Asia and the Pacific is home to more than 60% of the world's population and 62% of the global economic output. But the region still faces enormous development challenges and with economic growth, it has become a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This has exposed Asia and the Pacific to the impacts of climate change, threatening to undo the development gains from economic prosperity over the past decades. This report reflects how Clean Development Mechanism projects supported by the Future Carbon Fund not only reduce GHG emissions but deliver social, environmental, and economic co-benefits contributing to sustainable development in the region. This report also presents qualitative and quantitative analysis of these co-benefits.

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR “The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem "If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." —Ezra Klein (Vox) The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. "One hopes that this book is read widely—that Robinson’s audience, already large, grows by an order of magnitude. Because the point of his books is to fire the imagination."―New York Review of Books "If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late." ―Polygon (Best of the Year) "Masterly." —New Yorker "[The Ministry for the Future] struck like a mallet hitting a gong, reverberating through the year ... it’s terrifying, unrelenting, but ultimately hopeful. Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work. It’s my book of the year." —Locus "Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom." ―Bloomberg Green

Explores the potential for financing small-scale high-benefit sustainable development projects through the voluntary and retail sector of the carbon market.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a framework created by the Kyoto Protocol, was an attempt to link the carbon market and sustainable development objectives in developing countries. Consequently, sequestered carbon is now a globally traded commodity with a huge potential to provide economic returns to land manager. Unlike traditional development models based on deferred and diffused benefit streams, the new carbon-market model offers an opportunity to directly link land management and natural resource conservation with specific and immediate market incentives. Analysis shows that carbon markets can serve a catalytic function in stimulating increased tree planting and improved forest management, thus helping to realize the multiple benefits of forestry and agro-forestry systems. In recent years opportunities for participation in carbon credit trading markets have been growing. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) now boasts more than six million trades per month. A recent summary of the "State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2006" prepared for the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund, reports a rapid increase in corporate participation in the carbon market. This book focuses on the concept of CDM and other forestry based Carbon finance mechanisms introduced by UNFCCC and its impact on carbon markets. It also presents a brief analysis of the growth of carbon market in India, its present status and prospects in future. It provides a detailed account of Afforestation and Reforestation CDM Projects including the A/R Project Designed Document by UNFCCC in a simplified yet compact manner for better understanding of the procedure as a reference guide.

Mastering climate change has been recognised as a major challenge for the current decade. Besides the physical risks of climate change, the accompanying economic risks are substantial. Carbon Finance: A Risk Management View provides an in-depth analysis of how climate change will affect all aspects of financial markets and how mathematical and statistical methods can be used to analyse, model and manage the ensuing financial risks. There is a focus on the transition risk (termed carbon risk), but also a discussion of the impact of physical risks (as these risks are closely entangled) on the way to low carbon economies. This is a valuable overview for readers seeking an analysis of carbon risks from the perspective of financial risk management, utilising quantitative risk management tools.

Maximizing reader insights into the methodologies and cutting-edge research concerning the financial aspects of carbon markets, this book analyzes the economic and financial effects of carbon trading and regulations on the stock market prices of individual companies as well as the joint effects of regulations and of the prices of oil and gas on the prices and volatility of the traded carbon securities. Focussing on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which is the most developed carbon trading scheme worldwide, the results obtained for the EU ETS are used as a benchmark for the new carbon markets being developed in North America and worldwide. After reading this book, the reader will: • Learn how the European market for carbon emission allowances work; • Be aware of the institutional development of the market and of the regulatory environment of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme; • Get acquainted with the regression methodologies used to evaluate the impact of regulatory and other events on energy and financial markets; • Become familiar with the recent research results on the links between carbon market regulations, energy prices and the returns and volatility of carbon-linked financial instruments and stock market prices; • Get informed about the possibilities of carbon emissions regulations and their impact on financial markets. This book will be instrumental for the market regulators, researchers and advanced students interested in energy finance, and for the finance practitioners and investors in the energy and carbon intensive industries.

The global carbon markets are growing at a staggering rate. The growth prospects for business are enormous and the potential positive impacts for greenhouse gas emission reductions, climate policy options, renewable energy investment, development projects and efficiency gains are increasingly apparent. A unique part of the market in greenhouse gas emissions is the rapidly growing voluntary carbon market driven by companies, organizations and individuals committed to efficiency, profitability and rapid action on climate change. The second edition of this groundbreaking book draws together all the key information on international voluntary carbon markets with commentary from leading practitioners and business people. It covers all aspects of voluntary carbon markets around the world: what they are, how they work and, most critically, their business potential to help slow climate change. This new, fully revised second edition provides key updates on relevant trends, standards, suppliers, and growth in the marketplace, and is the indispensable guide for anyone seeking to understand voluntary carbon markets and capitalize on the opportunities they present for economic and environmental benefit. Second edition updates: * Contains updated data on credit prices, transaction volumes, major industry players, and other quantitative data through 2008, as well as revised analysis reflecting these shifts * Includes explanations of additional offset project type categories, providing prospective buyers and project developers with a more detailed understanding of the suite of offset projects available * Contains revised explanations and analyses by market experts of the key issues affecting the voluntary markets * Provides an updated 'glance into the future' of the voluntary carbon markets, reflecting market and policy trends that emerged through early 2008.