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Page 168
Climate Change 2016
October 27-29, 2016
Volume 7, Issue 9(Suppl) J Earth Sci Clim Change
ISSN: 2157-7617 JESCC, an open access journal
conferenceseries .com
October 24-26, 2016 Valencia, Spain
World Conference onClimate Change
Does the voluntary carbon market promote sustainable development in developing countries? A
portfolio comparison of VCS, GS and CDM
E Feng Tan Loh
Imperial College London, UK
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was set up under the Kyoto Protocol to enable cost efficient greenhouse
gas (GHG) mitigation by Annex I (developed) countries and promote sustainable development (SD) in non-Annex I
(developing) countries. However, the market-based mechanism has been widely criticized for failing to deliver its SD goal.
Its failure is often in reference to the cheap large-scale mitigation projects that the market support, namely industrial gases
destruction projects that deliver limited co-benefits beyond GHG abatement. In addition, CDM projects are mostly hosted in
emerging economies that are already attracting large foreign direct investment, whilst the African region where carbon finance
is most needed has largely been sidelined. The voluntary carbon market (VCM) on the other hand has been promoted for its
contribution to poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation, thanks to its unregulated nature that allows for flexibility
and innovation. However, such claim is mostly based on anecdotal evidence such as the market’s demand for offsets generated
from charamastic projects such as clean cook stove dissemination and forest conservation projects. In this presentation, I will
discuss the factors that contribute to the failure of the compliance market in delivering SD, which in turn are the advantages
offered by the VCM. Then I will present the project portfolio developed within the VCM, mainly under the Voluntary Carbon
Standard and Gold Standard, and compare to the CDM project portfolio to examine if the two markets are different in term of
the projects they support and therefore their contribution to local SD.
J Earth Sci Clim Change 2016, 7:9(Suppl)
Database of climate change hazards to marine ecosystems
Camino F de la Hoz, Elvira Ramos, Araceli Puente, José A Juanes and Iñigo J Losada
Universidad de Cantabria-Fundación IH, Spain
The current rates of change in physical variables may exceed the tolerance thresholds of many marines organisms, and they
are predicted to accelerate over the next several decades. Therefore, the assessment of these changes over these valuable
resources is necessary in order to manage them properly. To accomplish this objective the projection of key physical and
chemical variables for the ecosystem functioning is needed. With this aim, a database of projected met-oceanic variables
was developed (e.g. sea surface temperature, salinity, wave height, nutrients). First, relevant variables for some engineering
seagrasses and algae species in European coasts were selected. Data were obtained from the best sources available: Remote
sensing, in situ measurements and reanalysis. The selection of descriptive parameters of each variable, representative both of
average and extreme conditions, is a crucial step. To do that an objective procedure was applied. The selected parameters were
projected under two different Representative Concentration Pathways, one optimistic and one pessimistic. Predictions were
extracted from the best Global Climatic Models in the area, whose suitability for European coasts was previously assessed. This
set of physical and chemical variables, consistent with species ecological requirements, can be used to create theoretical maps
of the environmental conditions favouring or preventing the presence of key marine organisms. Therefore, they constitute a
promising approach to be considered in the future regulatory framework.