas.
• Identificar oportunidades para ampliar la financiación sostenible para los bosques y el clima, abordando los obstáculos y garantizando una contabilidad, gobernanza y salvaguardias del carbono de alta integridad.

You can join the meeting here 

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Africa is home to 670 mha of forests and 40 mha of peatlands. Emissions from degraded peatlands in Africa are around 130 Mt CO2 e/yr while an estimated 0.5% of forest is lost every year.  Without safeguarding these tremendous carbon reservoirs, which can potentially reduce emissions by up to 4 billion tons of CO2 per year, the ambitions of the Paris agreement will not be met.   

Climate and nature actors must continue to come together, build momentum and advance the 2030 Land and Water Breakthroughs, to raise ambition and protect these valuable places. Yet, low emission reduction commitments and low carbon prices in voluntary markets are hindering this progress. In 2023, prices were USD 3-5 per ton compared to USD 80-100 in regulated markets.   

The side event has been funded and organized within the framework of the UN-REDD Programme and the Global Peatlands Initiative. This event will highlight ways to unlock sustainable investment for Nature-based Solutions (NbS), by producing high-integrity carbon credits, increasing carbon credit pricing and accounting for the multiple benefits of nature.

Moderators: 

• Dianna Kopansky-  Global Peatlands Initiative Coordinator, UNEP
• Sekai Ngarize, UNEP UN-REDD Africa Regional advisor 

Speakers 

• Her Excellency Ms. Razan Al Mubarak, High-Level Champion of the UAE 
• Her Excellency Mrs. Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Republic of Congo.  
• Mirey Atallah, Head of Branch, Nature for Climate, UNEP  
• Nady Mahmoud, Land Use System Transformation Lead, Climate Champions
• Daniel Vicente Ortega Pacheco, Expert Panel Co-chair IC-VCM  
• Roselyn Fosuah Adjei, REDD+ National Focal point, Forestry Commission, Ghana 
• Jean Jacques Bambuta Boole, Peatland Management Unit Coordinator, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, DRC 
• Bob Kazungu, REDD+ National Focal Point, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda 
• Teleola Oyegoke, African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) 
• Julie Mulonga, Director, Eastern Africa Wetlands International 

This Africa Climate Week side event will be a 90 minutes hybrid session. 

You can watch the event live, here