Introduction to vcs jnr (south south jnr workshop, manaus) 13 jun 13 for dist

Introduction to Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+

(JNR)

South-South Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR)

Exchange Workshop

Manaus, Brazil

13 June 2013

Naomi Swickard, VCSA 13 Jun 2013

Outline

• VCS Overview

• Need for Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR)

• Development of VCS JNR Framework

• JNR Overview

• Piloting the JNR

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)

• Established by leading NGOs (IETA, WBCSD, The Climate Group,

WEF) to provide a rigorous, trustworthy and innovative global

standard and validation and verification program for GHG offsets.

• Managed by the VCS Association:

Non-profit headquartered in Washington, DC, South America

office in Santiago, Chile, representatives in Brazil, Bangkok

and Beijing

Single focus – to develop and manage the platform (i.e., no

consulting, no meth development, no validation/verification, no

project development)

Funded through VCU levy (USD $0.10 per VCU) and

foundation grants

• AFOLU Steering Committee largely credited with bringing land-

based activities into the carbon market

VCS Project Statistics

• Registered projects (data from 31 April 13)

• ~1,000 registered projects (70+ AFOLU projects)

• Registered AFOLU projects in Indonesia (11), Malaysia, Laos,

Cambodia, India, Colombia, Guatemala, Belize, Peru, Brazil,

Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Australia, Canada, US and more

• Volumes

• Over 120 million VCUs issued (8.8 million+ from AFOLU)

• AFOLU pooled buffer account holds nearly 3 million buffer

credits

• AFOLU Methodologies

• ~ 15 AFOLU methodologies approved for REDD, IFM, WRC,

ALM, under development in ACoGS

Scaling up from project to jurisdiction-wide

approaches

Providing new guidance for robust REDD+

accounting at multiple scales

1. Need for Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+

Problematic Situation

• Uncertainty of future international REDD+ climate policy exacerbated by a lack of confidence in how REDD+ accounting can work effectively under market and/or results-based mechanisms

• Lack of guidance on how a government can robustly and transparently account for and verify emission reductions/removals generated throughout a jurisdiction

• Gap between REDD+ project activities and REDD+ policies and programs directed by governments. No guidelines as to how the two levels can be effectively integrated

Why Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+?

• Increases scale and ensures alignment between national/ subnational: Sub-national and national accounting ensures environmental

integrity, full leakage accounting, and ensures emission reductions ‘add up’ across the entire jurisdiction

Can drive REDD+ through policy, program and project incentives

Increases emissions reduction potential, with potential for harmonized market and public funding streams.

Ensures fungibility of credits across sectors and scales – majority of international REDD+ projects are already using VCS

• Builds on sub-national and project experience and provides pathway for recognition of ‘early action’

• Recognizes site-specific mitigation action and directs benefits accordingly

• May increase funding availability for REDD+ implementation

VCS Jurisdictional & Nested REDD+ (JNR)

• JNR provides a robust framework for accounting of jurisdictional REDD+ emissions and reductions

Allows for significant flexibility to facilitate use by a variety of jurisdictions; allowing customization while maintaining robust accounting

Enables rewarding/crediting of REDD+ programs at multiple levels (project, state/province and national)

First global framework for rewarding/crediting jurisdictional REDD+ programs

Where appropriate, creates a pathway for projects to “nest” within larger scale jurisdictional programs (both sub-national and national)

2. Development of VCS JNR

JNR Process

Q1 2011: Advisory (AC) and Technical Expert (TE) Committees convened

Oct 2011: Technical Recommendations released

Nov-Jan 2012: Review by AC, TE and Peer group, and revision of recommendations

Feb 2012: Updated Technical Recommendations released, based on peer review and other input

Mar-May 2012: Additional input from AC, TE and pilot jurisdictions and organizations (including Acre, Amazonas, DRC, Laos, Peru; NGOs CI, TNC, FFI; GIZ and WB), VCS requirements drafted

May 2012: Draft VCS requirements issued for public consultation

June-Aug 2012: Revisions based on public consultation, AFOLU Steering Committee review, Final revisions

Oct 2012: Release of final requirements

2013 Second Phase: Piloting

Generously funded by CLUA

JNR Advisory Committee

Linda Adams, Climate Action Reserve Chair, USA

Dr. Girma Amente, Director General, Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise,

Ethiopia

Benoit Bosquet and Ken Andrasko, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)

Alejandro Callejas Linares, Deputy Environment Secretary, Chiapas, Mexico

Marco Chiu, Undersecretary of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Ecuador

Mariano Colini Cenamo, Executive Director, Institute for Conservation and

Sustainable Development of Amazonas (IDESAM), Brazil

Dr. Mark Dangerfield, Technical Director, GreenCollar Climate Solutions, Australia

Christian Del Valle, Director - Environmental Markets & Forestry, BNP Paribas, UK

Joanna Durbin, Director, Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance, USA

Adam Diamant, Senior Project Manager, Global Climate Change Program, Electric

Power Research Institute (EPRI), USA

José Carlos Fernandez, Head of International Affairs and Financial Development

Unit, National Forestry Commission, Mexico

Greg Fishbein, Managing Director, Forest Carbon, The Nature Conservancy, USA

JNR Advisory Committee, continued

Andrea García-Guerrero, Chief of Climate Change Mitigation Group, Ministry of

Environment, Colombia

Tobias Garritt, Advisory Board Member, Papua Low Carbon Development Task

Force & CEO, Emerald Planet, Indonesia

Nicolas Grondard, Project Officer, ONF International, France

Bruno Guay, Technical Advisor, National REDD Coordination of the DRC, UNDP

/United Nations REDD program (UN-REDD), Democratic Republic of the Congo

Jeffrey Hayward, Director, Climate Program, Rainforest Alliance, USA

Rezal Kusumaatmadja, Partner, Starling Resources, Indonesia

Monica Julissa De Los Rios, Commissioned Charge at the Institute of Regulation,

Control and Registration, Acre State Government, Brazil

Ludovino Lopes, Partner, Ludovino Lopes Lawyers, Brazil

Dr. Lucio Pedroni, President and Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Decisions

International, Costa Rica

Lucia Ruiz, Executive Director, CIMA Cordillera Azul, Peru

Dr. D. Andrew Wardell, Programme Director, Forests and Governance, Center for

International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia

JNR Technical Committee

• Technical Leaders

Dr. Timothy Pearson, Program Officer II, Ecosystem Services, Winrock International

Dr. Steven De Gryze, Managing Director, Carbon Analytics, Terra Global Capital, LLC

Manuel Estrada, Independent Consultant

Adam Gibbon, Technical Specialist, Climate Program, Rainforest Alliance

• Technical Experts

William Garrett, Principal Consultant, Camco

Dil Raj Khanal, Policy Facilitator, The Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal

Dr. Ruben Lubowski, Senior Economist, Environmental Defense Fund

Dr. Marcelo Rocha, Founder and Partner, Fabrica Ethica Brasil - Sustainability Consultancy

Zoe Ryan, Forest Carbon Specialist, Fauna & Flora International

David Shoch, M.F., Director of Forestry and Technical Services, TerraCarbon LLC

Joanna Silver, Vice President, Environmental Market Product Design & Development, Markit Group Limited

Dr. Gordon Smith, Carbon Development Director, Wildlife Works Carbon LLC

Georgina Varley, Manager, Macquarie Global Investments, Macquarie Bank

Dr. Sarah Walker, Program Officer II, REDD+ Specialist, Winrock International

January 23 2013

Scenarios

Jurisdictional Accounting Framework

Comparison to Other Efforts

3. JNR Overview

JNR Scenarios

JNR Framework

• Based on IPCC and best practice

• Requirements cover technical issues such as: Defining boundaries (geographic and program boundaries)

Developing and nesting baselines (inc. scope, pools, additionality, updating)

‘Grandparenting’ (providing time for projects and lower-level jurisdictions to transition into national/sub-national programs)

Leakage

Monitoring

Payments/Crediting (inc. timing, preventing double counting)

Reversals and natural disturbance (inc. crediting implications in nesting)

• Requirements also cover other issues such as: Legal issues (right of use)

Safeguards

Approvals (eg, by higher jurisdictional levels)

Accessing Multiple Sources of Finance

• Attract new public and private finance to support REDD+ at multiple scales

• Potential to access multiple sources of public and private financing and sources of demand, using a harmonized accounting system:

Emerging compliance markets (eg, CA)

Potential recognition by bilateral and multilateral pay for performance initiatives – Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), Japanese Bilateral Offset Crediting Mechanism, etc.

Access to private financing, public-private partnerships, emerging private funds

Link to other non- carbon revenues

Current pilots and expected outcomes

Forthcoming VCS documents and tools

4. Piloting the JNR

JNR Piloting

• Provide support to interested pilot jurisdictions in Latin America,

Africa and Asia

• Funding from Norway and GIZ to pilot in Acre and Amazonas,

Brazil; Costa Rica (national); DRC (subnational); Peru

(subnational), additional pilots in Chile (national), Laos

(subnational); many more in initial or exploratory phases

• Process:

• Gap assessment (detailed) and feasibility

• Based on above, work plan will be developed to guide

implementation of REDD+ program in line with JNR

• Goal of registration of baseline, and in some cases REDD+ program

including verification and issuance of credits (depending on needs)

• Will continue engaging on demand side with a number of emerging

pre-compliance and compliance markets

Anticipated Piloting Outcomes

• Improve “readiness” of countries to participate in a

UNFCCC REDD+ results-based framework.

• Better understand the potential technical and capacity

gaps for carbon accounting.

• Identify and harmonize common pathways between

pilots.

• Generate lessons learned to improve the JNR

Requirements and inform a future UNFCCC framework.

• Build confidence in REDD+ for policy makers, donors

and investors.

Additional JNR documentation forthcoming

• The following additional VCS documents, templates and tools are still under development: Registration and Issuance process

Validation/verification process for jurisdictional programs

Jurisdictional Program Description (JPD)

Jurisdictional representations

Tools:

Jurisdictional non-permanence risk tool

Jurisdictional leakage tool • Tools are being developed by working groups

• Timeline: Release additional documents and tools for public consultation in 2013

• Future work: Guidance document, based on lessons learned from pilot activities, and revisions/updates to JNR Requirements

Thank you…Questions?

Naomi Swickard

AFOLU Manager

VCS Association

[email protected]