Webinar on Carbon Markets and Carbon Offsetting Mechanisms
The Andalusian Climate Change Office (OACC) recently organised a webinar about carbon markets and carbon offsetting mechanisms aimed at local and international attendance, divided into 2 different sessions. The first session took place in 19th March 2025, and the second one in 26th March 2025.
These sessions were lectured by experts in the matter, belonging to a private company (Liken Carbon Hub). Both lectures had the “masterclass” format that included presentations with slides, and complementary material was distributed to the attendants of the webinar several days after its conclusion. After finishing each presentation, a brief period of time for answering questions/doubts that may arise was introduced.
Let’s take a dive into the content that was discussed in these two webinar sessions.
Firstly, session nº1 had a focus on discussing carbon markets and carbon offsetting mechanisms, which relate directly with the title of this webinar. The presentation started with a small introduction to the subject where key concepts related to carbon markets such as atmospheric emissions and externalities were explained.
In addition, several carbon pricing systems like “command and control” systems, and “cap and trade” systems were briefly explained. After this brief explanation, the audience was introduced to The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), presenting its basic principles, operating mechanisms, monitoring and verification of emissions.
The fourth point of the presentation consisted in the in depth explanation of project-based mechanisms such as its basic principles, baseline and emission reduction/removal accounting methodologies. Other topics like monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of project activities, or Offset units generated were discussed.
Lastly, the end of this session included the explanation of a few additional concepts like additionality or double accounting.
Moving forward a week in time, session nº2 of the webinar took place, this time addressing the topics of nature-based systems and nature-based solutions. Respecting the structure followed by the previous session, session nº2 started presenting an overview of key concepts such as nature-based systems as generators of emission offset units.
Moreover, other concepts like voluntary emission offsets, the use of carbon removals as offset units or the objectives in the European Union framework were introduced and discussed.
Finally, the last few slides of the syllabus were reserved for the explanation of a difficult topic, The EU Regulation 2024/3012, establishing an EU certification framework for permanent carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration culture and carbon storage in products. Key aspects of this regulation were discussed. There was also an inclusion of the 2015 Paris Agreement, specifically regarding Article 6, which consists in international carbon markets and cooperation between different countries in this matter.
Are you interested to learn more? Visit our library section and see webinar material there: session 1 "Carbon Markets: Emissions Offset Mechanisms" and session 2 "Nature-based Systems, Nature-Based Solutions! Later we will offer also a link to the webinar recordings.