The Verified Carbon Standard
Scaling up REDD+: Jurisdictional andNested REDD+FFPRITokyo, Japan
8 February 2012

Naomi Swickard, AFOLU Manager

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 officein Santiago, Chile, representative in Bangkok, Thailand Single focus – to develop and manage the platform (i.e., noconsulting, no meth development, no validation/verification, noproject development)
 Funded through VCU levy (USD $0.10 per VCU)and foundation grants•

AFOLU Steering Committee largely credited with bringing in land‐
based activities into the carbon market
25 February 2012

VCS Project Statistics•

Registered projects
Over 700 registered projects (21 AFOLU projects)• Registered AFOLU projects in Indonesia, Malaysia,India, Colombia, Guatemala, Belize, Peru, Brazil,Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Australia, Canada••Volumes
Over 79 million VCUs issued (~4.6 million fromAFOLU) from 720+ projects• AFOLU pooled buffer account holds over 1 million
buffer credits•

25 February 2012

195 forest carbon projects …

•Part 1: Brief Update on VCS and AFOLU•Part 2: Jurisdictional and Nested REDD
Initiative

Source: Ecosystem Marketplace’s Forest Carbon Portal

Jurisdictions need a common set of blueprints andshared best practice for fragmented markets

Source: CIFOR Global Database of REDD+
4 December 2011

$5 billion isn’t enough….

Source: www.climatefundsupdate.org

Benefits of a Nested System
Builds on project experience and provides
pathway for recognition of ‘early action’• Increases scale:• Sub-national and national accounting ensuresenvironmental integrity, full leakage accounting,ensures credits ‘add up’ across the entire jurisdiction
 Increases emissions reduction potential• Increases funding availability for REDD+implementation:
 Donor funding will NOT be sufficient Nesting is likely more attractive to private sector
25 February 2012

VCS Jurisdictional & Nested REDD Initiative•

Jurisdictional and Nested REDD InitiativeDeveloping guidance and criteria for jurisdictional REDD
programs to enable crediting at multiple scales (project,state/province and national) Create a pathway for projects to “nest” within larger scalejurisdictional programs (both sub‐national and national)
 Develop best practice nested accounting and crediting at
jurisdictional scalesFrameworks may serve multiple markets (voluntary,bilateral, pre‐compliance, potentially compliance)Interest and participation from a number of countries anddonors seeking to set up jurisdictional and/or nested projectcrediting schemes
25 February 2012

Current thinking•

Multiple accounting and crediting pathways
to give flexibility
 Scenario 1: Project crediting only (with jurisdictionalbaseline)
 Scenario 2: Jurisdictional and project crediting Scenario 3: Jurisdictional crediting only•

“Nesting” can occur at multiple scales Project within jurisdiction
 Subnational jurisdiction within national jurisdiction

25 February 2012

Simplified visual representation….
VCS
Registry

VCS
Registry

VCS
Registry

BufferBufferBuffer?
?
Scenario 1: Jurisdictional
baseline with stand alone
project crediting

Scenario 2: Jurisdictional
crediting scheme withdirect crediting to nested
activities

Scenario 3: Jurisdictional
crediting scheme withinternal allocation program

Note: Only 1 jurisdictional scale is shown. Grandfathering is not depicted= jurisdictional BL only

= VCS credited project= jurisdictional BL & crediting= jurisdiction “credited” project

25 February 2012

25 February 2012

Developing a nested system•

Requires addressing technical issues such as:
 Defining boundaries
 Developing and nesting baselines (inc. scope, pools,additionality, updating) Grandfathering Leakage
 MRV
 Crediting (inc. timing, distribution, double counting) Reversals and force majeure (inc. crediting implications innesting)•Requires addressing other issues such as: Legal issues
 Safeguards
 Approvals
25 February 2012

JNRI expert committee participants…
•

Who is involved?
 Advisory Committee (23) Public sector leaders from emerging economies, internationalorganizations, civil society and private sector
 Some overlap with FCPF
 Technical Experts (14) Secretariat (3) VCS, Climate Focus, Conservation International Peer review
 Public consultation
 Generously funded by Climate and Land Use Alliance(CLUA)
25 February 2012

Process and TimelineAdvisory and Technical Committees convened inQ1 2011

Technical Recommendations released Oct 2011,
peer and Advisory Committee review Oct‐Nov
2011, currently under revision

Draft guidance and requirements to be issued
for public comment by end of 1st quarter of 2012

Final release in mid‐2012

Phase Two: Pilots, 2012‐
25 February 2012

More information…
For more information see
www.v‐c‐s.org
 To increase transparency
a number of documents
are available online:





JNRI Fact Sheet
Background scoping
document
Summary of Technical
Recommendations
More to follow…
25 February 2012

Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) and ‘Tagging’Core ElementsAdditional Certifications
Recognized by VCS

25 February 2012

SummaryProject activities are leading the way, producing
real emissions reductions and establishing amarket for REDD credits



Nested Jurisdictional accounting for REDD+ may
be the best way to ensure sufficient ongoingfunding for REDD+ activities at multiple scales

Fragmenting markets means there is a criticalneed to ensure fungibility and consistency
across national and regional systems andmarkets
25 February 2012

Thank you… Questions?
Naomi Swickard
AFOLU Manager
nswickard@v-c-s.org

VCS Association
1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Suite 803
Washington, DC 20036
www.v-c-s.org