Kiwi Ingenuity in Global Climate Financing

Kiwi Ingenuity in Global Climate Financing
In a meeting in London this week a kiwi carbon entrepreneur presented the design of a new climate financing instrument proposed for the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Sean Weaver from Takaka, Golden Bay, and other members of a 4-person international team (from Morocco, Sweden, and New York) designed the core architecture of the proposed climate change ‘Adaptation Benefit Mechanism’.

The Government of Uganda is sponsoring the proposal of the ‘Adaptation Benefit Mechanism’ to the UNFCCC, with the backing of the African Development Bank.
Dr Weaver is the Executive Director of Ekos – a NZ-based carbon neutrality and rainforest carbon offset supplier, and environmental finance consultant.

“I was invited into this design team because of my experience as a project developer in the international voluntary carbon market. I also have experience in results-based payment systems for social and environmental outcomes”, Dr Weaver said.

The Adaptation Benefit Mechanism (ABM) will be a non-market financing mechanism that uses results-based payment tools common in the carbon markets. The purpose is to unlock private sector capital for climate change adaptation projects in developing countries, and to reduce risk to donor and multi-lateral funders.

“The ABM is designed to create opportunities for the private sector to get much more involved in climate change adaptation projects in developing countries – either as project developers or as project funders,” Weaver said.

“The global corporate social responsibility and institutional investment communities have signalled an appetite for investing in climate change adaptation. But they want this to be structured to give confidence in the durability of the outcomes delivered and price transparency,” Weaver said.
Dr Weaver said that climate change adaption has been the poor cousin in global climate financing. “The ABM is designed to help change this,” he said.
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