What does your organisation do within the carbon markets?

As a not-for-profit, GERES channels Carbon Finance to projects and people who need it most: we ímplement or support clean development projects that improve poor people's lives, especially in Least Developed Countries or underprivileged areas of other  developing countries.

The Climate Change Unit handles project development and access to the market for a wide portfolio of projects. Some are implemented by GERES, others by like-minded organisations all over Asia.

How important is the development of the carbon markets in Asia?

Asia prides itself with the highest economic growth in the world. Whatever good it did for people's well-being in the short term, this has been at the expense of the environment: ecosystems are collapsing in many countries, whereas China has become the first emitter of GHGs and Indonesia is third when considering deforestation. Hence developping the Carbon market in Asia is of utmost importance: especially in places where governance is an issue, we need positive economic incentives to steer our region's dynamic entrepreneurs towards sustainable pathways, low-carbon economies and environment restoration.

What do you think are the most exciting developments in this area at the moment?

Three issues are extremely interesting for Asia, and need to be closely followed ahead of and at Copenhagen:

• Carbon Finance to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation
• the concept of Greenhouse Development Rights, which may provide a much needed framework of equity between developing countries: it is simply not right to place a wealthy nation like Singapore, industrials emitters like China and India, and least developed countries such as Bhutan or Cambodia on the same line. For China and India, GDR would need to be applied at the level of provinces and states.
• programmatic and/or sectoral CDM could prove interesting innovations, as well as the idea of "sectoral no lose targets" if adopted by industrialized Asian nations
  
  

What is the biggest challenge facing the Asian carbon markets short term (1-4 years)?

Dealing with Post-Kyoto uncertainties will be a nerve-breaking exercise. This will make the most astute market analysts a bit richer.

On the other hand, the current economic crisis seems to produce the same type of hot air in the Carbon Market as the collapse of the former soviet union. It will need exemplary political leadership to deal with it , and to push emission limitations back on track.

There is also homework to do in Asia to push carbon demand. The heavy emitters in Asia who can afford to clean up, these ought to set up domestic cap-and-trade systems. Partial auctions and partial offsets from clean development in their poorer neighbors would push carbon prices and demand up, and translate into Asia to Asia climate solidarity.

In fact, such statements of strong intent would be welcome in Copenhagen. Voluntary commitments or sector-specific cap-and-trade could be piloted in the years leading to 2012, and lessons be drawn for the post-Kyoto period.

What is the biggest challenge facing the Asia carbon markets in the long term (5-10 years)?

We may cruise directly from Seoul to New York across the Arctic by 2020... Let's assume there is a sound post-Kyoto agreement; and responsible leadership keeps pushing the market upwards.

Equity and clean development will remain a key issue: how to foster access to clean development for the billions of poor in Asia.Will the Carbon Market in Asia build a handful of fortunes, or actually trigger profound, sustainable societal change?