Side event at the UN’s COP17 climate conference in Durban, South Africa
Leading business representatives, academics, and technical and market practitioners will come together at a side event to the UN climate talks in Durban in early December to identify the key steps required to raise professional standards in GHG mitigation -- vital if the sector is to attract the private capital finance required to credibly cut emissions and sequester carbon on the scale needed to successfully fight climate change.
The University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, School of Natural Resources and Environment, and Ross School of Business, the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI), and the International Forest Carbon Association (IFCA), will present: “Professionalization: A pathway to a resilient, mature, and capitalized carbon market.” The event will consider these themes at the individual, organizational, and industry levels and will include special reference to challenges unique to forest carbon mechanisms such as REDD+.
GHGMI will lead the focus on workforce professionalization across the GHG measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) practitioner class while IFCA will guide discussion on best practices needed to achieve highest ethical, MRV, and financial standards of practice in the forest carbon sector.
Gabriel Thoumi, CFA, Co-founder and Secretary of IFCA said: “Applying standardization to our sector improves our capacity to mitigate climate change.”
Tim Stumhofer, Senior Program Associate at GHGMI said: “With the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period coming to an end in 2012, international climate negotiations are at an inflection point. Uncertainty in the air, Durban will be a uniquely reflective time as policy makers consider the best way forward. These conditions are fertile ground for serious dialogue on the pathway to professionalize the carbon market.”
Joining Tim Stumhofer and Gabriel Thoumi in a conversation moderated by Miguel Sossa of the University of Michigan will be a broad range of expert and experienced speakers to help define the potential for market transformation in GHG MRV and financial systems across climate programs. Issues of ethics, norms, competency, harmonization, best practice deployment, and standardized business processes will all be addressed.
Professionalization: A pathway to a resilient, mature and capitalized carbon market
- When: Friday December 2, 8.15pm – 9.45pm
- Where: Blyde River Room, International Conference Centre, Durban
For more information, contact Miguel Sossa, University of Michigan at miguelso@umich.edu or +1 404.374.7333