ClearSky Climate Solutions, CEO, Keegan Eisenstadt was on the ground in Durban for the UNFCCC 17th Conference of the Parties. He was present for what was an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Participating in a schedule filled with formal negotiations, technical side events, meetings with government actors, NGOs and civil society organizations from around the world. Keegan had numerous educational discussions with other participants and left with many ideas of how ClearSky can more thoroughly participate in the climate change sector.

While the formal outcomes of the meeting are something of a mixed bag, the result was not as bad as projected in the run up to the COP17. EU leadership, and a determination by all the major Parties to build upon the successes of Cancun, led to a result that may act as the foundation for future progress on mitigation and adaptation. The 194 countries in the convention agreed to be legally bound, in an agreement to be signed no later than 2015, to cut their emissions of seven greenhouse gases starting no later than 2020. This outcome is very important, as it has removed the fault line separating the developing/developed countries that has hampered years of talks by bringing countries such as China and India under a mandatory reductions framework. This has effectively removed the key barrier that has kept the US from the negotiating table, and its importance cannot be underestimated. ‘The Durban Platform’ is an important step on the way, but not a destination. Its importance is in the clear signal it sends that regulatory clarity on future carbon markets are expected by the end of 2015.

Implications for Forests and REDD+
Two sets of negotiations were held in Durban with regard to REDD+: (1) a technical discussion, (under the auspices of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, SBSTA), which focused on safeguards and reference levels and (2) a broader discussion regarding the overall architecture of the agreement (Ad Hoc Working Group for Long-term Cooperative Action, LCA ¶63-73), which revolved around the private sector and market mechanisms, and whether these would have a role to play in financing REDD+. Key advancements were made in both areas that were stronger than most observers expected, and which served to reinforce the community-oriented approach at ClearSky.

The key element of the REDD+ decision in Durban was on sources and delivery of finance. The Durban Platform is the first time that 194 countries have agreed, despite ideological differences, to include explicit mention of market-based approaches to funding REDD+. The decision confirms that private sector has a role to play, and considers that market-based approaches can be developed, subject to maintaining environmental integrity, to deliver performance-based funding to REDD+ activities. The decision encourages financing from private sector actors to overcome a large funding gap in public resources to achieve the required reductions in deforestation. Importantly, the positive signal that markets can play a driving role in REDD+, opens further opportunity for work on REDD+ projects like the work it is currently developing in the tropics.

A second, important REDD+ discussion in Durban looked at the issue of incorporating effective social, environmental and governance safeguards for local communities and biodiversity. Significant progress was made on defining the criteria, monitoring systems and types of information that must be conveyed in reports on safeguard implementation and delivery for projects in all countries. Discussions focused on the frequency of safeguard monitoring/reporting and the types of information that needed to be monitored. The monitoring and reporting of safeguards is vitally important to ClearSky, because it allows us to see if national level REDD+ programs are being implemented with the Free Prior Informed Consent of indigenous peoples and local communities, and ensure that their rights are being respected. There had been strong push back against reporting of safeguards from some forest countries on sovereignty grounds – but the agreement to include a robust safeguards decision won the day.

The consistent message from donor countries, NGOs and the private sector is that only through the rigorous application and accurate reporting on safeguards can stakeholders ensure that positive and equitable REDD+ outcomes are achieved. Durban produced a strong and detailed framework to deliver this. Some observers, including Pact, lamented the fact that the explicit guidelines on the content of safeguard monitoring were not decided upon, and were left to be defined at a later time.

The final main negotiating point regarding REDD+ at Durban related to reference levels for forest carbon. It was agreed that the formation of applicable reference levels can be stepwise and iterative, and the decision acknowledges that subnational forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels may be used as an interim measure on the way to a national accounting framework, ensuring the viability of the ‘nested approach’ – which potentially incorporates previous ‘project based’ actions.

Considering the persistent global economic situation, Durban was a much better outcome than most observers expected. It was a surprising ‘shot in the arm’ for carbon markets as a tool, and sets the stage for aggregating all the emissions from 194 countries into the UNFCCC process over the next 8 years. REDD+, as in the past 3 years, was a big winner. This time, however, the Parties were able to rise above previously entrenched positions to set the stage for the creation of innovative and transformative financing solutions that make forests worth more standing than cut. The extensive discussions on safeguards were a vindication of the role of communities, forest dependent and indigenous peoples in ensuring the sustainability of a future REDD+ mechanisms – whether it is project-based, sub-national or national……it is the people living in the woods who will determine their future.

It seems amazing that I find myself here, at the next Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)…… Has it really been a year already?! There is so much that I wish I could report had been accomplished in the interim. Alas, the formal, international treaty process continues to grind along – slowly, inefficiently, without the results that are necessary NOW.

There has never been a need for more urgency to address the challenges of climate change. All of the evidence that has come out of recent research demonstrates that, if anything, we underestimated the speed with which climate change would impact our ecosystems – and our lives. Better science, it seems, does not lead to better decision making. The diplomatic efforts proceed unchanged by new information – grinding along the same fault lines that have challenged the UNFCCC from the beginning. I believe it is time to ACT.

There has been a lot of progress in the last year in the voluntary carbon marketplace, along with significant technical, financial, and policy advances. Most of these come from trying to achieve something…..sometimes flawed, and certainly small in scope – but with the intent of gaining experience that can lead to better ideas and implementation in the future. The perfect should not be the enemy of the good. At this juncture, one year form the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio, when we first started addressing this challenge through the UN process…..I find myself with mixed feelings. I feel great concern that we have been so self absorbed – such that we are being very slow to respond to a challenge that is so clearly urgent. This preoccupation is tempered by the fact that I begin to see motion in the sector of forestry and climate change. there is almost something of a critical mass -I can almost see it on the horizon, not quite, but close….there is something happening. I sincerely hope it catches and grows!

Keegan Eisenstadt

ClearSky Climate Solution’s CEO, Keegan Eisenstadt, recently visited Kenya .  We would like to share a few photos from his trip.

This sign greets everyone at the main gate to the Kenya Forest Service office in Nairobi. It is accompanied by an anonymous ‘suggestion box’ where anyone can describe incidents of corruption or impropriety and they are expected to get attention. A sign may not change a culture, but it is at least a beginning!

Adult Masai Giraffe with the Nairobi city skyline in the background. It was one of a herd of 18 giraffes – the biggest herd of giraffes Keegan had ever seen. He could hear them chewing!

Nature’s confusing camouflage, where does one zebra end and the other start?

Wetland area in Nairobi National Park. This area is frequented by hippo and is less than 1000 meters from an apartment complex.

A very shy black Rhino! Keegan saw him from about 400 meters. The second he stopped to look, this rhino went for the cover of nearby bushes and did not come out again.

ClearSky Climate Solution’s CEO, Keegan Eisenstadt, recently visited Madagascar.  We would like to share a few photos from his trip.

Dancing Sifaka Lemurs at a lemur sanctuary near Antananarivo, Madagascar. They bound about with an energy and precision that is astounding and inspiring!

First stages of mining activity in Madagascar. Forests are cleared for access to subsurface minerals. Trees are hand-felled at a slow daily rate to encourage biodiversity to relocate. Wood is then given to the communities that control the area. It is a gentle approach, but the outcome is still a destroyed forest.

Uneven aged, native species restoration trials in the highlands of Central Madagascar. Looking to rehabilitate a large deforestation event has led to field trials of various tree and grass species, as well as ‘foster ecosystem habitats’ for amphibians and reptiles. The lava rock pile is home to hand-transplanted reptiles and native epiphytes.

Village in the central highlands of Madagascar, as seen from the foundations of their new forest tree nursery. The community is part of a stakeholder engagement activity that could play a role in REDD+.

Last month, ClearSky Climate Solutions taught a two-day course, Carbon Offsets 101.  The class covered the entire start-to-finish process of creating a carbon offset project.  Course instructors, Stephen and Molly, began with teaching how to scope a potential idea, determine eligibility under the various carbon standards and trading markets, and what financing options exist for performing the necessary work.  They covered the analysis and modeling necessary to determine the carbon benefits of a project, the validation and verification process, and on-going project monitoring.  The second day was devoted to current events and group work, including a Climate Action Reserve webinar and a workshop to begin initial prefeasibility of participants’ projects.

The course was attended by individuals working within academia, environmental consulting, energy industry, conservation, and international development.  Participants thought, “It was a very good introductory course, it was well worthy my time and fun!” and, “It was one of the best trainings I’ve been to!”

Hello ClearSky friends and climate change concerned citizens,

I’m still in Cancun and feeling very inspired by the action from 3:30AM this morning. Quite honestly, this is a truly impressive feat of diplomacy by the Mexicans. This is a big win for REDD, CCS, and a new Green Fund (World Bank is interim trustee). All major players are happy (with the exception of a small block headed by Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela).

Specific elements of the Cancún Agreements include:

• Industrialized country targets are officially recognized under the multilateral process and these countries are to develop low-carbon development plans and strategies and assess how best to meet them, including through market mechanisms, and to report their inventories annually.
• Developing country actions to reduce emissions are officially recognized under the multilateral process. A registry is to be set up to record and match developing country mitigation actions to finance and technology support from by industrialized countries. Developing countries are to publish progress reports every two years.
• Parties meeting under the Kyoto Protocol agree to continue negotiations with the aim of completing their work and ensuring there is no gap between the first and second commitment periods of the treaty.
• The Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanisms has been strengthened to drive more major investments and technology into environmentally sound and sustainable emission reduction projects in the developing world.
• Parties launched a set of initiatives and institutions to protect the vulnerable from climate change and to deploy the money and technology that developing countries need to plan and build their own sustainable futures.
• A total of $30 billion in fast start finance from industrialized countries to support climate action in the developing world up to 2012 and the intention to raise $100 billion in long-term funds by 2020 are included in the decisions.
• In the field of climate finance, a process to design a Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties, with a board with equal representation from developed and developing countries, is established.
• A new Cancun Adaptation Framework is established to allow better planning and implementation of adaptation projects in developing countries through increased financial and technical support, including a clear process for continuing work on loss and damage.
• Governments agree to boost action to curb emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with technological and financial support.
• Parties have established a technology mechanism with a Technology Executive Committee and Climate Technology Centre and Network to increase technology cooperation to support action on adaptation and mitigation.

With renewed hope I begin to think that we are moving slowly forward.  The T-shirt from the youth delegation of the Solomon Islands claiming “You have been negotiating about this for longer than I have been alive.  You can’t tell me you need more time.” Somehow seems less of an indictment this morning.  Let’s see where we go from here.

Excited and hopeful,

Keegan

The heavy interest in REDD+ projects is palpable here in Cancun.  What is not so evident is that the compliance markets are going to be ready to move the REDD+ agenda forward.  Even if an agreement comes out of this COP, it will effectively be authorizing the technical working groups to begin work on the REDD+ protocols and methodologies for national level REDD.  I repeat, to BEGIN work.  That leaves the non-UN markets to lead the way and pioneer the path forward for REDD+.

Timed to coincide with the COP meetings, the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), has approved two distinct methodologies for use in the market, and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) of California has formally begun the process to include REDD+ from the States of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico.  So the voluntary carbon market is releasing REDD+ project methodologies for use around the world, and CAR is beginning to formally push sub-national action for the California compliance cap and trade market.  The development of these two tracks is vitally important for REDD+.  It formally opens a path to market for actions that have been contemplated, or are currently being worked on, in the field to access the market, NOW.  It also demonstrates the interest of the marketplace for REDD+ credits – and that the world has moved on.

There is a bit of a feeling like the UN process is already behind the Voluntary Market and the regional compliance carbon markets with respect to REDD+.  This may not be true forever, but there is certainly a window for the next few years when the voluntary market and the CAR market will dominate the action on the ground.  I hope that the UNFCCC process will embrace the work done in those markets and learn from them for the CDM – and not decide to reinvent the wheel. 

In the short term, I look forward to implementing some REDD+ projects – under the newly validated VCS methodologies or in Mexico under CAR!

Saludos a todos,

Keegan

Dec. 9^th, 2010

As the Cancun Climate Meetings enter the final stretch there is cause to be cautiously optimistic.  There appears to be relative progress on a number of issues: REDD+, Adaptation, Technology Transfer, Capacity Building and parts of the Financing.  The newly proposed Adaptation financing mechanism is not defined at all, and issues relating to Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) remain very contentious.  Overall, the question of having a market mechanism that uses offsets from developing countries is agreed upon, with significant exceptions from a few countries.

When I ask delegates “what looks good?”, they unanimously answer REDD+ seems to be looking good!  That is Great News!  But it is also a result of the significant work done to get agreement on REDD+ prior to everyone arriving in Cancun.  That said, Bolivia and a few other countries are very opposed to a market mechanism for REDD+, and may have some influence on the final nature of the agreement and the language of the agreement. 

I attended a high profile session last night where the message of REDD+ as a mainstream idea was evident.  The event, put on by the Avoided Deforestation Partners, included Presidents and Prime Ministers of some countries, as well as Presidents and CEOs of the World Bank, big conservation organizations and Wal- Mart.  The idea that REDD+ would be promoted publicly by the president of the World Bank, The President of Wal Mart and Jane Goodall is a snapshot of the broad consensus forming around REDD+ at this meeting, and globally.  There were times I felt the assembled community of REDD+ supporters was surreal, it did drive home the point that there is broad support for REDD+ because it has the potential to be so good for so many constituencies in the world. 

Keegan

The REDD negotiating text contains two options – Option 1 (from the meetings previously held in Tianjin) and Option 2 (from last year’s COP15 in Copenhagen) .  Most groups thought that Option 2 would likely prevail at the negotiations in Cancun.  Thus, preparations were made to comment on and suggest text as it pertains to Option 2.  However, the Chair’s text (CRP.1) was introduced just prior to the opening of COP-16 in Cancun.  The consensus among most NGOs is that the Chair’s REDD text sets a good starting point, but most are refraining to officially comment until the delegations have indicated which option they wish to pursue.

I notice that numerous groups are working at attempting to incorporate language that includes international demand side drivers and safeguards in all options.  These organizations are adamant that REDD will not be a success until these international drivers are considered and addressed.  This was further emphasized at the UN REDD Programme’s side event on biodiversity, where Michael Bucki of the European Commission (EC) indicated the importance of international drivers and that the EC will be commencing a study on international drivers in January, to be concluded in May.  This, and the universal support of Partners and Stakeholders of the REDD+ Partnership to prioritize the need to address international demand side drivers, will hopefully provide the necessary impetus to ensure a successful outcome for REDD.

Many different discussions are taking place and the negotiations are truly beginning as this is the second week of the COP.  It will be interesting to see what moves through the process and is passed on to the technical working groups.

Alternatively, it is very interesting to note that the voluntary market has approved a number of REDD methodologies in the last week.  With both the REDD Toolbox from Avoided Deforestation Partners and the Mosaic REDD Methodology from Terra Global Capital having completed the double validation process and being released for use by all project developers under the VCS.  This is now the driver of the REDD program, in any real market sense, and is complicating the negotiations as well – as the voluntary market is way out front of the regulatory carbon market on developing methodologies and protocols for REDD projects.  It is an interesting time – to watch the compliance markets rush to stay in front, while already behind.

I can’t wait to see what the outcomes are.

Cheers from warm Cancun (relative to frozen Missoula, Montana!),

Keegan

<!– –>

Climate Ride California, was a success!  Keegan Eisenstadt, ClearSky CEO, and Devin Trainor, ClearSky’s new intern, cycled together as part of the first California Climate Ride.  Over 100 riders rolled along the northern coast of California as part of a fundraising bike ride for climate change awareness and bike advocacy.

Here Devin reports on his experience:

It took a full week of dedication and extreme logistics but we pulled it off!  The sleep deprivation and sweat was well worth it.  Each rider raised $2,400 for the event.  This money was donated to 1 Sky, Rails to Trails Conservancy, and Green America.  Riders were cyclists, non-cyclists, educators, students, business people, advocates, young, and old.  The ride was a forum for creating climate action connections through an untraditional platform – the bicycle.   The bicycle took us through the impressive coastal redwoods.  Cycling 320 miles created a common experience for all of us to struggle through.  As we were pushing up hills, a comparative simile came to mind of the climate policy struggle our nation has been pushing on Capitol Hill.  We endured these long hills and full days to contemplate, connect, raise money, and raise awareness.

The ride is best summarized by day 3:  A 100 mile day.

• A 7am departure,
• A 10 hour ride,
• Devoured every edible part of a pasta dinner,
• Listened to captivating lectures from University of Pennsylvania’s, Dan Garofalo, and an internationally acclaimed photographer, Chris Jordan,
• With images of decaying seabirds and colorful plastics piles where their stomachs should have been, the riders set up camp and go to sleep while the staff summoned energy to plan the entire next day.

As part of my ClearSky internship, I am positioned to gain a foot into the complex world of current climate action.  The issues are immense and often intimidating.  Educating oneself goes as far as your mind is willing to participate, then what?  Information does not act on its own, it must be translated into action.  Climate Ride is one approach, and it all adds up!