Document Actions

Nordic countries want to take the carbon market to the next level

The current global carbon market could be improved by a new Nordic initiative going beyond single emission reduction projects to include broader segments of the economy. The project could help make global carbon trading more efficient and introduce new mechanisms into the ongoing global climate negotiations.

Mar 25, 2011
Utsläpp

- The Nordic Scaled Up Mitigation Initiative could help make the whole NAMAs process, and by implication global carbon trading, more effective, says Swedish climate expert Olle Björk.

Photographer
Johannes Jansson/norden.org

Environment ministers from the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – at a ministerial meeting in March expressed their support for a whole new approach to carbon trading in developing countries.

The project was initially presented by the Nordic working group on global climate negotiations and Nordic Environment Financing Corporation (NEFCO) at COP16 in Cancun and drew a good deal of attention there.

A feasibility study has been initiated, involving potential partner countries in Asia and South America. The first report is expected in June and pending further financing from the Nordic governments the project could be initiated before COP17 in Durban next December.

In the current carbon trade system - the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol - emission credits are issued for single projects or programmes in developing countries.

The new initiative – the Nordic Scaled Up Mitigation Initiative – intends to prepare the ground for up-scaling the entire process in order to simplify the procedures, increase the volumes and create net benefits to the atmosphere.

Instead of a simply off-setting the emissions from developed countries – as is often the case in the conventional CDM – net atmospheric benefits could be secured through the combination of carbon trade to voluntary domestic policy measures in developing countries.

The background for the initiative are the so called Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in the developing countries, introduced at the Bali climate negotiations in 2007 and included in the climate negotiations and decision texts since then.

net atmospheric benefits could be secured through the combination of carbon trade to voluntary domestic policy measures in developing countries 

The process to define these NAMAs has so far been fraught with difficulty. The Nordic Scaled Up Mitigation Initiative aims at successful practical action to implement NAMAs on the ground and contributes to gathering real-life experience from marked based NAMAs.

By linking the proposed sector based mitigation programme to the NAMA’s, the ensuing carbon trade of the industrialised countries’ in developing countries could also generate a more genuine link to development aid and better coherence with national strategies.

- The Nordic Scaled Up Mitigation Initiative could help make the whole NAMAs process, and by implication global carbon trading, more effective. A major part of our project is to document and build up knowledge on how this can work on a sector to sector basis, to create new instruments that can be used worldwide, says Swedish climate expert Olle Björk.

Björk is long time chair of the Nordic ad hoc group on climate negotiations – a group of government officials from all five Nordic countries – that stands behind the new initiative along with the Nordic Environment Financing Corporation under the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Contacts

Michael Funch
Phone +45 33960332
Email mifu@norden.org

Related content
  • The Working Group on Environment and Economy (MEG) (Organisation)

    The Working Group on Environment and Economy is a cross-sectoral group whose mandate is approved by both the environment sector and the finance sector of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The group's work relates to relevant environmental economic matters of common Nordic interest.
  • Climate (Cooperation Area)
  • Climate and Air Quality Group (KoL) (Organisation)

    The Climate and Air Quality Group contributes to Nordic goals of limiting serious climate change and of preventing air pollution from damaging the environment or human health.
  • The Nordic working group for global climate negotiations (NOAK) (Organisation)

    The group's overarching goal is to contribute to the adoption of a global climate agreement with binding and ambitious goals.
  • Nordic co-operation to promote global climate negotiations

    The fight against climate change unites the Nordic countries. The climate issue must be solved globally and the Nordic countries support the UN Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol as platforms for this work. Nordic co-operation in the climate negotiations takes place through the Nordic ad hoc Group on Global Climate Negotiations, NOAK.
  • 'Nordic Climate Change Research' – new Nordic research paper from NordForsk (News Item)

    A new report issued on December 15th by NordForsk, the joint Nordic research institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers, puts renewed focus on the value of transnational efforts in combating the climate challenge.
  • Nordic climate blog after COP15 (News Item)

    The UN's major climate summit in Copenhagen is over, but the final agreement reached by the countries of the world was a disappointment for many. Climate issues today attract a fraction of the attention that they did before COP15, despite the fact that, in many ways, the process is only just getting started.
  • Important Nordic role in climate negotiations (News Item)

    "The Nordic Region has an important role to play in the global climate process, even though the individual countries are in separate negotiating camps. Together, they are able to address topical issues quickly, e.g. within the framework of the Nordic COP15 Group," Norwegian climate expert Harald Dovland stressed at a climate meeting in Helsinki on Tuesday.

  • Nordic Climate Co-operation

    The Nordic Region is strongly committed to international co-operation on the climate. Just as in the other environmental areas, the Nordic Region attempts to be at the forefront showing the way forward with a good example. Climate co-operation plays a central role in Nordic co-operation on sustainable development, energy, environmental policies, the Arctic and Nordic globalisation initiatives. Joint Nordic working groups have been set up to attempt to influence international climate policy.