Chairman of the Global Carbon Council Dr. Yousef bin Mohammed Al Horr said that transitioning to a low-carbon economy is a challenge that calls for international cooperation involving the public and private sectors to address the problem of climate change, which requires the concerted efforts of governments, organizations, and individuals alike.
This came in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) commenting on the ongoing discussion in that regard and including the goal of “transitioning to a low-carbon economy” among the topics discussed by the Qatar Economic Forum during its third edition.
The carbon footprint expert, Dr. Al Horr indicated that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities has been agreed and that governs the global climate actions. It includes an acceptance that we should be able to collaborate across borders and industries in catalyzing climate actions, and that we should engage with all sectors of society.
He stressed that this cooperation enables governments and private sector actors to do more, earlier and faster than what they could achieve individually. The collaboration between countries is on capacity building, technology transfer, and international climate finance. One of the key sources of international finance is the “carbon markets” under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
Dr. Al Horr added that over the past years, carbon markets have gained momentum as a powerful tool for facing climate challenges by linking financial incentives to environmentally friendly initiatives, and their role in stimulating positive innovation and investment in clean technologies. At the same time, carbon markets give a price index to institutions to take responsibility and contribute to reducing their emissions.
He pointed out that independent GHG standard bodies have a very important role in this. Global Carbon Council (GCC) is playing its part by operation of the global GHG Program approved under the scheme referred as “Carbon Offsetting and Reduction for International Aviation (CORSIA)” of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and International Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Alliance (ICROA).
He noted that GCC has already received 1485 GHG reduction projects from approximately 45 countries in the last two years which will reduce about 2 billion Tons of CO2 equivalent emissions in ten years time. This means that GCC will issue approximately 2 billion carbon credits in the next 7 to 10 years.
He said that the GCCs role is to create market instrument that can be used to raise international climate finance. GCC is engaging with several countries to facilitate climate actions under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, by facilitating cooperative approaches for use of carbon markets with a central role of GCC as a GHG standard.
Qatar has several strengths and enablers that would allow it to play a vital role on a global level. Apart from the financial abilities, the Qatar-based Global Carbon Council (GCC) supports governments in implementing and operationalizing Article 6.2 and private sector project owners in receiving revenues for the carbon credits generated from GHG emission reduction projects. (MORE)
Source: Qatar News Agency