Watch the event online
Friday 11 November 2022
10:15-11:45 EET
Location: COP27 venue, Blue Zone, Zone C, pavilion P90 + Online streaming
Co-organised by Nefco, Swedish Energy Agency, UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre and Wuppertal Institute
Cooperation through international carbon trade has the potential to raise climate ambition and support sustainable development – if executed consciously. The Paris Agreement rulebook adopted at COP26 in Glasgow provides a robust framework for high-integrity carbon markets and cooperation. While several aspects of the rulebook remain to be defined, several countries have now started implementing cooperative approaches under Article 6.2 and are pioneering how the rulebook will be interpreted in practise.
The Nordic countries and partner organisations have played a pioneering role in supporting ambitious climate action and sustainable development in developing countries and promoting carbon pricing around the world for over twenty years.
Nordic Article 6 vision and cooperation strives to demonstrate that robust approaches relating to safeguards, stakeholder engagement and sustainable development are key for increasing cooperation, building capacity and create best practices supporting the implementation of the Article 6 mechanism.
This side event brings together governments, international actors and voluntary carbon market initiatives to showcase and discuss best practise implementation of the Article 6 mechanism, practical tools and guidelines.
Agenda
10:15-10:20 Opening words, Niklas Hagelberg, Senior Programme Management Officer, Global Coordinator, Climate Change at UN Environment Programme
10:20-10:25 Nordic vision for Article 6 cooperation, Ash Sharma, Nefco
10:25-11:05 Session 1: Approaches to implementing Article 6 and supporting sustainable development (including Q&A)
Experiences from early Article 6 implementation can provide valuable insights and important input to the development and further elaboration of Article 6 methodologies, tools and guidance.
This session will present and discuss early piloting activities under the Article 6 mechanism implementation taken by the Nordic countries, together with international actors, buyers and host countries, highlighting key priorities and lessons learned so far.
Moderator: Ash Sharma, Vice President, Nefco
Speakers:
- Sandra Lindström, Head of International Climate Cooperation, Swedish Energy Agency
- Devesh Mani Tripathi, Director General of the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal
- Ingvild Solvang, Deputy Director, Head of Climate Action and Inclusive Development, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
11:05-11:45 Session 2: How sustainable development tools can help fostering the interlinkages between the 2030 agenda and the Paris Agreement (including Q&A)
Synergies can be harnessed between sustainable development and climate mitigation options fostering the societal and systems transformations required to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Market-based cooperation according to Article 6 mechanism under the Paris Agreement allows for national ambition raising and the use of transformative, science-based pathways to achieve these goals. An integrated assessment of sustainable development benefits beyond the pure greenhouse gas mitigation outcomes and will support the transformative design of Article 6 activities.
This session will present and discuss options for sustainable development tools and approaches relevant to the Article 6.4 sustainable development tool, to be developed by the Supervisory Body by 2023.
Moderator: Ash Sharma, Vice President, Nefco
Speakers:
- Karen Olsen, Senior Researcher at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC)
- El hadji Mbaye M. Diagne, Director General of AFRIQUE – ENERGIE – ENVIRONNEMENT (AEE)
- Christof Arens, Senior Researcher at Wuppertal institute
Speakers
Niklas Hagelberg, Climate Change at UN Environment Programme
Niklas Hagelberg is a Senior Programme Officer at UN Environment where he is the Coordinator of UN Environment’s subprogramme on Climate Change. Hagelberg works to set the strategic direction of the climate change subprogramme, programme oversight and progress review and fundraising. Previously Hagelberg was part of the team that established the global UN-REDD programme and UN-REDD country programmes in Tanzania and Vietnam. Hagelberg has a M.Sc. in Forestry.
Sandra Lindström, Swedish Energy Agency
Sandra Lindström is Head of International Climate Cooperation at the Swedish Energy Agency with seventeen years of experience in carbon markets and international climate policy. Lindström currently leads the Swedish Energy Agency’s work on developing new international climate finance programs. Previously, Sandra worked at the World Bank and Asian Development Bank where she supported the coordination and development of global partnerships for climate mitigation including Prototype Carbon Fund, BioCarbon Fund and Asia Pacific Carbon Fund.
Devesh Mani Tripathi, Director General of the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal
Devesh Mani Tripathi is the Director General of the Department of Forests and Soil in the Government of Nepal
Ingvild Solvang, Global Green Growth Institute
Mr. Devesh Mani Tripathi is the Director General of the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation under the Ministry of Forests and Environment. Mr. Tripathi has 30 years of experience working with the Government of Nepal in various roles.
Karen Olsen, UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre
Karen Olsen is a Senior Researcher at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC). She has 20 years of experience in research and capacity building for climate action, sustainability transition and methodology development for impact assessment of policies and actions. Olsen is project manager for the Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPAR6C) project (2022-25). Olsen is leading the Sustainable Development Initiative for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (2012-22) and has led methodology development for the transformational change and sustainable development methodologies under the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT, 2016-20). Olsen serves as a subject matter expert for the IC-VCM safeguards and sustainable development panel and as expert reviewer for the Swiss national research program ‘Solutions Oriented Research for Development’ (SOR4D).
El hadji Mbaye M. Diagne, AFRIQUE – ENERGIE – ENVIRONNEMENT
El hadji Mbaye M. DIAGNE is the Director General of AFRIQUE – ENERGIE – ENVIRONNEMENT (AEE) a consultancy firm in Senegal as well as Member of Article 6.4 Supervisory Body. DIAGNE is an engineer, senior consultant and former President of the COMNACC (Senegalese National Board on Climate Change). He is member of the Senegalese official delegation for the UNFCCC negotiations since 2000 and he is the lead coordinator for market issues. He supports many UNFCCC negotiating groups including the African Group of Negotiators (Lead Coordinator), the G77 & China (Lead Coordinator) and Least Developed Countries on issues related to “carbon markets” (currently KP mechanisms and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement). DIAGNE has conducted many studies in the West Africa region on carbon markets, climate finance and carbon pricing projects.
Christof Arens, Wuppertal institute
Christof Arens is a Senior Researcher with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Arens’ research focus is on policies and measures in the field of international climate policy, especially market-based instruments. He has led numerous research projects on the analysis and further development of Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement, as well as on the voluntary carbon market. Arens currently manages the Carbon Mechanisms Project (2021-24) on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
Ash Sharma, Nefco
Ash Sharma, Vice President of Special Funds at Nefco, is a climate, environmental finance, policy and investment specialist with over 30 years of experience in over 60 countries, with a current focus on Africa. Sharma has served on various international climate change steering and working groups for Nordic Council of Ministers, UNEP, World Bank, G8 and G20 and has been an adviser to the European Commission, Innovate UK and the Climate Policy Initiative.
Event partners
This event is organised in collaboration with Swedish Energy Agency, UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre and Wuppertal Institute
Contacts
Lia Oker-Blom
Senior Communications Officer