Department of Forestry Forest Carbon and Climate Program

The Partnership for Agricultural Carbon (PAC) held a successful side event during New York Climate Week, aimed at accelerating access to private finance for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (LAC) agricultural sector through high-integrity carbon markets. This event increases visibility for the region's leading efforts to build the capacities necessary to respond to the call made by LAC Ministers of Agriculture during the last Inter-American Board Meeting. The Ministers emphasized the urgent need to create an enabling policy environment that facilitates access to private investment in support of sustainable agricultural practices.

The MSU Department of Forestry is a founding member of PAC. The Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP) serves as PAC interim Executive Secretariat and was instrumental in organizing the event during NYCW. This is a clear signal of MSU leadership in accelerating natural climate solutions at the global level.

PAC’s side event showcased how innovative finance solutions, such as high-integrity voluntary carbon markets, are crucial to unlocking the vast mitigation potential of LAC’s agriculture. Muhammad Ibrahim, Director of Technical Cooperation at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), emphasized the importance of these efforts and outlined the necessary steps to mobilize private sector investments, which are urgently needed to close the region's agricultural Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) financing gap, projected to require $700 billion annually by 2050.

Key Panel Discussions and Highlights

Moderated by Mark Kenber, Executive Director of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), the event featured a panel of distinguished experts who underscored the importance of academic collaboration in designing high-integrity carbon projects. Panelists included:

• Leonardo Carvalho, President, Instituto de Mudanças Climáticas e Regulação de Serviços Ambientais do Acre

• Marcelo Torres, President of AAPRESID, representing the farming community
• Sarah Leugers, Chief Growth Officer of Gold Standard, offering insights into carbon crediting programs
• Daniel Ortega, Director of MSU Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP), providing technical expertise on accelerating capacities in the region for designing high-integrity policy frameworks and scaling high-integrity carbon projects.

Discussions focused on the critical role that PAC plays in accelerating the design of enabling policy frameworks and providing technical support to ensure that carbon markets work for both smallholders and larger agricultural stakeholders. The panel emphasized that financing solutions like carbon markets are essential in unlocking investments without further burdening the fiscal debt of LAC countries.

Looking Ahead to COP 2025

This side event is part of PAC’s larger outreach and dissemination plan leading up to COP 2024 in Baku and COP 2025 in Belem, Brazil. PAC’s mission is to bridge the gap between policy, academia, and private sector actors to accelerate the development of sustainable agricultural systems. By leveraging the insights and technical capacities provided by its members, PAC is paving the way for LAC’s agricultural sector to tap into global carbon markets, with projections indicating a market value of up to $50 billion by 2030.

As PAC continues its work, MSU Faculty research and science-based contributions in aligning public policy and private sector initiatives will be critical in achieving net-zero deforestation and ensuring that the agricultural transition is equitable, sustainable, and inclusive of smallholder farmers.