Emerging economies present proposals for domestic mitigation schemes at
Carbon Expo
Barcelona, June 2, 2011 – Eight countries (Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, and Turkey) have each received an initial grant of $US350,000 to help think through and plan how they will design, pilot, and eventually implement market-based instruments for greenhouse gas mitigation.
The grants are the first made under the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR), a World Bank initiative launched at the UN climate change conference in December 2010. The idea of the Partnership is to build capacity in countries so that they can develop new market-based instruments to fight climate change. Each of the eight recipient countries will now develop a "Market Readiness Proposal" that will detail their plans.
The PMR is a multi-million dollar partnership among governments, experts and organizations which aims to provide support to about 15 countries as they build technical and institutional capacities for the use of market instruments, such as domestic emissions trading schemes or new international crediting mechanisms, to scale up mitigation efforts. The fund is supported by ten contributors – Australia, the European Commission, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States – which together have pledged nearly US $70 million. More countries have expressed an interest to join.
"Over the past two days here in Barcelona, more than 30 countries have been meeting to talk about new initiatives in emerging economies with regard to market-based instruments”, said Andrew Steer, Special Envoy for Climate Change. “We've heard remarkable plans from China, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey and others. These countries are taking a lead in building the capacity and foundation for a future global carbon market with the support of the Partnership for Market Readiness."
PMR funding and technical assistance will place particular focus on "readiness" aspects, including shoring up data collection and management, the establishment of baselines, and the creation and strengthening of domestic measurement, reporting and verification systems, as well as support for policy analysis and the development of a regulatory framework.
Mexico, for instance, is interested in developing a registry that would incorporate different carbon offset markets in one centralized system.
“This will help add quality and transparency to the carbon offsets being sold, independent of the market being utilized,” said Mr. Jose Antonio Urteaga of Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
China, also a PMR Implementing Country Participant, plans to use the support of the PMR to pursue its ambitions for an emissions trading scheme.
"The Government of China will, according to the requirements of the Outline of the 12th Five-Year Plan, gradually establish a market system for carbon emissions trading to promote the achievement of its carbon intensity reduction objective," said Mr. Wang Shu of the National Development Reform Commission of China. “The initial plan is to establish carbon emissions trading schemes in some pilot regions, and try to establish a unified national system in 2015.”
In addition to the approval of preparation funding proposals, the PMR Partnership Assembly also confirmed Morocco as an implementing country participant, bringing the total number of Implementing Country Participants to ten.
The PMR, launched at the Conference of the Parties in Cancun on December 8, 2010, is targeting a total capitalization of $100 million before end of this year and aims to provide grant support to 15 Implementing Country Participants in total. The preparation grants approved at the Partnership Assembly meeting in Barcelona will be used to prepare full-fledged proposals that will, when approved, also be funded by the PMR.
