The Verified Carbon Standard: Scaling up MRV

Naomi Swickard, AFOLU Manager19 May 2011

REDD-plus after Cancun: Moving from Negotiation to Implementation Hanoi, Vietnam

Overview

1) The Verified Carbon Standard2) VCS Agriculture, Forestry and

Other Land Use (AFOLU) Methodologies MRV

3) Jurisdictional and Nested REDD MRV

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 Single focus: to develop and manage the platform (i.e., no

consulting, no meth development, no validation/verification, no project development)

Funded through VCU levy and foundation grants• AFOLU Steering Committee largely credited with bringing in

land-based activities into the carbon market

VCS Projects

• Registered projects • Over 600 Registered Projects (12 AFOLU projects)• Registered AFOLU projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Colombia,

Guatemala and Australia • Volumes

• Over 56 million VCUs issued (over 2.1 million from AFOLU)• 450 projects have issued VCUs

• AFOLU pooled buffer account holds ~512,000 buffer credits• Projects under development

• Dozens of AFOLU projects under development in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Brazil, Peru, Panama, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, DRC, South Africa, Kenya, and many more...

AFOLU Requirements

• ARR• Afforestation, Reforestation and

Revegetation• ALM

• Agricultural Land Management• IFM

• Improved Forest Management• REDD

• Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation • PRC

• Peatland Rewetting and Conservation• Rewetting of drained peatland; conservation of undrained or

partially drained peatland

VCS AFOLU Key Components

• Key components AFOLU Requirements include robust approaches to:

– Permanence: Risk Assessment and AFOLU Pooled Buffer Account

– Leakage: Activity shifting and market leakage must be minimized and accounted for– Updated leakage requirements to be released for

public comment May 2011 and adopted mid 2011 Most int’l developers are adding CCBS to VCS validations to

demonstrate social and environmental co-benefits (VCU tag)

VCS Methodologies• 15 approved VCS methodologies (9 AFOLU)

• Improved Forest Management (IFM) (5)• Reduced Emissions from Forest Degradation and Deforestation (REDD)

(4)• Mosaic• Planned and Unplanned Deforestation• Degradation• On peatland

• 17 methodologies under development (9 AFOLU)• Soil carbon

• Reduction of N2O fertilizer application• Improved grassland grazing and fire management

• Rice cultivation management systems• Reduction of CH4

MRV: Project Level• Monitoring requirements

Methodologies set out:• Data and parameters to be monitored• Criteria and procedures for project monitoring plan, including:

• Procedures for estimation, modelling or calculation of C stocks and stock change

• Procedures for managing data• Monitoring frequency

• Validation and Verification Conducted by accredited independent 3rd party auditors

• Registration (reporting) Projects required to register with one of 3 VCS registries (NYSE Blue, CDC, Markit) Public documents: project description, monitoring report, validation and verification

reports, representations, GPS coordinates

3) Jurisdictional and Nested REDD Initiative

REDD Readiness

Individual REDD Projects Δ

ΔΔΔ Δ Bottom Up

?

Top Down

VCS Initiative• CLUA funding• Good practice and VCS

Criteria for:• Jurisdictional

programs• Jurisdictional

baselines• Crediting at different

scales

Jurisdiction-Level Programs

Jurisdictional and Nested REDD• Objectives

Establish Good Practice Guidance for nesting of project activities within REDD programs at the jurisdiction (region, state, province, country) level

Establish VCS criteria to enable crediting to VCS REDD projects and jurisdictional programs

Establish VCS criteria for the creation/use of jurisdictional baselines• Process

Establishment of Advisory Committee and Technical Experts groups, include representatives from Indonesia, Ethiopia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, UK, USA, Colombia, France, DRC, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador and several others

Peer review and public consultations• Timing: Expected late 2011 or early 2012

MRV: Jurisdictional and Nested REDD• Scope

RED, REDD, REDD+? Jurisdiction vs. project

• Monitoring requirements What is required, who should do it, how often? MRV at different scales (national, subnational, project)

• Verification What is required, who should do it, how often?

• Registration (reporting) Registration of jurisdictional programs, jurisdictional baselines National/Jurisdictional registries

Thank you

Naomi SwickardAFOLU Managernswickard@v-c-s.orgBangkok, ThailandMobile +66 (0) 87 980 9220 Office +1 202 657 4767

VCS Association1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NWSuite 803Washington, DC 20036www.v-c-s.org