Behind the scenes of Carbon Certification webinar
by Michael Kirchner
Decarbonisation is a key goal across many sectors. Independent scientific information can make a decisive contribution to achieve this goal. However, scientific information rarely reaches the most interested and powerful (political) actors. In this post we want to take you behind the scenes of the recent webinar on Principles of Carbon Certification. INFORMA partners I4CE and the University of Göttingen organised the webinar using the Research-Integration-Utilisation (RIU) model as their guiding to close this gap and to enable targeted knowledge transfer. The RIU knowledge transfer model relies on empirical data that shows who, where and with which scientific solutions, and how actors should be addressed.
The actor selection was based on findings gained during a Key-actor and Network analysis, which was part of the INFORMA work, where stakeholders were identified and mapped, describing and analysing their interests. The relations among them were defined by the identification of integration forums in which they can take over the role as key-actor, participating actor or target actor. These three aspects of pre-analysis have been used to support knowledge transfer within the INFORMA project at large.
For this webinar, we focused on those actors at the Forest Management Unit (FMU) and EU levels who are not yet active in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) but have a strong potential interest in this market in general, and in the use of forests and Harvested Wood Products (HWPs) for decarbonisation in particular. FMU managers were asked to invite those actors who are taking their first steps in the field of carbon certification. At EU level, we mainly invited organised interest groups of the high-emission sectors that are not fully covered by the EU Emissions Trading System. The aim was to encourage these actors to reconsider their political role in shaping carbon crediting politics at EU level by providing them with sound and independent scientific input. Both actor groups represent untapped potential as possible allies. Two different invitations were developed. One for the target group of non-experts at the FMU level and another for actors at EU-level.
The webinar was designed for non-experts and aimed to clarify how the VCM can provide financing tools to sequester carbon emissions through nature-based solutions. Overall, we received 134 registrations, which not only reflects the high level of interest in the webinar, but also the necessity for independent scientific information, and the effectiveness in reaching stakeholders who require such information and are often overlooked. A total of 53 participants attended the webinar
Participants included representatives from FMU-level administrations, forestry stakeholders, and selected EU-level interest groups, reflecting a balanced mix of operational and policy-relevant actors. Post-event feedback revealed a clear demand for independent, science-based guidelines on standards of carbon certification. Several attendees expressed interest in continued dialogue and additional information exchange, suggesting that the webinar served as an initial platform for sustained science–practice engagement.