Singaporean appointed to sit on UN body overseeing carbon credit trade

SINGAPORE – The director-general for climate change at Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS), Mr Benedict Chia, has been appointed to sit on a United Nations body charged with the set-up and oversight of a centralised marketplace of carbon credits.

Mr Chia, 46, is the only Singaporean on the supervisory body, which was set up by the UN in July. There are 24 members on the panel, including representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, Poland and Ukraine.

NCCS said the Singapore Government had nominated Mr Chia to represent the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) on this UN body, and the alliance had accepted.

Aosis represents the interests of 39 small island and low-lying coastal developing states, including Singapore, at international climate negotiations.

“Benedict has deep knowledge and experience in designing and implementing carbon pricing and market policies,” NCCS said, citing Mr Chia’s involvement in Corsia, the existing carbon credit scheme for aviation.

The formation of the supervisory body comes after the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, in November last year, during which almost 200 nations agreed on a broad set of rules that will enable countries to buy carbon credits to meet their climate targets.

The COP26 outcome on carbon credits outlines two main ways that carbon credits can cross borders.

One, nations can establish bilateral agreements to buy carbon credits that meet carbon market rules. The source of the credits could be another country or private developers of carbon credit projects based in another country.

Alternatively, countries can choose to buy credits from the centralised marketplace of carbon credits that will be set up and overseen by the supervisory body that Mr Chia sits on.

The NCCS said that the supervisory body will need to work on fine-tuning the framework before countries can start buying carbon credits from the centralised marketplace. This includes coming up with processes and safeguards to ensure that the international trade in carbon credits truly results in a reduction in global emissions.

Further discussions on this are expected to take place at COP27, this year’s climate change conference, to be held in November in Egypt.

Some of the key issues to be discussed at COP27 include developing and approving new methodologies to generate credits and the implementation of the so-called share of proceeds, said the NCCS spokesman.

The share of proceeds refers to the levy that is imposed on trades under this carbon market mechanism. The funds will go towards helping developing countries better prepare for the impacts of climate change.