Pricing the value of natural systems: Building resilience in markets for nature-based carbon sequestration
5 Dec
15:30-16:15 GST
The voluntary carbon offset credit market for nature-based carbon sequestration projects, particularly within the reducing deforestation (REDD+) framework, has faced criticism in recent months over the integrity and reliability of offsetting claims, stinting buyer demand and forcing a reevaluation of supply fundamentals, which has plunged the price of nature-based offsets and confidence in the market. Significant efforts are underway to improve measurement and verification standards, governance frameworks, and on-the-ground practices within the voluntary carbon market amid increasing calls and governmental initiatives to establish compliance or quasi-compliance markets for greenhouse gas emissions, including both business- and government-led carbon pricing mechanisms and emissions trading systems. How can initiatives within the voluntary carbon market and in compliance markets make resilient the integrity and value of nature-based solutions to climate change to ensure that adequate funding reaches the businesses and communities protecting natural systems with high carbon sequestration potential and tremendous co-benefits to biodiversity, ecosystem services, and environmental and health outcomes?