The contribution of research-action Clubs for agriculture and forestery sectors : economic expertise and innovation for climate

• Date: 10th December, 3.45pm – 6.45pm
• Location: The Rio Conventions Pavilion in the Climate Generations Area
• Organizer : I4CE

Summary:

The conference presented the work and progress of the Carbon Forest and Wood Club and the Climate Agriculture Club. The main objective was to present the issues linked to carbon certification in Europe in those sectors, and to highlight the different pilot carbon initiatives carried out by the club members.

The conference was divided in three complementary subjects :

1. Forestry/agriculture and climate: the research clubs expertise: what role do the clubs play and what expertise from the members?

Those research clubs gather research institutes , policy makers (local authorities , public Administrations), and professionals from agriculture and forestry sectors, with the goal to provide knowledge on the economic and technical means to improve climate change mitigation within those sectors and make them more resilient to climate change.

2. Carbon certification in Europe:

This panel presented the different obstacles to mitigation projects development and both presented solutions and perspectives considered in France and provided examples of mechanisms already implemented in other European countries (UK, Italy … ).

The VOCAL project , resulting from the Clubs’work, and aiming at the creation of a national carbon certification framework in France for agriculture and forestry, has been announced.

3. Carbon projects development in France:

Despite the lack of certification framework in France, numerous mitigation projects have been implemented by Club members. They are innovative initiatives which reflect the commitment of stakeholders to engage in this path, even before the creation of an appropriate certification framework.

The French Ministry for Ecology concluded with its support to carbon project development in France and its participation in the creation of the national framework.

A few conclusive remarks:

The work of the Clubs and the members’ expertise allowed everyone to share knowledge, experience and expertise, which resulted in the following observations:

• Different obstacles to carbon project certification exist in France, and more generally in Europe.
• However, we observe a growing demand from companies to relocate their offsetting in their own country.
• Other European countries have already implemented mechanisms which allow the development of domestic mitigation projects.
• Pilot initiatives to develop carbon projects in agriculture and forestry sectors have emerged in France, despite the current lack of certification framework.

Those different observations led I4CE and some club members to launch a project to create a national carbon certification framework for agriculture and forestry sectors, approved by the French Ministry for Ecology. This project is going to be main focus for 2016 and 2017 and should allow carbon certification in France within a few years.