LRQA’s Madlen King Sets the Scene on Day 1 of the Carbon Expo
2nd June 2011 by Madlen King
‘The’ carbon event of the carbon market calendar began today at the Fira de Barcelona conference hall in Barcelona. The rain that drenched those arriving last night did not dampen the spirits of the opening ceremony or the Roundtable event, with Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary to the UNFCCC speaking positively on her perspective on current global, national, public and private stakeholder action on transitioning from carbon finance to climate finance, whilst recognising that more action is needed to achieve the global climate objectives.
The conference halls that I have attended have, in the main, addressed more top level subjects today such as achieving efficiency in CDM validations and verifications and the future of market based instruments, and have been standing room only, and the exhibition area seems busier than recent years with project developers eager to progress their projects prior to the end of the first Kyoto commitment period.
Tomorrow we will begin to see more detailed discussions, in particular on opportunities in North America, a low carbon power sector, instruments for aviation and maritime transport, and standardised baselines. As the event and the participants get warmed up it will be interesting to hear the views on some of these more contentious issues.
Madlen King is the Global Head of Climate Change & Sustainability. She ensures the technical integrity of LRQA climate change and sustainability services and liaises with external bodies and governments on climate change. Within this role, Madlen is responsible for the service design, delivery and maintenance of accreditations for all GHG validation and verification schemes [...]