The global effort toward carbon reduction and net-zero emissions has become an international consensus and prevailing trend. Carbon trading offers economic incentives for emission reduction, not only facilitating the development of carbon reduction projects worldwide, but also helping enterprises and countries achieve carbon reduction goals. On May 28th 2024, the TCX, the Center for Carbon Research and Solution (CCRS) at National Sun Yat-sen University, and the TWSE co-hosted the international seminar "Voluntary Carbon Market: Integrity and Sustainability". The seminar brought together key international organizations, including the major carbon credit certifier "Verra",  carbon credit rating agency "BeZero Carbon" and "Sylvera", the voluntary carbon market database "AlliedOffsets", and  domestic representatives such as National Taiwan University. Through in-depth discussions, the seminar focused on how carbon credit quality influences the development of global and local carbon credit systems. It also served as a valuable opportunity for Taiwan to engage in meaningful conversation with international partners.

During the opening speech of Joshua Tien, General Manager of TCX, he stated that, as an export-oriented economy, Taiwan is an important part of the international supply chain and is at the forefront of net-zero emission reduction efforts. The market demand for carbon credits based on carbon removal is increasing, especially natural carbon sinks. To seize the opportunity to engage with the important guests from Taiwan and abroad, the TCX announced the memorandum signed with Verra, one of the world's leading organizations for issuing voluntary carbon rights, and also committed to developing nature-based solutions, to work together in developing Taiwan's voluntary carbon market.
 

The "Voluntary Carbon Market: Integrity and Sustainability" International Seminar brought together experts and scholars from Taiwan and abroad, to discuss carbon credit quality and market integrity issues. (left to right) Team Leader of the CCRS of NSYSU - Associate Professor Chien-Yuan Sher, Carbon Policy Analyst of AlliedOffsets - Fundile Maphanga, Enterprise Sales Lead of AlliedOffsets - Brad Weilbacher, Project Manager of GHGMI - Tani Colbert-Sangree, Director of the CCRS of NSYSU - Hung-Jeng Tsai, General Manager of TCX - Joshua Tien, Regional Representative Asia and the Pacific of Verra - Win Sim Tan, APAC Commercial Lead of Sylvera - Louis Booth, Head of Sales APAC of BeZero Carbon - Colin Sng, Associate Professor of National Taiwan University - John Chung-En Liu, and Team Leader of the CCRS of NSYSU - Assistant Professor You-Ren Wang.

Featured Speech

Win Sim Tan, Regional Representative of East Asia and Southeast Asia of the international carbon credit certifier "Verra", shared the organization's latest initiative, "A New Era for Verra". This initiative focuses on three key aspects: operational excellence, project impact and scientific integrity, and accountability, to strengthen Verra’s role as a rigorous and trustworthy player in the voluntary carbon market. Verra has established a clear foundation for project evaluation, and committed to making the review process more transparent. Additionally, Verra has launched a performance management program for validation and verification, to ensure that all projects registered on the platform and the issued credits undergo high quality audit. Verra is also enhancing the review of methodologies used within the registering projects. In early May, Verra also passed the "Core Carbon Principles" assessment, a high integrity benchmark led by the "Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market" (ICVCM), to safeguard the integrity and sustainability of the carbon market.

Featured Speech 1: Tani Colbert-Sangree, Project Manager of GHGMI introducing the key factors that affect carbon credit quality

Tani Colbert-Sangree, Project Manager of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI), a US-based NPO, provided an in-depth overview of developing local carbon credit projects, and the key factors that affect carbon credit quality. His presentation offered valuable reference for Taiwan in the initial stages of building a carbon credit system, and provided the attending representatives from government, industry and academia fields, to gain deeper understanding of critical design elements, including additionality, permanence, and methodology management.

Featured Speech 2: Fundile Maphanga, Carbon Policy Analyst, sharing his observation on the trend of mandatory and voluntary carbon market system

Fundile Maphanga, Carbon Policy Analyst at AlliedOffsets, a data-driven platform specializing in voluntary carbon market analytics, shared his observation on trends across various carbon market systems based on analyzing the data from AlliedOffset's database. He noted that there is an increasing number of jurisdictions that are enacting legislation to allow the use of international carbon offset credits under mandatory local regulations. On the other hand, prices in the voluntary carbon market are expected to gradually converge with the mandatory market. In the future, establishing clear integrity standards for high quality carbon credits and market price signals, will be crucial in scaling up offset markets, advancing international collaboration under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and enabling more ambitious climate actions.

Discussion 1: International carbon credit rating institution and market data analysts exchange insights on how to ensure integrity and high quality of voluntary carbon marke

Professor Hung-Jeng Tsai, Director of the CCRS at NSYSU hosted the first panel session, bringing together three international experts  for an in-depth discussion on "How to ensure integrity of the voluntary carbon market". Colin Sng, Head of Sales APAC of BeZero Carbon, Louis Booth, APAC Commercial Lead of Sylvera, and Brad Weilbacher, Enterprise Sales Lead of AlliedOffset, each shared their organization's practices while exchanging insights and perspectives. Their discussion provided attending enterprises with a deeper understanding of how high quality carbon credits are rated, to have a better knowledge of market trends in order to support carbon asset management and further strategic planning.

Discussion 2: Experts and scholars from Taiwan and abroad exchanging insights on "potential applications of carbon credits in Taiwan"

The second panel discussion shifted the focus back to Taiwan, and was hosted by Associate Professor Chien-Yuan Sher, Team Leader of the CCRS of NSYSU.  This session featured John Chung-En Liu, Associate Professor of National Taiwan University, Tani Colbert-Sangree, Project Manager of GHGM, and Joshua Tien, General Manager of TCX, for a joint discussion on "the potential applications of carbon credits in Taiwan". John Chung-En Liu emphasized the need for a better integration of carbon credit systems and clearer carbon pricing signals in Taiwan, so enterprises have better references for developing strategies and responses toward emission management. Tani Colbert-Sangree pointed out the potential challenges that Taiwan may face in building its system, noting that one of the greatest tensions lies in identifying and negotiating an acceptable level of regulations. Moreover, gaining public support for carbon credit projects while balancing environmental justice and policy feasibility, will be the challenges faced by policymakers. Finally, Joshua Tien reminded the participants that as the international carbon market approaches critical milestones in 2030 and 2050, it is expected to face surging carbon credit prices and shortage of high quality carbon credits. He noted that current global voluntary carbon credit available only consists of a small fraction of annual fossil fuel carbon emissions, making the development and investment in both domestic and international carbon credit projects a vital effort in achieving global net-zero goals.

🔗Article Source：Taiwan Carbon Solution Exchange (TCX)