The International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) have concluded the two-day Carbon Markets Virtual Pavilion. Speaking at the event was senior leadership from the Global Carbon Council (GCC).
Organized virtually on November 11 and 12, the event featured high-level discussions, side events, interactive sessions and panel discussions on topics including the role of carbon markets in recovery from COVID-19, future of carbon pricing, large-scale carbon trading, opportunities and challenges of carbon pricing across all sectors.
Commenting on the sidelines of the event, Dr. Yousef Alhorr – Founding Chairman of Global Carbon Council said, “Carbon Markets Virtual Pavilion is a great opportunity to meet our partners, exchange expertise and promote GCC on a global level.”
Representing GCC at the event was Mr. Kishor Rajhansa, Director – Technical and Strategy of the Global Carbon Council (GCC) who spoke on Day 2 at a panel discussion titled Journey to Net Zero: The Role of the Voluntary Carbon Market. Joining Mr. Rajhansa were panelists including David Antonioli, CEO – Verra, Sarah Leugers, Director of Communications – Gold Standard, and Stephen Donofrio, Director of Forest Trends – Ecosystem Marketplace.
During the session, Mr. Rajhansa shared insights on the role that the voluntary carbon market, such as Global Carbon Council (GCC), will play in delivering the goals of the Paris Agreement and supporting the journey to Net Zero. He also talked about the scope and responsibility of supply of large quantities of high quality GHG offsets that voluntary carbon markets will have, keeping in view of the carbon neutrality challenges that the world has in view of achieving net-zero carbon world by 2050.
The Global Carbon Council (GCC) Program is the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region’s first voluntary carbon offsetting program and an initiative of the Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD). The GCC program aims to contribute to a vision of a sustainable and low-carbon world economy. It receives GHG emission reduction projects from the entire world, with a special emphasis on low-carbon development in the MENA region, which has largely remained under-represented in carbon markets. In line GORD’s mission, GCC Program helps to catalyze climate action on the ground, while ensuring that project construction and operations cause no net harm to the environment and society and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
GCC has received conditional approval of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as GHG Program under ICAO’s CORSIA scheme for supplying carbon credits to international airlines for their carbon neutral growth beyond 2020. It has also been recognized by FIFA to achieve carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup 2022™ commitments of the Supreme Committee for delivery & Legacy (SC). To meet the requirements of delivering a carbon neutral tournament, GCC is providing a carbon offsetting platform for the World Cup. More recently, the program has also been acknowledged in the First Sustainability Progress Report for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ released in October.
