The Global Carbon Council (GCC) made a significant presence at the recent Carbon Forward Asia event organized by Carbon Pulse in Singapore on 2-3 May 2023. Mr. Kishor Rajhansa, Chief Operating Officer of GCC, was among the speakers at the event, which brought together renowned experts in environmental markets, government representatives, investors, analysts, brokers and customers. He participated in a panel discussion titled “Coming late, but fast: The Middle East enters the carbon market.” The session delved into the growing engagement of the Middle East in the carbon market and the opportunities and challenges it presents. Over the past few years, the region has witnessed a significant surge in carbon market involvement, attracting substantial investments.
GCC’s insights and expertise added valuable perspectives to the discourse on the Middle East’s entry into the global carbon market. As first Global South based international GHG program , GCC aims to develop carbon market standards and frameworks to facilitate the leveraging of climate mitigation finance, including MENA region which has largely remained under-represented in using carbon market instruments to catalyze climate actions. Mr. Rajhansa also highlighted the crucial role of renewable energy for a net zero world and why it is important that carbon markets must support truly “Additional” project that have huge sustainable development benefits. He also emphasized in response to some questions that GCC has six stages of evaluation of projects through independent processes and all aspects of projects, including additionality, is checked thoroughly before projects are registered with GCC.
By joining the panel discussion at Carbon Forward Asia, GCC contributed to the dialogue surrounding the Middle East’s carbon market, emphasizing its commitment to fostering sustainable climate actions and supporting the region’s transition towards a low-carbon economy.