RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Nov 26 (IPS) – The UN climate talks at COP30 brought the crucial issue of climate finance back to the forefront of global discussions. However, while much of the debate has revolved around traditional forms of aid targeting developing countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a faster, more transformative approach lies in increasing access to carbon markets.
When emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) are equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to participate in these markets on their own terms, carbon finance can be generated and deployed in ways that reflect their unique natural resources, governance, social contexts and national priorities.
Achieving global climate and sustainable development goals depends on ensuring that those most affected by climate change can fully participate in and benefit from this growing flow of money.
EMDEs are on the market front lines of climate change – from rising sea levels threatening Pacific island nations to increasing droughts and fires in the Amazon and the Horn of Africa, and increasingly intense and frequent hurricanes in the Caribbean. These crises often hit hardest in regions that have contributed the least to global emissions and are in the most difficult position to respond.
Yet these same countries face a shortage of climate finance $1.3 trillion per year. Carbon markets offer these countries an opportunity to bridge this gap by converting their natural advantages into climate finance assets.
Despite successful initiatives aimed at boosting both high-integrity supply and demand for carbon credits, significant barriers to entry remain, especially for EMDEs. From fragmented policy landscapes to weak governance structures, limited institutional capacity and low investor confidence, several obstacles prevent EMDEs from fully realizing their enormous potential.
The Access to Strategies Program – led by the Voluntary initiative for the integrity of carbon markets – is a direct response to these challenges. It helps governments design and implement their own pathways to high-integrity carbon markets, helping them build the policy, institutional capacity and investor confidence needed to meet their climate finance needs and translate their potential into progress.
Each country’s natural capital – from Brazil’s vast rainforest and agricultural landscape to the Caribbean’s blue carbon ecosystems, or Kenya’s grasslands and renewable energy potential – represents a unique competitive advantage, ready to be realised.
At the same time, no two countries share the same development goals or governance contexts. In some countries, carbon markets can promote forest conservation and biodiversity protection; while in other countries they have the most impact by strengthening rural livelihoods or financing clean energy transitions.
The Access Strategies model recognizes this uniqueness and tailors its support to help countries use carbon finance in ways that align with their own specific economic and environmental strategies and objectives.
For example the Partnership for Carbon in Agriculture (PAC) – developed in partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) – is building capacity among ministries of agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean to participate in high-integrity carbon markets. It provides training, policy guidance and decision-making tools that help governments and farmers identify viable carbon projects that align with national agriculture and sustainability goals.
The partnership has given small and medium-sized producers a clearer route to investment, while positioning agriculture as a central player in regional climate strategies. Another example of work in Access Strategies is the recently launched work Amazon Best Practices Guidethat will help Amazon’s state governments design and implement carbon market frameworks tailored to their unique environmental and governance realities.
Furthermore, in countries such as Kenya, Peru and Benin, the program has provided tailored support to develop policy and regulatory frameworks, strengthen institutional capacity and attract responsible investments for high-priority climate mitigation projects – all in line with country-driven objectives.
These examples show what is possible when governments have the tools and expertise to participate in high-integrity carbon markets on their own terms. More countries should seize this opportunity to tap into the growing financial flow from carbon markets.
While carbon markets are not a panacea, they are one of the few scalable and self-sustaining tools available if they are based on integrity and tailored to the needs of each country.
Programs like Access Strategies do more than just transfer technical knowledge; they create the conditions for locally led action, using countries’ unique environmental, social and institutional insights to shape solutions that work on the ground.
The focus of global climate action should not just be on new financing commitments, but on ensuring that the financing already available is used effectively so that EMDE countries can leverage their own natural capital and promote social inclusion, while achieving their climate goals and reshaping their development trajectory.
Building this kind of capacity is how we can turn global ambition into sustainable, locally managed progress, and furthermore, how carbon finance can become a real tool for sustainable development.
Ana Carolina Avzaradel glassTechnical Director, Markets and Standards, Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI)
IPS UN Office
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