Verra will have a strong presence at COP27, and the team looks forward to connecting with stakeholders in Egypt. The following staff will be in attendance:
- David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
- Robin Rix, Chief Legal, Policy, and Markets Officer
- Andrew Howard, Senior Director, Climate Policy and Strategy
- Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
- Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
- Angelo Sartori, Director, Stakeholder Engagement
- Heather McEwan, Senior Manager, Project Developer Engagement
- Christina Irven, Senior Program Officer, Events
- Hellen Nansikombi, Senior Program Officer
Our team members will speak at a number of events (see below). Verra staff also look to connect with stakeholders at COP27. If you are interested in meeting with us in Sharm El-Sheikh, please contact events@verra.org and indicate the reason for wanting to connect and your availability.
Verra Side Events
Note: Both Verra-hosted side events will be livestreamed
Thursday, 10 November
Thursday, 10 November, 1:30-3:00 pm EET
Location: IETA Business Hub and livestream
Moderator: Angelo Sartori, Director, Stakeholder Engagement, Verra
Panelists:
- Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
- Leslie Durschinger, Founder, CEO, and CIO, Terra Global Capital, LLC
- Melanie Kaebernick, Director, International Partnerships – Global Carbon Markets and Nature-based Solutions, NatureCo
- Andres Huby, Head of Environmental Products, Latin America, Mercuria
Voluntary and compliance carbon markets are advancing rapidly. Simultaneously, a growing number of companies are committing to abate their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in alignment with science. These developments create opportunities for governments to meet their mitigation commitments and for the private sector to channel finance to the implementation of projects with high social and environmental impact.
In this event, the various opportunities represented by the Voluntary Carbon Market, Article 6, CORSIA, domestic markets, as well as voluntary corporate emission abatement targets, will be discussed from the perspective of investors, auditors, GHG crediting programs, and project proponents.
Wednesday, 16 November
Wednesday, 16 November, 9:00-10:30 am EET
Location: IETA Business Hub and livestream
Moderator: Andrew Howard, Senior Director, Climate Policy and Strategy
Panelists: To be confirmed
The market chatter is ridden with uncertainties: Article 6 authorizations, corresponding adjustments, government approvals, NDC contributions, sovereign withholding of credits, regulatory additionality, sustainable development priorities, capacity building needs, and more. Countries are building up their responses to Article 6 and how they can work with the carbon market.
Verra is convening a discussion among representatives of host countries, initiatives working to support them, and members of the project development community.
We will explore what host countries are doing to create conditions that are supportive and attractive to the development of carbon crediting projects, how projects will need to work with them, and where developers can support project benefits on the ground.
Verra Staff — Speaking Engagements
Please see below for a list of speaking engagements for Verra staff at COP27. This list will be continually updated.
Tuesday, 8 November
Tuesday, 8 November, 8:00-8:45 am EET
Location: Resilience Hub (blue zone)
Host: Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI)
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
This event marks the launch of ACMI and the release of the ACMI roadmap for scaling Africa’s voluntary carbon markets. This event will also feature major announcements from African nations, top carbon credit buyers, and leading NGOs committed to growing the production of African carbon credits.
Tuesday, 8 November, 4:50-6:10 pm EET
Location: Singapore Pavilion
Host: Sustaintech Xcelerator
Verra staff: Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
The Sustaintech Xcelerator Cycle 2 (2023) is a 6-month hybrid accelerator focused on carbon removal with the aim to eliminate carbon dioxide and/or greenhouse gases from atmosphere at scale.
Tuesday, 8 November, 2:45-3:30 pm EET
Location: to be confirmed
Host: Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI)
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer (moderator)
This event will focus on scaling new varieties of environmental credits.
Tuesday, 8 November, 4:30-6:00 pm EET
Location: Digital Innovation Pavilion
Host: KPMG/Climate Chain Coalition
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
This session will focus on the transformative potential of digitalization for undertaking and financing climate action, and on the challenges of ensuring trust in climate-related data and in emerging digital applications to assess, interpret and utilize this data for decision-making, mobilization and investment.
Wednesday, 9 November
Wednesday, 9 November, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EET
Location: HUB Culture Climate Pavilion; Park Regency Sharm El-Shiekh (close to the Blue Zone)
Host: HUB Culture
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
Join Ven and web3 thinkers for a discussion on all things Climate and tokenisation! Please request your invitation by emailing RSVP@HubCulture.com and include which event you would like to attend.
Wednesday, 9 November, 3:00-4:00 pm EET
Location: Domina Coral Bay Congress Center
Host: Chemonics
Verra staff: Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
This panel will present the current context of nature-based carbon credit projects, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for improvement.
Wednesday, 9 November, 3:30-4:30 pm EET
Location: Climate Chain Coalition Pavillion
Host: Climate Chain Lab
Moderator: Climate Chain Coalition
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
Other Panelists: Katherine Foster, Neil Cohn
Digital environmental assets
Wednesday, 9 November, 4:30-6:00 pm EET
Location: IETA Business Hub
Host: Indigo Ag
Verra staff: Angelo Sartori, Director, Stakeholder Engagement
Recent years have seen increased activity around agriculture in the voluntary carbon market, building on advances in policy, science, and modeling. This panel discussion will explore the state of play from several viewpoints and discuss how farmer- and science-led action can enable meaningful economic, social, and environmental progress globally.
Watch the recording of the event (opens on Vimeo website)
Wednesday, 9 November, 5:00-6:00 pm EET
Location: Singapore Pavilion
Host: GenZero
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
The growth of carbon credit markets has accelerated significantly over the past year, and is poised to grow ten-fold by 2030. The space is rapidly evolving, with broadening market diversity, new players, and increased blurring between compliance and voluntary markets.
Wednesday, 9 November, 6:00-7:00 pm EET
Location: IETA Business Hub
Host: IETA
Verra staff: Hellen Nansikombi, Senior Program Officer
This session will explore the various policy pathways for forest carbon that support government objectives, corporate net zero targets, and broader social and environmental benefits.
Thursday, 10 November
Thursday, 10 November, 12:00-1:30 pm EET
Location: IETA Business Hub
Host: VNV Advisory Services
Verra staff: Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
Moderator: Sandeep Roy, Director, Value Network Ventures, VNV Advisory
This session explores the social sciences behind land-use removal projects and the dire need for financing to last-mile communities in the Global South. We dive into topics focusing on various ecosystems, such as wetlands, mangroves, agroforestry, marine ecosystems, and high-altitude landscapes in context to their inhabiting communities.
Challenges and opportunities alike will be highlighted by a diverse range of practitioners and on-ground experts, through an intrinsic lens.
Thursday, 10 November, 1:30 pm EET (Airing)
Host: StriveEarth
Verra staff: Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
The ICC Make Climate Action Everyone’s Business Forum – a hybrid event broadcasted from the COP27 Blue Zone – will present expertise from more than 70 organizations representing the global business community, forward-thinking governments and international partners. Climate leaders from every country are invited to interface with their predecessors, peers and voices of the future to align for twelve days of high-quality engagement.
Thursday, 10 November, 3:00-4:00 pm EET
Location: UN Global Innovation Hub
Host: Climate Chain Coalition
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
More information coming soon.
Thursday, 10 November, 5:00-6:00 pm EET
Location: UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub Pavilion
Hosts: UNFCCC, Evercity, and the HBAR Foundation
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
This event will focus on a system thinking approach to promote open data from climate projects in auditable, discoverable ways that allow a greater understanding of attribute level impacts.
Friday, 11 November
Friday, 11 November, 10:45-11:20 am EET
Location: Hub Culture Climate Pavilion with Hedera Regenerative Finance Forum, Park Regency
Host: HBAR Foundation
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
This panel will discuss blockchain applications and digital environmental assets to create greater transparency and traceability.
Friday, 11 November, 11:00 am-12:30 pm EET
Location: IETA Business Hub
Host: 1 point five Carbon Finance Labs
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
The market for durable and high-integrity carbon removals is growing. Yet, its foundation is a patchwork of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) frameworks, accounting methodologies, and certification schemes. This event will look at efforts to develop more robust approaches, while identifying opportunities to tackle fragmentation and build investment security.
Friday, 11 November, 11:30 am-12:15 pm EET
Location: Hub Culture Climate Pavilion with Hedera Regenerative Finance Forum, Park Regency
Host: HBAR Foundation
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
This panel will discuss digitization, blockchain, and open source code for methodologies.
Friday, 11 November, 2:00-3:00 pm EET
Location: NDC Partnership Pavilion
Host: Peruvian Ministerio del Ambiente (MINAM)
Verra staff: Angelo Sartori, Director, Stakeholder Engagement
This Spanish-language event will show and share the progress of Latin American and Caribbean countries in the implementation of their National Registries on GHG Emission Reductions and their contributions to Article 6 and the Reinforced Transparency Framework of the Paris Agreement.
Friday, 11 November, 5:30-6:15 pm EET
Location: Climate Action Innovation Zone, Glasgow Breakthrough Room
Hosts: Okeanos and World Fuel Services (WFS)/World Kinect Energy Services (WKES)
Verra staff: Candace Vinke, Senior Director, Nature-based Innovation
This panel will explore topics including how to ensure that carbon offset projects deliver quality, project innovation and today’s buyers of offsets, avoiding greenwashing claims, how carbon offsets help to realize projects, and where carbon offsets fit into a company’s sustainability journey.
Saturday, 12 November
Saturday, 12 November, 2:00-2:45 pm EET
Location: Climate Action Stage, Innovation Zone
Host: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Global Development
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
Realizing the potential of forests to address the climate crisis requires not only a new way to do business, but also a new relation with nature which values both the ecological and social dimensions of working forests, in particular the role of traditional and Indigenous communities as forest guardians. Now, in the face of a global climate emergency with the need for urgent actions, FSC is convening experts and partners to work with us to position forests at the center of climate action. This event will launch the FSC Climate Coalition, a multi-sector platform to co-create, guide, and test forest-based climate solutions.
Monday, 14 November
Monday, 14 November, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EET
Location: Nature Pavilion
Host: World Resources Institute
Verra staff: Steve Zwick, Senior Manager, Media Relations
This event will preview upcoming breakthroughs in how we monitor carbon removals from local landscape restoration, avoided emissions from reducing deforestation, net GHG emissions from commodity supply chains, and more.
Monday, 14 November, 1:30-2:00 pm EET
Location: Park Regency
Host: World Biodiversity Summit
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
Carbon markets play a crucial role in fighting climate change and can fast-track the transition to a net-zero economy. To better synergize the global climate and biodiversity goals, carbon markets should not only focus on mitigating climate change, but projects should also consider their effects on biological diversity. This Verra-moderated fireside chat will look at the business cases and policy frameworks needed to achieve nature-positive carbon markets.
Monday, 14 November, 2:00-3:30 pm EET
Location: Pakistan Pavilion
Host: Asian Development Bank
Verra staff: Andrew Howard, Senior Director, Climate Policy and Strategy
This event will explore key areas for operationalizing Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in Pakistan and discuss the way forward.
Monday, 14 November, 3:00-3:45 pm EET
Location: Türkiye Pavilion
Host: EKI Energy Services, Ltd.
Verra staff: Benoît Clément, Director, Financial Innovation
In this side event the digitalization developments in the carbon market will be presented, specifically regarding MRV and credit trading operations.
Tuesday, 15 November
Tuesday, 15 November, 10:30 am EET
Location: Innovation Zone
Host: Forest Trends and Wildlife Works
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
Other Panelists:
- Marcio Halla, Director of the Territorial Governance Facility
- Beto Borges, Director of Forest Trends’ Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative
- Representative from Zulu Forest Sciences (TBD)
- Anna Lehmann, Global Climate Policy Director, Wildlife Works
- David Antonioli, CEO, Verra
- Ben Wilinsky, Director of Partnerships, Arbor Day
The panel will bring together Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) representatives, along with experts on nature-based solutions and carbon markets, for a discussion about the importance of channeling climate finance directly to IPLCs. More climate financing, especially directly to the IPLCs at the frontlines of climate change, would enable us not only to protect nature but also to fund sustainable development for those that live in and around the world’s carbon-rich forests.
One method of scaling finance for IPLCs is through the voluntary carbon market, which serves as a key tool to advance climate action while also supporting IPLC self-governance and land management. When designed, implemented, and managed in equitable, accessible, and culturally appropriate partnership with IPLCs, carbon credits can ensure IPLCs receive direct access to climate finance and are able to preserve their rights, culture, and livelihoods while also ensuring the preservation of healthy forests and protection of vital ecosystems.
Wednesday, 16 November
Wednesday, 16 November, 9:00-10:30 am EET
Location: Chile Pavilion
Host: Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio de Agricultura conaf
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
Other Panelists:
- Representante del ministerio de Agricultura
- Representante de TNC
- Representante sector privado (TBC)
- Representante sector privado (TBC)
The objective of the event is to visualize and analyze, from the point of view of governments, private sector and NGOs, the opportunities, and challenges that nature-based solutions represent in the several carbon pricing mechanisms. The above to highlight the potential of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) as essential elements to be considered in carbon price mechanisms focused on reducing GHG emissions, supporting national efforts to mitigate climate change.
Wednesday, 16 November, 2:00-3:00 pm EET
Location: South Africa Pavilion
Host: Nigel Beck – Head of Sustainable Finance & ESG Advisory, RMB
Verra staff: Heather McEwan, Senior Manager, Project Developer Engagement
Other Panelists:
-
Tshepo Ntsane – Sustainable Finance Transactor – Climate & Transition, RMB
-
Shamini Harrington – Vice President Climate Change, Sasol
-
Olympus Manthata – Head of Climate Finance, DBSA (tbc)
-
Lwandle Mqadi – Responsible Investments and Sustainability Specialist, IDC (tbc)
The carbon tax is levied on the sum of scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), in a tax period.The Carbon Tax Act provides companies with emission allowances ranging from 60% to 95%, these allowances are meant to provide current emitters sufficient time to transition their operations to cleaner technologies. Included as part of the allowances is an offset allowance of up to 5% or 10% depending on the emission source.The offset allowance enables taxpayers (GHG emitters) to reduce their carbon tax liability, by up to the prescribed offset allowance%, by utilising carbon offsets. Similar to other countries with carbon pricing instruments (carbon tax or emission trading schemes), this has created a market for carbon credits generation in South Africa.Carbon offset projects, generating carbon credits, have been in existence for several years in South Africa. However, the introduction of the Carbon Tax Act has significantly increased the demand for such projects. Furthermore, some of the companies that have announced ambitions to achieve net zero emissions or be carbon neutral have mentioned the need for the utilisation of carbon offsets, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors and residual emissions.
Thursday, 17 November
Thursday, 17 November, 9:00-10:30 am EET
Location: IETA Pavilion
Host: Norton Rose Fulbright
Verra staff: Andrew Howard, Senior Director, Climate Policy and Strategy
This session will explore recent market initiatives that have emerged on both the supply and demand sides of the voluntary carbon market, including consultations from the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative, the Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities and the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets. The discussion will canvas views from carbon project developers, buyers and other market participants on the proposed standards and guidance released, with a view to considering whether they will promote or hinder market development and expansion.
Thursday, 17 November, 12:00-13:30 pm EET
Location: IETA Business Hub
Host: Southpole
Moderator: Naomi Swickard, Head of Public Affairs
Verra staff: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer
Other Panelists:
- Hasan Answer, Program Director, Pakistan Environment Trust
- Carlos Sordo Olivé, Energy Access, Ecosystemsbased Solutions, and Climate Change Technical Lead, Fundación Ayuda en Acción
- Moon Harrick, International Carbon Markets and Climate Mitigation Specialist, U.S. State Department (TBC)
- Honduran Governmnet Representative (TBA)
Nature based solutions (nbs) such as blue carbon and REDD+ deliver GHG reductions at scale but also build long-term resilience against future climate shocks. This session covers case studies from Pakistan, and Honduras while also discussing how we can finance nbs at the scale needed through public and private collaboration.