State Department Highlights Initiatives Advancing High-Integrity Carbon Markets

Today, the Department of State, private sector, and civil society leaders highlighted the potential of high-integrity carbon markets to generate finance needed for developing countries to address the climate crisis by combating deforestation and accelerating their transition from fossil-generated to clean electricity.

The event featured recent progress on two U.S.-supported international carbon markets initiatives: the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, which aims to halt and reverse deforestation in tropical forest countries, and the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), which aims to support just and ambitious energy transition strategies in developing countries.

The U.S. government was represented at the event by Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Verma, and Principal Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Sue Biniaz.  Former Secretary of State and former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry also delivered remarks.  Other speakers included representatives from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and Vietnam; leaders from the non-profit and private sectors; and key civil society representatives.

The LEAF and ETA initiatives are pioneering sector-scale approaches to carbon crediting.  Both initiatives require that participating companies have ambitious science-based climate targets and be fully transparent about their emissions and use of carbon credits.

Speakers at today’s event addressed the challenges and opportunities in supporting ambitious climate action by developing countries.  The speakers emphasized the need for high-integrity approaches to carbon crediting to ensure the credits reflect real greenhouse gas reductions and do not displace other investments in reducing companies’ emissions.  They celebrated the progress that has been made by the LEAF Coalition and the ETA and welcomed additional countries and companies to join these initiatives.

The ETA announced the establishment of a Senior Consultative Group to provide independent input on the ETA’s design and operation, to be chaired by Secretary Kerry.  Additional members will include Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency, Arunabha Ghosh, Founder-CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Rachel Kyte, Co-Chair, Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), Annette Nazareth, Chair, Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, Mary Nichols, Vice Chair, California-China Climate Institute, Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Chief Executive Officer for Sustainable Energy for All, and Co-Chair UN-Energy, and Vera Songwe, Co-Chair, High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance.

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