Public Conference: Carbon Trading and Biodiversity Offsets

On Tuesday 6 December 2016, Corporate Europe Observatory, Counter Balance, Food & Water Europe and Re:Common are organising a public conference to discuss the effectiveness and recent developments of carbon trading and biodiversity offsetting. Find the full agenda for the half-day event here.

In the last years, controversies around the financialisation of nature and the concept of natural capital have fuelled divisions within civil society. Indeed, initiatives like the Scrap the ETS coalition or the No To Biodiversity Offsetting statement tried to challenge the dominant discourse about the need to develop market-based mechanisms to protect nature and biodiversity. The organisers of this conference think it is high time to discuss the recent developments around pilot areas of financialisation of nature, especially carbon trading and biodiversity offsetting. Presentations of case studies will set the ground for a broader discussion among civil society organisations.

Agenda

13:30 – 14:00: Registration and coffee

14:00 – 14:15: Introduction and setting the scene
Antonio Tricarico (Re:Common) and Frida Kieninger (Food & Water Europe)

14:15 – 15:00: First session: Is the EU Emissions Trading System reformable?

• Oscar Reyes (CEO): Emissions trading: the corporate capture of EU climate policy
• Jutta Kill (researcher): Why “scrapping the ETS”?

Q&A I

15:00 – 15:45: Second session: New carbon and forest offestting, old failures

• Jutta Kill (researcher): The failures of REDD – The case of Wildlife Works in Kenya
• Hannah Mowat (FERN): Why the aviation sector should not go for carbon offsetting

Q&A II

15:45 – 16:00: Coffee break

16:00 – 17:45: Third session: Does biodiversity offsetting work? Evidence from the ground

• Giulia Franchi (Re:Common): mining and offsetting in Madagascar
• Fidanka Mc Grath Bacheva (CEE Bankwatch Network): Biodiversity offsets in Mongolia
• Artur Grigoryan (Ecoright): Regulatory Framework for Biodiversity Assessment in Armenia
• Manana Kochladze (Green Alternative Georgia): Offsetting in hydropower projects in Georgia
• Ana Colovic Celeska (Eko­Svest): offsetting motorways in Macedonia

Q&A III

17:45 – 18:00: Conclusion and closing remarks

Antonio Tricarico (Re:Common) and Frida Kieninger (Food & Water Europe)