Knowing the Different Kinds of Presentations at NACW
For over two decades, NACW has been providing climate professionals with access to the latest information and updates on carbon markets and climate policy. There are two ways to learn and share content – workshops and sessions.
All workshops are scheduled for the first day of the conference. They may feature different formats and be hosted by organizations besides the Climate Action Reserve. At NACW 2024, registered attendees may attend any workshops that are included in the NACW program. Please note that registration is for the full conference.
Sessions include plenary sessions and breakout sessions, and all take place on the second and third days of the conference. These sessions are designed as interactive discussions among a group of panelists with a moderator leading the discussion. Breakout sessions fall under one of four different paths. All sessions are hosted by the Climate Action Reserve and are included in the NACW program.
Draft NACW 2024 program subject to change
Location: Yosemite
Host: Nathalie Flores, UNFCCC SBSTA Vice-Chair
Location: Franciscan C

Host: BIOFIX
Location: Franciscan D
Explore the synergy between carbon markets and ethnic communities and gain insights from an experienced project developer in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as we delve into the following key themes:
- Threats confronting collective territories in Latin America and the region’s climate agenda response.
- Social and environmental potential, along with benefits for communities and businesses, derived from nature-based solutions.
- Innovative mechanisms and participatory approaches within Biofix’s technical and legal project development experience.
Speaker: Marco Andrés González Carantón, BIOFIX Corp Chief Legal Officer

Host: cCarbon.info
Location: Imperial B
In this breakout session, economists will share their outlook for 2024 for the key cap and trade carbon markets in North America: WCI, RGGI, Washington Cap and Invest. We will also examine the role of investors and the inter-play between other global carbon markets.
The session will examine:
- Investors present in the different markets. This has been mapped this for the first time
- Demand-supply trends and outlook for the instruments in these markets: CCAs, CCOs, RGGI allowances, WCAs
- Review of the latest consultations on WCI Cap and Trade, expected changes on carbon intensities on LCFS and the RGGI program review
- Outlook on price in the near term as well as the long-term
Speakers:
Harry Horner, Nikhil Agarwal, Craig Rocha, external investor speaker TBD
Location: Grand A

Host: Boomitra
Location: Franciscan B
Join industry leaders for a pivotal workshop that bridges the gap between supply and demand in the carbon credit market. This event is essential for anyone involved in the carbon credit ecosystem, from seasoned project developers and credit buyers to sustainability officers.
The session will explore:
- How leading corporations construct resilient carbon offset portfolios
- Priorities and criteria corporations use when selecting carbon credits, providing project developers with insights to meet buyer needs
- Methods for evaluating the downstream and additional impacts of various carbon credit offset options
- How carbon credit buyers incorporate soil carbon credits and other nature-based solutions into their portfolios
Speakers:
- Paola Del Rio V., Regional Manager LATAM, Project Development, Volkswagen ClimatePartner
- Uti Agarwal, Americas Carbon Originator, BP
- Aadith Moorthy, CEO & Founder of Boomitra

Host: ClimeCo
Location: Imperial B
State-level climate action is on the rise throughout the US. From carrot to stick methods, there are a variety of different approaches being taken by States, including carbon pricing, reporting standards, buy clean initiatives and more. This workshop will provide an overview of key updates and trends in State policy action and review several case studies. The goal of the workshop is to bring participants up-to-speed on the plethora of recent state-level interventions and what is in the policy pipeline moving forward.
Speaker: Zach Harmer, Senior Manager, Policy

Host: Climate Action Reserve
Location: Franciscan A
The voluntary carbon market in Latin America and the Caribbean has grown significantly in the past years. The Climate Action Reserve has 232 actively reporting projects under the 5 protocols adapted to Mexico, and in the past year, has launched and/or completed four new protocols for the region, applying lessons learned from Mexico to be adapted to new local contexts in Guatemala, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina.
In the first part of this workshop, hear directly from key actors from Mexico such as ejido/community members and project developers on how carbon forest projects impact communities. Learn how they design carbon projects to ensure a local impact and how the Reserve’s protocols protect social and environmental benefits. This session will also feature a policy expert to discuss Mexico’s carbon markets, both voluntary and compliance, and potential upcoming changes in the regulatory framework.
In the second part, learn from experts from the private and public sectors, as well as NGOs, on how they are working with the Reserve to adopt new protocols to countries throughout Latin America, apply lessons learned from existing protocols, and the potential for further protocol development in the region.

Host: cCarbon.info
Location: Franciscan C
With the increasing number of North American carbon markets, it is likely that the region will represent the largest global carbon market in a few years. Between the WCI, RGGI, Washington Cap and Invest, and the various LCFS markets (like CA LCFS, OR CFP, BC LCFS, WA CFS that impact transportation), these markets have an annual issuance of over $30b already. These numbers are only going to i-increase as Canada CFR trading grows and markets like New York come online.
This workshop will cover:
- Similarities and differences between these different markets
- How they interconnect with one-another
- Trading signals that one can use to compare between these markets
Speakers:
Pawan Mehra, Dr Bikash Maharaj, Craig Rocha, Arpit Soni

Host: BeZero
Location: Imperial B
BeZero Carbon invites project developers and other market stakeholders to take part in this workshop focusing on what buyers and investors are looking for when considering deploying capital into a project pre-issuance. We know that buyers are increasingly looking to secure long term offtakes and invest in early-stage projects, but what elements of project design and implementation are they most interested in and what risks are they most concerned about? Based on an understanding of this, how can developers effectively showcase risk mitigation and their project strengths using the tools available to them to reassure prospects that their project will successfully reach issuance?
This session will be interactive and include breakout discussions. More details to follow.
Speakers: Spencer Meyer, VP of Ratings, BeZero Carbon and Rose Slater, Developer Engagement Manager, BeZero Carbon

Host: OPIS
Location: Franciscan B
Putting a price on carbon is one of the most fundamental factors in the conversation around decarbonization — just what is it worth? At OPIS, that’s our bread and butter. OPIS is the leading provider of daily price assessments in carbon and Low Carbon Fuel Standard markets, with industry contracts and futures instruments based on our price reporting. Hear from OPIS Directors Bridget Hunsucker and Jordan Godwin about the methodology behind our price discovery process and how industry stakeholders are utilizing those values in their day-to-day activities.
Speakers: Bridget Hunsucker, Director, Carbon Markets at OPIS and Jordan Godwin, Director, Renewables at OPIS
Lunch: Yosemite
Exhibit Hall: Grand A

Host: Climate Action Reserve
Location: Franciscan A
The agricultural sector is a key player in our fight against climate change yet projects in this sector present many technical and administrative challenges. With growing interest from the market, new models being validated, and an increase in projects, the Reserve is eager to discuss this sector with interested stakeholders at our NACW conference.
The workshop will be an excellent opportunity for interested stakeholders to discuss aspects of our Soil Enrichment Protocol (SEP), and other agricultural protocols, to share lessons learnt and help improve the protocol for continued and increased implementation. To kick off the workshop, Ryan Pape from Indigo Ag, Meredith Varie from Truterra LLC | Land O’Lakes, and Mike Nassry from Nutrien Ag Solutions, will provide an overview of their projects including status, next steps and lessons learnt.
This will be followed by a discussion focused on biogeochemical models and their use for agricultural carbon accounting. Brian McConkey, Chief Scientist with Viresco Solutions, will provide an overview of the various biogeochemical models, including their applicability, use to date, and statuses relative to the Reserve’s Model Validation and Calibration requirements.
To round out the discussion, Matt Campbell from Aster Global Environmental Solutions who has verified relevant projects will provide an overview of their verifications services and speak to the differences and challenges associated with agricultural verification services. The workshop will conclude with a short ‘wrap-up’ and overview of our proposed SEP V2.0 update from Reserve staff. All presentations will be followed by a Q&A. We hope you can join us for a timely and important conversation that will review lessons learnt to date with the aim of supporting the advancement and success of agricultural projects in the voluntary carbon market.

Host: Green Diamond Resource Company
Location: Franciscan C
As carbon markets have matured, increased scrutiny on key elements of credit quality have led many to consider improved forest management (IFM) projects as synonymous with gratuitous crediting. We have a more positive view of IFM projects. Done thoughtfully and with an emphasis on quality, IFM projects can meaningfully contribute to climate solutions. Our organization has been focused on removals-based IFM projects on our working forestlands for over eight years. These projects generate far fewer credits, but the credits thus generated tend to be above reproach. We would like to offer an overview of this alternative approach to IFM projects.
Speakers: Dave Walters, VP Acquisitions and Business Development and Zane Haxtema, Manager of Forest Carbon Projects

Host: Xpansiv
Location: Imperial B
The world of environmental commodities is expanding rapidly. It now includes additional compliance carbon markets, new carbon crediting standards, CFS programs, timestamped RECs, and low-carbon approaches to traditional commodities – with considerable overlap between these categories. New participants and digital infrastructure are helping drive this growth, including new registries, marketplaces, and service providers. This session will explore how to encourage the interoperability of environmental market digital infrastructure needed in order to effectively deploy capital across all sectors and commodities.

Host: Calyx
Location: Franciscan B
There are a number of carbon credits available on the market that make an impact yet don’t fully deliver on the 1 tonne of CO2 avoided or removed that they promise. So how is a carbon credit buyer supposed to make claims they can be confident in? Learn about the multiple quality facets of carbon credits and how to build a portfolio that addresses over-crediting, so you can mitigate risk and maximize climate impact.

Host: US Biochar Initiative
Location: Franciscan B
We will present an overview biochar and the state of the industry, followed by a deep dive on results from the recently completed Global Biochar Industry Survey. Our overview will focus on key revenue streams available to biochar producers: carbon removal credits, biochar as a material, tipping fees for waste biomass, and pygas valorization via electricity, heat, bio-oils, and other chemicals. We will then present findings of our first annual biochar industry survey, which will be conducted November 2023. Finally, we will present challenges and opportunities in the following topic areas: carbon and climate, end-use markets for biochar, and production technologies.
Speaker: Myles Gray, Program Director

Host: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Location: Franciscan C
NIST will facilitate a discussion on the value of widely accepted standards and assessment methods for carbon dioxide removal. Stakeholders will share perspectives on challenges and opportunities in quantifying CDR as it relates to quality and confidence in carbon removal purchases.

Host: Land Trust Alliance and Conservation Partners
Location: Franciscan A
Conservation easements are becoming an increasingly relevant tool for high-integrity carbon projects, yet many of us have much to learn about how conservation easements work and relate to the varied protocols. This workshop will bring together expert panelists representing land trusts and technical consultants to share practical insights from the field in pairing conservation easements with carbon projects. Content will include a general overview of the mechanics of land trusts and conservation easements, highlight specific project types using conservation easements, and explore the varied roles played by land trusts in relation to carbon projects. Session attendees will have an opportunity for Q&A and to raise special topics of interest. This workshop is appropriate to carbon project developers, land managers, policy makers, and others wanting to gain a basic understanding of conservation easements as tools for creating high-integrity carbon projects, as well as those seeking advanced insights on these complex and evolving topics.
Speakers: Misti Schmidt (Conservation Partners LLP), Ailla Wasstrom-Evans (Land Trust Alliance), Marissa Spence (Climate Action Reserve), Patti Ruby (American Forests Foundation), Jim Clark (North Coast Resource Management)

Host: ICVCM
Location: Imperial B
Now that we have the VCMI Claims Code of Practice and the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles – what actions are required from the key stakeholder groups to restore trust and liquidity in the market.

Host: SCS Global Services
Location: Franciscan B
Increasing requirements for transparency, accountability, and integrity to combat greenwashing around carbon emissions and claims of Net Zero or Carbon Neutral mean a strong focus on carbon accounting for GHG inventories and projects. Now celebrating our 40th year, SCS Global Services has been providing high-quality verification of GHG emissions and a wide range of carbon offset projects and programs including Afforestation, REDD+, Regenerative Ag, Plastics, Electric Vehicles, and industrial processes to entities large and small. Learn about our complete suite of carbon services to best understand how you can meet your ESG commitments, from voluntary initiatives to SEC, state, federal and international requirements with integrity and scientific rigor.
Speakers: Christie Pollet-Young, Vice President, Climate and Heather Rosa, Program Manager, Energy, Industry and Agricultural Offsets

Host: cCarbon.info
Location: Imperial A
The North American Compliance Offset and North American voluntary Offsets market is larger than the Global VCM in dollar value. The compliance and voluntary offset markets work in close conjunction with one another with several overlapping protocols.
The session will examine:
- Outlook on Supply of North American Offsets (US as well)
- Demand drivers and key buyers of North American Offsets
- Exploring the premium of North America
- Most relevant credit opportunities and strategies

Host: Indigo Ag
Location: Franciscan C
An interactive session considering the unique challenges faced by natural climate solutions (NCS) in the context of the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles. Participants will engage on challenges for distinct project types and hear from practitioners how project design choices can overcome these challenges and support a high standard of credit integrity.
Location: Grand A
Location: Yosemite
Location: Yosemite
- Evolving Trends and Advancements in Carbon Taxes and Nature-Based Solutions Across Mexico
- Led by Alejandra Blanco & Denitza Gonzalez, MexiCO2
- Smallholder Food and Ag Companies’ Decision: Insetting or Offsetting?
- Led by Madhur Jain, Varaha
- Decarbonizing the Cement Industry
- Led by Aron Potash, Latham & Watkins
- Improved Forest Management Credit Quality and Next-generation Innovations
- Led by Rishi Das & Linus Hiscox, BeZero Carbon
- What Innovations Should the Reserve Incorporate Into Their Forest Protocols?
- Led by Jordan Mao, Climate Action Reserve
- How Carbon Market Convergence Unlocks Scale & Opportunities
- Led by Annalise Downey, Sylvera
- Through the Looking Glass: the Rapid Evolution and Future of Carbon Project Finance
- Led by David Moffat, Inlandsis Fund
- Carbon Project Development: Designing for Success
- Led by Steve Lemeshow, EcoEngineers
Location: Grand B
Location: Grand B
During her career in public service, Liane Randolph has specialized in environmental law and policy, effective administration, and a commitment to transparency and public process. She was appointed Chair of the California Air Resources Board in December 2020. Previously, Randolph served six years as a Commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission and managed numerous decisions on energy efficiency, integrated energy resource planning, and regulation of transportation network companies, as well as spearheading significant Commission policy reforms. Prior to the PUC, Randolph served as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel at the California Natural Resources Agency, where she worked on a wide variety of legal and policy issues, including work on the Klamath Dam Removal agreement, CEQA guidelines, and the Agency’s first Tribal Consultation Policy. Randolph’s first role with the State was as Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Her work at the state level builds on experience with local government that she gained while practicing municipal law as a contract City Attorney. Randolph earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
Location: Grand B

Rostin Behnam was sworn in as the CFTC’s 15th Chairman on January 4, 2022 after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. President Biden nominated Chairman Behnam to lead the agency.
Previously, Chairman Behnam served as CFTC Commissioner since September, 2017. The members of the Commission elected Commissioner Behnam as Acting Chairman effective January 21, 2021.
Since joining the CFTC, Chairman Behnam has individually and as sponsor of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC) advocated for the CFTC to use its authority and expertise to ensure the derivatives markets operate transparently and fairly for participants and customers, and innovate responsibly to address evolving market structures and products and the emergence and movement of risk across clearinghouses, exchanges, intermediaries, market makers and end-users within an appropriate oversight framework. Through his MRAC sponsorship, Chairman Behnam convened leading market experts and public interest groups to engage in public dialogue on such timely issues as global interest rate benchmark reform, central counterparty (CCP) risk and governance, evolving market structures, and since the summer of 2019, climate-related market risk.
Recognizing that weather and climate present risks to economic productivity, financial stability, and household wealth, especially in low-to-moderate income and historically marginalized communities, Chairman Behnam led the creation of the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee to examine climate-related impacts on the financial system. The Subcommittee’s efforts resulted in the September 2020 release of the report Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, the first of-its-kind effort from a U.S. government entity. Chairman Behnam followed its release with testimony before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and presentations in other venues focused on climate-related market risk and incorporating sustainability resilience into our financial systems.
One of his first actions since leading the commission was to establish the first-ever Climate Risk Unit (CRU) to support the agency’s mission by focusing on the role of derivatives in understanding, pricing, and addressing climate-related risk and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Comprised of staff from across the CFTC’s operating divisions and offices, the CRU represents the agency’s next step in response to what has become a global call to action on tackling climate change.
During his time as Commissioner, Chairman Behnam also spearheaded efforts to invigorate internal discussions on agency-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives. He remains committed to ensuring that the CFTC remains vigilant in building and maintaining an inclusive workforce, supportive of employees and reflective of the diversity in the markets it oversees and the public it serves.
Chairman Behnam’s arrival at the CFTC followed extensive experiences in financial and agricultural markets. As Senior Counsel to Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, he primarily focused on policy and legislative matters related to the CFTC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, agencies within the direct jurisdictional purview of the Committee. Chairman Behnam’s major responsibilities included advising Senator Stabenow on the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and related matters affecting the Treasury Department, the U.S. prudential regulators, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
After graduating from Georgetown University, Chairman Behnam worked as a proprietary equities trader in New York City before pursuing a Juris Doctorate at Syracuse University. During his legal studies, Chairman Behnam interned with the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement in the New York Regional Office.
Upon graduation, he returned to his home state of New Jersey and joined the Bureau of Securities within the state’s Office of the Attorney General. Following his time with the Bureau of Securities, Chairman Behnam practiced law in New York City.

Location: Grand B

Judy Meltzer is Director General of the Carbon Markets Bureau at Environment and Climate Change Canada. In this capacity, she is responsible for federal market-based climate mitigation instruments, including carbon pricing, GHG offsets and clean fuels. She joined the Department in 2009. Her past experience includes work in the non-profit sector and the International Development Research Center. Judy holds a Masters in International Affairs and a PhD in Political Science.


Jean-Yves Benoit has been working on the climate change file for almost 20 years. He is the Director General at the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change in Québec.
His team is responsible for Québec’s air pollutants and GHG emissions reporting regulation and inventories, as well as Quebec’s Cap-and-Trade system. He represents the government of Quebec on many international partnerships pertaining to carbon pricing. He is currently co-chair of the Carbon Pricing in the Americas forum and Chair of the Board of WCI Inc.

Eduardo has been the CEO of MÉXICO2 for 10 years. MÉXICO2 is Mexico´s carbon market maker, helping to shape the regulation from governments, supporting the supply of quality carbon, and boostering the demand. Eduardo has been selected one of Mexico´s most sustainable minds in 2020 by Forbes and proudly serves at the Climate Action Reserve’s Board of Directors.

Rajinder Sahota was appointed as the Deputy Executive Officer for Climate Change and Research in spring of 2021. She is responsible for directing CARB’s scientific, technical, and policy teams as they develop and update the AB 32 Climate Change Scoping Plan to track progress and develop the pathways to achieve the state’s climate targets. She also oversees the economy-wide Cap-and-Trade Program, Low Carbon Fuels Standards, energy and climate policy, fuels programs, and critical research to advance action to improve public health and environmental protection. In Rajinder’s 19 year-career with CARB, she has worked on a variety of projects including analyzing data for children’s health studies, evaluating strategies and their impacts to reduce harmful diesel pollution from locomotives, developing the first comprehensive greenhouse gas reporting and verification regulation, developing the 2017 and 2022 Scoping Plan Updates, leading the development of the first Integrated Resource Targets under SB 350 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector, and overseeing actions to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sector and fuels sector. She has also served as a point of contact on CARB’s climate policies with other states, and subnational and international governments.
Rajinder served as an inaugural co-chair of the Diversity and Racial Equity (DaRE) Task Force. The position helped co-lead an internally-focused effort to evaluate and remove barriers that keep the organization from being more diverse and inclusive for all. These continuing efforts will help CARB become more and responsive and effective.
Rajinder received a B.S. and M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of California, Davis.

Location: Grand B
Location: Grand A

Path 1: Markets and Finance
Location: Grand B
As the voluntary carbon market continues to develop and grow, compliance markets serve as models for rigor and integrity, and some have years of experience under their belts. California’s compliance market has been in operation for over a decade, and this year marks the 10-year anniversary for the linking of the California and Québec markets. This session will take a deep dive into the status and outlook of compliance markets in North America and how they will influence – or be influenced by – voluntary markets.

Justin Johnson is a partner in Vermont government relations firm MMR, LLC where he brings more than 20 years of experience working in federal, state, and municipal government in both the United States and Australia.
Justin joined the firm in 2016 after sixteen years with the State of Vermont, including working as Commissioner of Environmental Conservation, Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources, and Vermont’s Secretary of Administration.
He has also served as Chief of Staff for a member of the Australian Federal Parliament.
Justin served on the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative for seven years and has advised counties throughout the Asia Pacific region on the elements of carbon pricing programs.
He holds a BA (Journalism) from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and lives in central Vermont.


Eva Berton is the Unit Head of Regulatory Development and Implementation in the Offsets and Emissions Trading Section of the Carbon Markets Bureau at Environment and Climate Change Canada. In this role Eva is responsible for the implementation of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System, and oversaw development of the Canadian Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System Regulations. Eva has been working on issues related to climate change since joining the department in 2010, including regarding climate change adaptation and policy development for short-lived climate pollutants. Her past experience includes work in environmental consulting and in the high-tech sector. Eva holds a BSc. degree in Mathematics and Engineering from Queen’s University.


Path 2: Policy
Location: Imperial A
The Biden Administration has launched a wide variety of new policies to accelerate the US response to climate change. From investing in new technologies to regulating the carbon market, the US federal government is seeking to play a more active role on the national and international stage. This session will examine the impact and focus of these various policies, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the development of hydrogen hubs, regulatory actions by the SEC and CFTC, among others.

Washington, DC
As Head of Advisory Services, Janet is responsible for leading outreach, guidance and engagement on key climate issues important to Anew’s clients including policy, natural climate solutions, GHG inventories, carbon strategy, reporting, goal setting and carbon neutrality. Janet brings a wide spectrum of experience on environmental issues to her work at Anew. Prior to Anew, she taught environmental economics at the Univ of Calgary, was part of the management team at both Climate Change Central in Calgary and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, in DC. She also helped launch Pew’s successor, the Center on Climate and Energy Solutions. At Pew and C2ES, Janet led their engagement with the corporate community, including their Business Environmental Leadership Council – mostly Fortune 500 companies. Janet also led research and engagement on market-based policy, domestic policy, corporate sustainability, climate resilience and carbon capture, use and storage.
As a recognized expert on climate issues, she has been an advisor to the World Bank’s High-Level Panel on Carbon Pricing Competitiveness, the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and American University’s Center for Environmental Policy and Arizona State’s Urban Resilience Network. She is past member of the review team for the Fourth National Climate Assessment, National Research Council’s Roundtable on Climate Change Education and the Council of Canadian Academies on oil sands environmental technologies. Janet is also the Chair of the Board for the Climate Registry.
Janet holds a Ph.D. and Master of Science in economics and an undergraduate degree in geology.


Kristina is Deputy General Counsel and Chief Sustainability Officer at Persefoni. She joins Persefoni from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, where she served as Senior Counsel for Climate & ESG to the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance, and led the team drafting the Climate Disclosure Proposal. Prior to joining the SEC, Kristina served as Senior Counsel and Director of Sustainability at the global law firm Latham & Watkins. She holds an MBA in Sustainability from Yale University, a JD from the University of Colorado, and a BA from Duke University.


Lauren Sanchez has over a decade of experience in tackling the climate crisis from government, academic and non-profit roles at the global, national and local levels. She currently serves as Governor Newsom’s Senior Advisor for Climate and most recently served as Senior Advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she was deputy secretary for climate policy and intergovernmental relations at the California Environmental Protection Agency and international policy director at the California Air Resources Board from 2017 to 2021. She was a climate negotiator at the U.S. Department of State from 2015 to 2017, serving on the Paris Agreement negotiation team. Sanchez is a Fulbright Scholar and earned a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University. She lives in Oakland, tries to spend as much time as possible wandering the Sierra Mountains, and enjoys trying all of the Bay Area’s greatest tacos while perfecting her Selena karaoke.


David Gillers serves as the CFTC’s Chief of Staff, Chief Operating Officer, and Director of the Climate Risk Unit. Gillers was the CFTC’s federal officer for the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee, in which capacity he oversaw the development and publication of the landmark Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System report. Previously, he spent a decade as a congressional staffer working on financial services and energy matters, most recently as Democratic Senior Counsel to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He worked extensively on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, the JOBS Act of 2012, and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015. Gillers worked as a corporate attorney prior to his time in Congress. He is a graduate of Columbia College and received his JD from Boston College Law School.


Path 3: Implementation
Location: Imperial B
Reducing deforestation is critically important to the sustainability and livelihoods of local communities and climate goals in LATAM. This session will cover advances and challenges in LATAM subnational efforts to reduce deforestation while advancing low-carbon economies and sustainable, forest-based development. Speakers will discuss their experiences with project-based and jurisdiction-scale carbon markets, other financing tools, and policy implementation.
As the Director of Latin America, Amy oversees the development and implementation of the Reserve’s protocols and programs throughout Latin America. Amy further manages stakeholder engagement, consulting services, and technical assistance to support climate policies and carbon markets in Latin America. Amy coordinates with the Reserve’s Analytical and Communications and Business Outreach Teams to ensure the Reserve’s programmatic policies and outreach efforts support the Reserve’s operations throughout Latin America.
Amy previously worked in the Bay of Jiquilisco, El Salvador, where she supported local communities and government institutions in developing and implementing forest management plans and advancing environmental policies and sustainable economic opportunities. Amy has further lived, studied, and worked in Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain, and Norway. Amy graduated from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, where she received a Master’s in International Environmental Policy and a Master’s in Business Administration. Amy received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology with a Concentration in Environmental Studies from Kenyon College.

Silvia Llamas is Coordinator of Operations in Pronatura Sur A.C., the organization that serves as the GCF Task Force Country Coordinator in Mexico. She serves as GCF Task Force Country Director, Mexico. Silvia is Mexican and has a degree in Biology and a Master´s degree in environmental studies and social development. She has approximately 15 years of experience in institutional strengthening, planning, implementation, supervision and coordination of projects, programs and strategies on conservation and environmental issues. During her professional career, she has collaborated in initiatives focused on environmental conservation, natural resource management and rural development. In the last 5 years, she has had the opportunity to support and participate in regional and international alliances and strategies linked to the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD +), through low emission rural development and restoration projects. What Silvia enjoys most of her work are the constant challenges that the interaction between environment and social development generate, which encourage her to be in constant search to strengthen her own abilities, and thus her work can have better impacts not only in her professional life but also in her personal life.


Jason Gray is an environmental attorney and climate policy expert who serves as Project Director of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force) at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. Jason previously served as chief of California’s Cap and-Trade Program at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the state agency tasked with formulating and implementing the state’s world-leading climate policies. In this position, Jason oversaw a staff of more than 30 experts and managers tasked with designing and implementing California’s carbon market. He represented CARB within the GCF Task Force for nearly a decade, and previously served as manager of the Cap-and-Trade Program’s market monitoring section and as an attorney supporting the development and implementation of climate and air quality regulations at CARB. Jason has also worked on environmental education, biodiversity conservation, local capacity building, and sustainable development projects with the U.S. Peace Corps and WWF in the Central African country of Gabon. He received a B.A. in Biology and French from Gonzaga University, and a J.D. and Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School.


Ana Carolina Moreno Villarreal: Architect with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with emphasis on Management Strategy. She has 12 years of work experience, the last 4 years dedicated exclusively to climate change. She is part of the Mitigation Department of the Climate Change Directorate of the Ministry of Environment of Panama, and has participated in several projects, such as the development of the First Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC1), the development and design of the Second Biennial Update Report (2BUR) and the National Inventory Report, the Reduce Your Footprint initiative, the National Climate Transparency Platform (PNTC) and the development of the National Carbon Market of Panama (MNCP), among others. She is currently coordinating the development of the National Carbon Market of Panama (MNCP) and the progress of each of its three components.


Path 4: Innovation and Scaling in Carbon Credits
Location: Franciscan
The voluntary carbon market continues to grow in terms of credits issued, projects developed and stakeholders coming on board. Along with the growth is continued exploration of promising and innovative new project types. This session has always been popular at NACW and this year it, once again, will examine the more promising possibilities, along with the potential and challenges in scaling these emerging opportunities.

As an Associate Director at the Climate Action Reserve, McKenzie is responsible for standardizing and advancing the Reserve’s protocol development process where she leads internal and external reviews of new protocol concepts, oversees internal management of protocols under development, and assesses new carbon market policies for protocol revisions and updates. McKenzie serves as the implementation lead for the Nature-Based Agriculture Sector Team where she strives to evolve and expand agricultural carbon offset protocols to the meet growing market demands in this sector. Additionally, McKenzie leans on her technical background and experience to support the Industrial Processes and Gases Sector Team.
Prior to joining the Climate Action Reserve, McKenzie worked as Director of Stewardship & Regulatory Affairs at Fertilizer Canada where she oversaw policy and programs related to sustainable nutrient management and industrial processes. McKenzie is from Ottawa, Ontario which is where she completed her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemistry. Her research at Carleton University focused on the development of nanoparticle-based DNA aptamer selection methods to improve in-field biosensor detection of harmful agricultural mycotoxins.


Mark Denne, together with conservation industry leader John Gantt, founded Carbon International in 2022 to create trustworthy and accredited carbon absorption offsets for use in the world’s regulated carbon markets. The company works with partner organizations and land owners (both agricultural and non-agricultural) to deliver a channel to market for ultra-low-energy atmospheric carbon capture technologies. Carbon International expects to remove over 1 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year from its current pilot projects in California.
Mark is a prior partner with consultancy firm Accenture, and an alumnus of Cambridge University.


Danny Gray is Executive Vice President of Eco Material Technologies a company that is focused on providing alternative cementitious innovation to the construction materials industry that improves concrete performance and sustainability with a focus on reducing the carbon footprint of SCMs & ACMs. Gray has served executive roles in all business facets of the cementitious materials industry. Key focus has been on research and engineering application of innovation through business operations, product development, marketing and sales of co-products derived from the electric generation industry and natural minerals.
Mr. Gray has more than 40 years of experience in coal ash management and beneficial use, starting with American Electric Power and the cementitious materials industry. He has served in senior executive and ownership roles at four of the largest US based cementitious materials companies, including EMT, Charah, MRT and ISG. Gray also served as President of KBK, specialty engineering firm focused on mineral resource recovery and material handling systems design.
Mr. Gray was appointed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Moniz and reappointed by DOE Secretary Perry to serve as a member of the National Coal Council (NCC), a Federal Advisory Committee to DOE. Gray served as Vice Chairman for NCC in 2018 and served as Chairman in 2019-20.
Mr. Gray served on a 2017 EPA Federal Advisory Committee for a Negotiated Rulemaking process for Chemical Data Reporting of recycled inorganic chemical byproducts under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Mr. Gray served on the Board of Directors of the American Coal Council (ACC) from 2012 to 2015 and served as President of the ACC in 2014.
Mr. Gray serves on the Board of Directors of the American Coal Ash Association an association dedicated to sustainable solutions for resource recovery for the electric utility industry.
Mr. Gray serves as an Associate Member of the Southern States Energy Board active on the Committee for Clean Coal Energy Policies & Technologies and served as Chairman in 2020-22.
Mr. Gray has testified before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee and various state legislative committees regarding policies and regulation of Coal Combustion Residuals disposal, management and beneficial use.
Mr. Gray serves on the Editorial Board for the Coal Combustion & Gasification Products Journal published by the University of Kentucky-Center for Applied Energy Research.
Mr. Gray graduated with honors from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, and is a registered professional engineer in multiple states. He is a native of Roanoke VA and currently resides in Marietta, GA.
Mr. Gray holds US Patent 9,873,638 for Synthetic Gypsum Fertilizer Product.


Voluntary Carbon Markets Services Director
David LaGreca is the Voluntary Carbon Markets Services Director at EcoEngineers. He is an environmental scientist with experience in all major greenhouse gas (GHG) programs across the Americas. Mr. LaGreca is an expert in environmental policy and management, and energy and sustainability, with experience in diverse carbon project types, including forestry, renewable energy, oil and gas, food waste avoidance, industry, assorted biogas, blue carbon, and novel carbon removal technologies.
Mr. LaGreca works with the EcoEngineers’ Asset Development and Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) teams to help clients assess and implement renewable energy and low-carbon projects. He writes extensively on LCA in commercial products and building science.
Mr. LaGreca’s previous experience includes carbon advisory services for two mid-sized, private equity-funded oil companies, assisting in the development of new Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) criteria and net-zero emissions plans. He has been involved in over 100 emissions reduction projects and dozens of GHG inventories. He has conducted feasibility analyses and due diligence for carbon project developers for improved forest management, soil carbon, carbon capture and storage, biochar, energy efficiency, landfill gas, cement, and an assortment of nascent technologies for environmentally preferred operations standards. Mr. LaGreca has assisted in the development of climate action and net-zero emissions plans for oil and gas producers.
Experience
GHG Project and Organizational Verifications
- Lead verifier for many GHG verifications in the U.S. carbon markets under The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) Landfill Protocol.
- Lead verifier for offset projects in Colombia’s GHG program.
- Lead verifier for GHG verifications under the following protocols for The Climate Registry: Local Government Operations Protocol (LGO), and Electric Power Sector (EPS) verification.
- Team member for GHG verifications under the Climate Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Airport Climate Accreditation (ACA) protocols.
- Lead verifier for GHG verifications under Mexico’s National Registry of Emissions (RENE)
GHG Consulting
- Lead consultant for the City of La Crosse, Wisconsin’s municipal and community GHG inventory development.
- Project advisor for forestry and grasslands offset projects.
- Conducted feasibility analysis and implementation strategy for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Homes, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Indoor Air and Net-Zero home standard.
- Presented a sustainable development plan to Clear Creek County Commissioners for the Henderson Mine site.
- Technical advisor for innovative emission reduction platforms in the U.S. and the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Education
- B.S. in Environmental Studies, University of Colorado – Boulder
- M.S. in Environmental Policy and Management, University of Denver
Licenses
- Accredited verifier/lead verifier in Oregon and California GHG reporting programs
Presentations
- Innovative Project Types, North America Carbon World, panelist, 2023
- Carbon Unbound-Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Leadership, speaker, 2023
- VERGE-Climate Tech Conference, speaker, 2022
- Offset Project Development in Huascara Region Peru, Colorado State University, guest lecturer, 2022
- Cost-Benefit Analysis for Offset Project Development, Colorado State University, guest lecturer, 2020-2021

Lunch: Yosemite
Exhibit Hall: Grand A

Path 1: Markets and Finance
Location: Grand B
Incorporated in 2011, WCI serves to ensure the success of its participating jurisdictions’ GHG emissions trading programs. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the linking of its two founding jurisdictions’ carbon markets, and now there are real possibilities for other programs, including Washington’s cap-and-invest program, to join. This session will look at the impact of potential expansion on markets and the programs themselves.

Jean-Yves Benoit has been working on the climate change file for almost 20 years. He is the Director General at the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change in Québec.
His team is responsible for Québec’s air pollutants and GHG emissions reporting regulation and inventories, as well as Quebec’s Cap-and-Trade system. He represents the government of Quebec on many international partnerships pertaining to carbon pricing. He is currently co-chair of the Carbon Pricing in the Americas forum and Chair of the Board of WCI Inc.


Laura serves as a member of Governor Jay Inslee’s executive cabinet and as Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology. Ecology has over 1900 dedicated employees across the state, working every day to achieve our mission to protect, preserve, and enhance the environment for current and future generations. The Department of Ecology provides regulatory services and science-based analysis through ten environmental programs focused on protecting and managing our water resources and shorelands, preventing and cleaning up toxic contamination, oil spill prevention and response, preserving air quality, combatting climate change, and managing solid and hazardous wastes. Our agency emphasizes work in communities with environmental justice concerns, seeking to eliminate or minimize environmental burdens and maximize environmental benefits in these communities.
In the climate arena, Ecology’s teams are hard at work implementing 2021 legislation to establish an economy-wide cap and invest systems and a clean fuels standard. We also work across the state to bolster communities’ resiliency in the face of climate change, including focused efforts on flooding, coastal health, drought, ocean acidification, and health effects from wildfires.
Prior to being appointed as director in January 2020, Laura served 22 years in the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. In her volunteer life, Laura has worked for organizations that provide housing solutions for homeless individuals and free legal services for low-income clients. Laura’s husband, Dan, is a professor of mechanical engineering at St. Martin’s University and her child, Violet, is a proud member of their high school’s climate club and is pushing their family towards becoming a zero-waste household (which has been hard during the pandemic!)


Jennifer is VP of Market Analysis at ClearBlue Markets. She has two decades of experience guiding clients through the complex environmental markets landscape, with an emphasis on policy analysis and forecasting pricing for environmental commodities. Jennifer’s focus areas include regional compliance markets for carbon, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and Fuel Standards credits, Canadian carbon markets, and Voluntary Carbon. Prior to joining ClearBlue, Jennifer was Lead Analyst for Low Carbon Markets at S&P Global Platts, responsible for collaborating across commodity teams to develop and communicate market outlooks. Jennifer also helped build the newly-founded environmental practice as Director of Emissions and Clean Energy for PIRA Energy Group, acquired by S&P Global in 2016. Jennifer holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Drew University.


Harry Horner is the Head of Strategy at cCarbon.info, and he’s been a carbon market nerd for a decade now. His focus has been on market forecasting, as well as political and regulatory analysis, across both compliance and voluntary markets, US and worldwide. He has been an integral part of cCarbon’s development from a single market specialist based on the WCI, through to a multi-market, multi-commodity business insights firm with a global team.
Harry is currently based in Portugal, he is a writer of books and podcasts on all topics under the sun, a recovering world cyclist, and an emerging Portuguese farmer!


Jon Costantino is the founder and Principal of Tradesman Advisors, Inc., a Sacramento-based consulting and advocacy firm. He has 31 years of regulatory experience both within Government and in the private sector, focused on air quality and climate change regulatory implementation and policy development. He was the original Climate Change Planning Manager for the California Air Resources Board and oversaw the first publication of the State’s economy-wide climate policy document—the AB 32 Scoping Plan.
Prior to founding his own firm, Jon managed a climate change regulatory practice for a diverse portfolio of clients at a national law firm. He also was the lead legislative analyst at CARB, focused on energy and transportation fuels. He started his career as an Air Quality Engineer at one of California’s local air quality districts.


Path 2: Policy
Location: Imperial A
Nature-based solutions (NBS) to address the climate crisis have been under vigorous assault in recent years, with claims of green washing, a lack of additionality, and concerns around permanence abounding. This session will examine the steps being taken to enhance integrity in the NBS arena, including consideration of dynamic baselines, higher quality forest management practices and innovative approaches to permanence.

Laurie Wayburn is Co-founder and President of Pacific Forest Trust. Ms. Wayburn is an accomplished forest and conservation innovator who advises policymakers at the state, regional, national, and international levels. She pioneers new approaches to develop sustainable resource economies using her deep experience in the fields of conservation, ecosystem services, and sustainability. A preeminent authority on the climate and ecosystem benefits of forests, she leads efforts enacting climate change and other ecosystem service policies that unite conservation and sustainable management with market-based approaches. Recipient of the Kingsbury Browne Conservation, James Irvine Foundation, and EPA Climate Leadership awards, Ms. Wayburn is a frequent speaker, writer, and media commentator on effective incentives for conservation and sustainable resource management.
Prior to co-founding Pacific Forest Trust with Constance Best in 1993, Ms. Wayburn worked internationally for 10 years in the United Nations Environment Program and Ecological Sciences Division of UNESCO. She later served as Executive Director of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and was the Founder and first Coordinator of the Central California Coast Biosphere Reserve. Ms. Wayburn is a graduate of Harvard University and currently serves on the Land Trust Alliance Leadership Council.


Christian Eggleton was most recently co-owner/founder and Vice President of Forest Resource Solutions and Technologies (FRST Corp), with his wife, Andrea Eggleton, in Grass Valley, CA. As of March 2024, FRST Corp is now a part of TÜV SÜD America’s Green Energy & Sustainability division. Christian’s new role is the Director, Forest Carbon Verification.
Since 2010, Christian has lived in the foothills of the Northern Sierra where he started his career in forestry consulting and by 2014 participated in his first forest carbon verification. Upon starting FRST Corp, Christian has since led the technical review for dozens of forest carbon verifications across the US and has become a preeminent verifier within this industry, with the majority of his experience in Improved Forest Management projects under the relevant ACR methodologies and CA Compliance Offset Protocols as well as CAR US Forests. Christian earned his CA Registered Professional Forester (RPF) license in 2018 and has served on the State’s Professional Foresters Examining Committee since 2019. Christian has a BA in Environmental Economics and Policy (2008) and a Master of City and Regional Planning (2010) from UC Berkeley.


Ariel is a Senior Program Manager, Carbon Removal at Microsoft, where she serves as a strategist and buyer for Microsoft’s carbon dioxide removal (CDR) portfolio. Prior to Microsoft, Ariel worked at Patch, where she developed Patch Offtake to help carbon project developers secure access to long-term purchase agreements. Ariel also helped to develop Indigo Ag’s soil carbon credit business strategy, explored impact investing strategies at The Rise Fund and was a consultant with Bain & Company. She lives in Washington and spends her free time exploring the natural landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.


Eric Holst is a forester and associate vice president for natural climate solutions at Environmental Defense Fund and leads EDF’s global wildfire resilience initiative. He is an expert in developing innovative conservation and climate resilience strategies on working forests, farms and ranches. While at EDF, Eric has worked to establish productive partnerships with farmers and ranchers, putting EDF at the forefront of collaborative conservation efforts. He has been a pioneer in developing market-based solutions for biodiversity conservation, climate mitigation, and climate resilience. Eric is a registered professional forester and a member of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture.
Prior to EDF, Eric held positions as executive director of the Resources Legacy Fund and program officer for the Environment at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. He serves on the President’s Advisory Council for Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of California and the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science at UC Davis. He holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and a BS in Botany from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science at UC Davis.


Path 3: Implementation
Location: Imperial B
Supported by critics of carbon markets, a handful of media articles claimed to unveil the truth of forest carbon projects – how they take advantage of and cheat local communities and how they actually carry no environmental benefit. But what about ejidos and local communities that have used forest projects to improve their ancestral lands, boost their local economies and bring back sustainable practices? The truth is that forest projects remain a key element to fighting climate change and achieving net zero emissions. This session will explore how carbon finance is essential to keeping trees standing and growing and how local communities not only manage them but depend on them.

Dani Warren is the Corporate Administrator for the Great Bear Carbon Credit Limited Partnership. An entity owned by the Coastal First Nations – Great Bear Initiative. An alliance of nine First Nations living on British Columbia’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii whose mission is to protect and conserve the environment and work in partnership with all levels of Government, NGO’s and others to create a new conservation-based economy within the respective Traditional Territories. Dani manages sales, partnerships and marketing working with First Nations leadership on policy matters related to the two Great Bear Forest Carbon Projects. Dani is Cree from the Montreal Lake Cree Nation, located in Treaty 6 territory, Saskatchewan. Dani is a competitive bagpiper and teacher, piping for 19 years and spent 10 years with the Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Band at the Grade 2 level. She is currently on leave from piping to start a family in 2024. Dani has a background in project management and holds a certificate in Forest Carbon Management from the University of British Columbia.


Path 4: Innovation and Scaling in Carbon Credits
Location: Franciscan
The IPCC has noted that net zero objectives cannot be achieved without viable options to remove carbon from the atmosphere, including Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC). This session will explore the current status of these technologies, the extent to which they have or are about to achieve market scale, and the barriers and opportunities posed by these technologies.

He analyzes policies and markets of climate change mitigation and adaptation, such as low carbonization of energy, climate finance and emission trading, and has been involved in wide range of environment related initiatives and projects. He provides advices long term sustainable strategy to Mitsui & Co., other companies and Japanese government.
Before joining the institute, he worked for Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as Special Advisor to Governor. He arranged numerous international project finance and policy base lending.
Board of Directors for International Emission Trading Association, ICAO CORSIA Task Force (WG4, FTG and LMR-TG), a member of Science and Technology Committee for Environment and Energy (Ministry of Education Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and Advisor for GLOBE Japan.
Lecturer of Dokkyo University (Environment and Business)
Recent Major Articles:
- Climate Insurance for Crops, Case Study of WIIA in Thailand, UN ESCAP, 2015
- Managing the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, Asia Development Bank Institute, 2015
- Circular Economy Potential and Public- Private Partnership Models in Japan, ERIA, 2016
- Climate Change Policy of Japan and the role of “International Contribution, Harvard Study, 2018
- Prospect of Quality Infrastructure Program and Private Sector MRV for Accelerating the Transition Towards
- Low-Carbon Energy System, Springer, 2018
- Innovation of Finance for Industry 4.0 in ASEAN, ERIA, 2018
- Carbon Pricing to Promote Green Energy Projects, Springer 2019
- Road map to CCS commercialization, CMC Printing, 2022


Mr. Dreibelbis regularly advises energy companies, financial institutions, private equity firms, and project developers on a variety of transactions and regulatory matters.
Mr. Dreibelbis advises clients on environmental commodities and low-carbon project development, including carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Mr. Dreibelbis’ work has spanned voluntary carbon markets as well as compliance markets such as the California Cap-and-Trade Program, Renewable Fuel Standard, the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), and state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Mr. Dreibelbis has also advised on low-carbon and renewable project development beyond CCS, including solar, wind, biogas, and other technologies. In these markets, Mr. Dreibelbis advises clients on structuring and negotiating transactions in the context of rapidly developing commercial and regulatory environments.
Mr. Dreibelbis has also advised clients within regulatory proceedings, programs, and enforcement matters involving several California agencies, including CalGEM, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Air Resources Board. The scope of representation has included advocacy within notice-and-comment rulemaking and other public proceedings, counseling on compliance, and representation in the context of ratemaking and enforcement proceedings. Mr. Dreibelbis has also advised clients on environmental issues within dozens of M&A and financing transactions.
Mr. Dreibelbis rejoined Latham after several years as associate general counsel at a publicly traded land development company in California, where he advised on matters related to net-zero project and infrastructure development, carbon credit transactions, and other matters.


Virgil Welch is a Partner at Caliber Strategies, a leading California consulting firm that works with clean technology and policy innovators to achieve successful regulatory, administrative and market outcomes. He also serves as Director of the California Carbon Solutions Coalition, a business & labor coalition working to ensure that carbon capture, removal, utilization and sequestration technologies play a key role in California’s approach to climate action.
Mr. Welch has worked at the forefront of California’s climate, air quality and clean energy programs for more than two decades, serving as a Governor’s appointee under three administrations as Special Counsel and Chief Advisor to the California Air Resources Board Chair. In his role at CARB, he helped to lead the creation of multiple globally recognized programs to cut pollution and greenhouse emissions though deployment of clean technologies, including multiple sets of standards for cleaner light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles; an economy-wide cap-and-trade program; a Low Carbon Fuel Standard; a comprehensive set of programs to slash short-lived climate pollutants. Prior to his service at the California Air Resources Board, Mr. Welch helped lead the Environmental Defense Fund’s successful sponsorship of Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.


Nora is Head of Market Development & Policy at Charm Industrial. Prior to Charm, she designed and led the government engagement and business development strategy at Saildrone as the Senior Director of Government Relations. She previously worked at the White House in the Obama Administration, and has held a variety of roles in the private sector, government, and nonprofits at the intersection of industry, policy, and government.

Location: Grand A

Path 1: Markets and Finance
Location: Grand B
Tapping into the power and financial support of the private sector is necessary for the success of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and, in turn, the achievement of global sustainability goals. But, are current regulations and guidance initiatives encouraging or discouraging financial investment in the VCM? In this session, private sector stakeholders will address this question and discuss the current and future levels of private sector participation.

Utkarsh (Uti) Agarwal has over a decade’s worth of experience in carbon markets. Uti is the Americas Carbon Originator at BP where he transacts in compliance markets in the Americas and voluntary markets globally. He invests in carbon projects and Jurisdictional programs with the goal of bringing high-quality supply of credits to BP’s trading partners and clients. Prior to BP, Uti was the Vice President and head of Transactions at Emergent, a non-profit that launched the $1.5b LEAF Coalition. He was responsible for organizing, structuring, designing, and negotiating the terms of the coalition. Before joining Emergent, Uti spent several years working in climate finance and renewable energy, including at Encourage Capital in New York, where he made investments in forestry carbon projects and emerging climate tech opportunities.


Marisa Hamsik joined Chevron New Energies in January 2022 as the General Manager of Strategy & Market Insights for Offsets & Emerging Technologies.
She has nearly 20 years of experience working in carbon markets and sustainable investment and is a leading expert in the role of nature-based climate solutions and the energy transition.
In previous roles, Marisa led BP’s investment activities in nature-based solutions and served as Director of the Natural Climate Initiative at The Nature Conservancy. She started her career with New Forests, the largest timber investment management firm in Australasia, developing investment models for carbon, water and biodiversity across the region.
Marisa has a B.S., Journalism from Northwestern University and a Master of Environmental Management from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.


Rina Cerrato has nearly 20 years of technical and regulatory experience in carbon markets, including greenhouse gas quantification and analysis, and carbon markets regulatory compliance. Mrs. Cerrato has been involved in the monetization of the carbon value in emission reduction opportunities throughout her career, having screened and evaluated carbon investments since the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Prior to joining Green Star, she worked at Nuseed, supporting the commercialization of agricultural products into renewable fuels. Mrs. Cerrato is co-chair to the IETA Voluntary Carbon Markets Working Group and is currently an advisor to iClima Earth, a green fintech company. She has also consulted for Environment and Climate Change Canada and supported innovative companies across multiple technologies through greenhouse gas quantification and carbon monetization strategies. Previously, Mrs. Cerrato was a Director at Inlandsis Fund and Senior Director at Natsource Asset Management, LLC. Mrs. Cerrato is an environmental engineer and holds a Master of Environmental Studies degree from York University.


Luke Oliver leads the KraneShares Climate solutions business building innovative products that provide access to unique markets within this growing investment universe. In addition to curating the firm’s climate, carbon and impact strategies, Luke works closely with clients to educate on the asset class and client implementation strategies. He is a regular industry commentator on TV, press, and online media and is responsible for digestible research on climate topics.
Prior to joining KraneShares, Luke built and ran the $21bn US XTrackers ETF business at DWS (formerly Deutsche Asset Management) where he pioneered currency hedging, onshore China, and more recently ESG strategies which were among the first to recognize the need for value-aligned portfolios. Prior to this, he was the portfolio manager of $16bn in commodity assets across the PowerShares DB Commodity ETF suite. Luke has a reputation for building strong, diverse teams, creating profitable businesses, and bringing innovative solutions to market. His 20-year financial career also included time on the capital markets sell-side.
This diverse experience has allowed Luke to identify the most powerful emerging trends in the investment landscape. “Pricing carbon emissions and decarbonizing the global economy is the single greatest challenge, and opportunity, we will ever be presented with. I have no doubt this will be our mission for the next 20 years and it must not fail.”


Rob leads the development, investment, and management of Catona Climate’s global carbon portfolio, in addition to setting and maintaining the firm’s high-quality carbon credit standards. With more than a decade of leadership in the climate change and carbon sectors, he is pioneering the carbon market industry standards at the foundation of Catona’s business. Previously as Program Director for the Climate Action Reserve, Rob directed implementation of the Reserve’s various project registry services including the voluntary offset project registry, and the Reserve’s role as a California Offset Project Registry. Rob has extensive experience in evaluating carbon offset projects across numerous industries, including forest, livestock methane, ozone depleting substances, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and land use and agriculture. Rob holds a Master of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School at Duke University with an International Development Policy Certificate from the Sanford School of Public Policy, and a B.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University.


Path 2: Policy
Location: Imperial A
A flurry of climate bills passed California’s state legislature in 2023, breaking new ground and setting higher standards for subnational and national climate policy. The bills included SB 253 (Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act) and SB 261 (Greenhouse Gases: Climate-Related Financial Risk) covering corporate climate disclosure and AB 1305 (the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act), which addresses greenwashing and imposes disclosure requirements around the marketing, sale and use of offsets. Also passed by the legislature but vetoed by Governor Newsom was SB 390, which also addressed greenwashing and credit integrity. This session will discuss where implementation of these bills stands, key issues and challenges and how they relate to US federal and EU rules.

Steven M. Rothstein is the founding Managing Director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. Steven’s 40+ years of experience are critical to explore the most effective strategies to focus on and move capital markets towards climate sustainability.
Steven has had a successful career starting, managing and growing several non-profit, social change and government organizations. After college he was one of Citizens Energy Corporation’s founding team. He later started and ran Environmental Futures, a management and market consulting company serving enterprises seeking to grow their environmental work. He also ran the New England market for Constellation’s work as a successful electricity broker, the world renowned, Perkins School for the Blind, Citizen Schools and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
He has worked at local, state, federal and international levels of government. Steven served on numerous non-profit and government boards. He has spoken and written extensively.


Sydney Chamberlin is the Project Director for Climate & Nature-based Solutions at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in California. Her work focuses on exploring policy and economic pathways to expand and accelerate the use of nature-based climate solutions, with an emphasis on Deltaic wetland restoration. She has also worked to explore insurance-based strategies to scale nature-based solutions in California. Prior to her role at TNC, Sydney worked as a postdoctoral scholar in physics at Penn State University. She transitioned to the climate sector after completing a year of public service as a Science & Technology Policy Fellow for California’s Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Water. Sydney holds BS degrees in physics and mathematics from Utah State University, a PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Project Management Certificate from Cornell University.


Path 3: Implementation
Location: Imperial B
Scope 3 GHG emissions are typically the largest sources of a company’s emissions. To tackle these emissions, carbon insetting has become a key strategy for companies interested in reducing the emissions associated with the goods and services they purchase. The option to go “beyond value chain mitigation” has been more restricted. This approach has sparked controversy in the VCM that mitigation actions may not be as cost-effective as the world needs at this critical juncture, nor does it address the most compelling needs of the Global South. This session will address current guidance on Scope 3 emissions, including from SBTi, VCMI and GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance.
Robert Parkhurst focuses on generating new revenue streams for farmers, ranchers, and forest owners through environmental markets. Mr. Parkhurst has more than 25 years of experience designing and implementing environmental markets. He has investigated practices that: reduce methane from dairy cow and the cultivation of rice; sequester carbon in forests and on grasslands; and reduce nitrous oxide emissions from corn, almonds, tomatoes and wine grapes. Mr. Parkhurst has been involved in the development of more than seven different agriculture focused protocols. He is currently working with food, forest, and agriculture companies to design and implement policies and environmental markets that help them meet their climate goals. One of his clients is the US Department of Agriculture where is leads workshops and conducts data analysis for 141 pilot projects who were granted, in total, more than $3.1 billion.
Mr. Parkhurst has also served on multiple government advisory boards and his work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Climate Policy and Rangeland Ecology & Management. Prior to The Context Network, he worked as the Director of Agriculture Data and Markets at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Mr. McDougal is Anew’s carbon offset portfolio manager and has over 13 years of experience in the environmental credit markets and specializes in development, asset management, and commercialization of carbon offsets and emission reduction credits in the U.S and across the globe. While on the carbon team at Anew, he has supported carbon project development, implementation and operation, and marketing and monetization of one of the largest carbon offset portfolios in the world. Additionally, Mr. McDougal has completed over 75 verifications as the project proponent for offset projects registered with the Climate Action Reserve, Verra, or the American Carbon Registry. As the portfolio manager for Anew, he supports new project origination, sales, and portfolio diversification and optimization of voluntary offsets with the overarching goal of providing “Climate as a Service” to Anew’s clients along their decarbonization journey. Mr. McDougal has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from University of Georgia and an M.S. in Environmental Analysis and Management from Rice University in Houston, TX.


Boyd is the Industrial Carbon Programs Lead at Truterra, the sustainability business of farmer-owned cooperative Land O’Lakes, where she works to advance regenerative agriculture practices through the company’s carbon programs into new sectors like fuels, feeds, and fibers. Prior to joining Truterra in 2022, Boyd was Sustainability Engineering Senior Manager, at Gevo Inc., leading their sustainable hydrocarbon strategy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and has an MBA from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business. Boyd serves as an advisory on the Syracuse Dynamic Sustainability Laboratory.


Erik Stanek is a Senior Sustainability Specialist at Blue Diamond Growers, based in Sacramento, California. Blue Diamond, established in 1910, is a grower-owned cooperative and the world’s largest almond handler, exclusively growing California almonds. In his role, Erik oversees a $45 million USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant which assists growers in adopting climate-smart agricultural practices. In this role, he actively is working to develop and employ financial mechanisms which reward farmers for implementing climate-smart practices.
Erik holds a M.Sc. in Crop Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he published research on agroforestry in the United States. He has worked along the coffee supply chain with farmers, importers, roasters, and cafes in numerous roles, with a focus on generating value in the specialty coffee industry. He also has worked as a sustainability consultant supporting GHG accounting efforts for leading food and beverage CPG companies. With practical experience spanning the agricultural supply chain, Erik brings a pragmatic approach to aligning on-farm economic and environmental goals.


Path 4: Innovation and Scaling in Carbon Credits
Location: Franciscan
In December 2023, the world’s largest carbon registries signed an agreement to collectively increase the impact of their activities and support host countries in their work to achieve their NDCs outlined in the Paris Agreement, as well as foster innovation, promote knowledge exchange and facilitate the dissemination of best practices among participating countries. Some of the registries actually have collaborated together on an ad-hoc basis for years. What lies ahead for future, formal collaboration and what can the registries advance together?

Sarah Leugers is Chief Growth Officer at Gold Standard, a senior executive with 20+ years’ experience in strategy and market development with a focus on how carbon markets and broader climate finance can catalyse sustainable development. She has published various thought leadership pieces on the nexus of gender equality and climate, corporate climate leadership, the evolution of carbon offsetting and the need for a paradigm shift to truly sustainable finance. Sarah works to advocate for Gold Standard’s best practice approaches to maximising impact toward the Sustainable Development Goals helping to achieve Gold Standard’s vision of “climate security and sustainable development for all.”


As Chief Program Development and Innovation Officer, Toby leads the team responsible for the evolution of Verra’s existing programs to maintain their integrity and impact, and for developing new standards, methodologies, and tools to scale up climate action and sustainable development.
Toby has established ground-breaking standards initiatives, including the Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) for assessing and rewarding projects that generate verifiable SD benefits, LandScale for incentivizing the sustainable production of agricultural commodities, and the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard for crediting plastic waste recovery and recycling efforts globally.
More than fifteen years ago, Toby conceived of and led the creation of the original VCS framework covering Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), the world’s preeminent natural climate solutions (NCS) crediting program, which has driven billions of dollars into reducing emissions from deforestation (REDD), afforestation/reforestation, sustainable agricultural land management, and blue carbon.
Previously, Toby headed up Conservation International’s (CI) Climate and Land Use, Markets and Policy program after directing the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), a partnership comprising The Nature Conservancy, CI, Rainforest Alliance, Wildlife Conservation Society, CARE International, BP, Weyerhauser, and SC Johnson.
On the forest carbon policy front, Toby has developed legislative proposals adopted within various US climate bills and helped establish bilateral agreements between US, Brazilian, Indonesian and Mexican states. He was appointed to the REDD Offsets Working Group, providing policy recommendations to California Air Resources Board, and served as an adviser to the Carbon Fund of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
Toby holds a BS degree from the University of London and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and two sons.


Craig Ebert serves as the President of the Climate Action Reserve where he is responsible for ensuring that the organization’s activities meet the highest standards for quality, transparency and environmental integrity. He oversees the organization’s continued leadership and commitment to ensuring offsets are a trusted and powerful economic tool for reducing emissions. In his role, he also leads the organization in identifying and entering into other opportunities that build upon the its knowledge and expertise and further its work under its mission and vision.
During his career, he has helped create the foundations for international, national and state policies to address climate change. He supported U.S. negotiations on international climate change agreements, including negotiations leading up to the creation and signing of the Kyoto Protocol, and helped develop the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) provisions under the protocol. Craig’s work also involved pioneering efforts on carbon accounting principles and methodologies. He served as the technical director of Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, which was adopted by the IPCC as its GHG Inventory Programme, and was a key architect behind the development of the official U.S. national GHG inventory to meet commitments under the UNFCCC.
Prior to joining the Reserve, Craig advised the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) and served at ICF for nearly 34 years.


David is a strategic advisor who specializes in harnessing the power of markets to solve critical environmental issues and support sustainable development. David has developed projects and managed organizations operating under major international agreements, including the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, and both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement to address climate change. David’s experience has enabled him to work with the private sector, governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs and philanthropies.
Between 2008 and 2023 David served as Chief Executive Officer of Verra, which under his tenure grew from a staff of two to more than 140 and became both the leading certification body in the voluntary carbon market and the standard-setter of choice for environmental markets and those dedicated to promoting sustainable development. During his time at Verra David spearheaded efforts to broaden the scope of the organization’s certification programs beyond carbon, which today includes programs designed to foster sustainable development and tackle plastic pollution.
Prior to working at Verra, David worked for EcoSecurities in Oxford (UK) where he led a joint venture to develop landfill gas-to-energy projects worldwide. At EcoSecurities David also worked on key infrastructure and procedural needs for the then nascent voluntary carbon market.
David began his international work at ICF Consulting where he developed projects to recover/recycle ozone-depleting refrigerants in countries around the world, supported several Latin American countries developing their GHG inventories, and served on the team that verified the emission reductions achieved by one of the earliest GHG emission reduction projects. David then joined the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Mexico as its global climate change advisor where he oversaw efforts to develop baselines for both energy and forest sector projects.
Born and raised in Mexico City for 15 years, David lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife and two children. He has an Undergraduate degree in Sociology and American Studies from Princeton University, a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Certificate in Business from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.



Location: Grand B

Jay Inslee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian who has lived and worked on both sides of the state. He grew up in the Seattle area where his father, Frank, was a high school teacher and coach. His mother, Adele, worked as a sales clerk at Sears & Roebuck. Jay worked his way through college and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in economics before earning his law degree at Willamette University. He and his wife, Trudi, then moved to Selah, a small town near Yakima where they raised their three sons. Jay worked as an attorney and prosecutor.
Jay and Trudi are now proud grandparents to six active little Inslees. Besides writing and illustrating books for his grandchildren and sketching scenes from around Washington, Jay is an avid cyclist and charter member of Hoopaholics, a youth basketball academy.
Jay first became involved in public service in 1985 when he and Trudi helped lead the effort to build a new public high school in Selah. Motivated to fight against proposed funding cuts for rural schools, Jay went on to represent the 14th Legislative District in the state House of Representatives. He was then elected to Congress in 1992. The Inslees later moved back to Kitsap County where Jay was elected to Congress in 1998, serving until 2012 when he was elected governor.
He is currently the longest serving governor in the United States.
During his time in Congress, Jay became known as a forward-thinking leader, especially on issues of clean energy and climate change. He co-wrote a book, “Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean-Energy Economy,” about fighting climate change through clean energy innovation and job-creation. As governor, he has helped put Washington state at the forefront of climate action and is helping lead numerous subnational partnerships. Since 2013, the state has passed nation-leading policies to transition to 100% clean electricity, cap carbon pollution, electrify transportation, and more.
Over the past decade, Washington has consistently been among the few states to rank as one of the best states for business and one of the best states for workers. From commercial space and sustainable maritime to advanced agriculture and forest products, the growth of Washington’s key sectors is helping attract new companies and create jobs in communities all across the state. Washington has one of the nation’s highest minimum wages, paid sick leave for all workers, a best-in-the-nation paid family leave program, and one of the highest union membership rates.

Location: Grand B

Alexia Kelly has worked for more than 17 years at the intersection of policy and finance to address the climate crisis. Alexia currently serves as Managing Director of the Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative (CPMI) at High Tide Foundation. The CPMI accelerates ambitious climate action and capital mobilization through robust rules and guidance for voluntary corporate action and disclosures, and by building the next generation of high-integrity carbon and environmental services markets. In this role she serves on the Board of the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC VCM) and on the Board of the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation Initiative, as well as on the Expert Advisory Group of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI).
Prior to joining High Tide Foundation, she served as Director of Net Zero + Nature at Netflix, where she led the company’s inaugural greenhouse gas inventory, renewable energy strategy, Science Based Target and global carbon credit portfolio. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Department of State, where she served as lead negotiator to the UNFCCC on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. She has also held senior roles at the World Resources Institute, The David and Lucille Packard Foundation, The Climate Trust, and in private equity.
She currently serves on the Board of Craft3, a non-profit Community Development Finance Institute focused on equitable access to finance, and as the Global Co-Chair of the Global Climate Action Partnership. She resides in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children.


Annette L. Nazareth is the Chair of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (Integrity Council), an independent governance body for the voluntary carbon market. Annette has devoted significant attention to virtually all aspects of the body’s workstreams, and has represented the Integrity Council in venues across the globe.
Annette has decades of experience in financial services regulation and corporate governance. She currently serves as Senior Counsel at the global law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, having previously served as a Partner of the firm and the head of the Washington DC office. Annette also led the firm’s Trading and Markets practice within the Financial Institutions Group. She was a key player in U.S. financial services regulation for nearly a decade, most notably as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and as the SEC’s Director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

Location: Grand A
Location: Grand A
Location: Yosemite
Location: Yosemite
- The New SBTi Beyond Value Chain Mitigation Guidance and What It Means for Corporates
- Led by Elizabeth Geller, 3Degrees
- Next Generation Forest Carbon
- Led by Josh Strauss, Anew Climate
- Investment Opportunities & Challenges in Removals
- Led by Erika Schiller, ClimeCo
- Unlocking Value: Buyer Perspectives in Evolving Carbon Markets
- Led by Rachel Mooney & Jordan Mao, Climate Action Reserve
- Digital Assets: Pricing, Trading & Settlement, & New Financial Products and Services
- Led by Benoît Clément, Verra
- Guardrails for the High Integrity Use of Carbon Credits to Achieve Net Zero Targets
- Led by Amy Zell, IETA
- Technology to Ensure Quality of Nature-Based Solutions: Advancements in dMRV, Remote Sensing, and AI
- Led by Daniel Melling, CTrees, Aadith Moorthy, Boomitra, & Jodi Manning, Cool Effect
Location: Grand B
Location: Grand B

Ramanathan is the Distinguished professor (emeritus) of climate sustainability at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego; and Cornell Climate Solutions Scholar at Cornell University. In 1975, He discovered the greenhouse effect of chlorofluorocarbons and other heat trapping pollutants. In 1980, he teamed up with R. Madden and predicted that global warming would be detected by 2000. This prediction was verified by IPCC in 2001. He led international field campaigns, developed unmanned aircraft platforms for tracking brown clouds worldwide. He was the chief-scientist for the Indian Ocean Experiment, which discovered the wide-spread Atmospheric Brown Clouds over Asia and the Indian Ocean. His findings on super pollutants (Methane, HFCs, Ozone and black carbon) have led to several successful climate mitigation actions worldwide, including the formation of Climate and Clean Air Coalition by the United Nations to mitigate these pollutants. His findings also led to several successful climate mitigation actions in California and worldwide.
He served as the science advisor for Pope Francis’ Holy See delegation to the 2015 UN Paris climate summit and the 2016 UN climate summit in Marrakech. He also advised CA Governor Jerry Brown on Climate Actions. He was the founding chair of University of California’s Bending the Curve: Climate solutions education protocol, taught at many campuses. His focus now is on bouncing back from the climate crisis to climate resilience. In 2023, coedited and coauthored a book on Resilience Of People and Ecosystems Under Climate stress, published by the Vatican Press. He is now co-organizing a summit of Mayors and Governors at the Vatican in May 2024 to produce a Planetary Climate Resilience Protocol.
He has received many global honors including the 1997 Volvo Prize, 2009 Tyler Prize, 2013 UN’s Champion of Earth, 2014 Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foriegn policy, 2018 Tang Laureate, and the 2021 Blue Planet Prize for his work on Short Lived Climate Pollutants. His other honors include: Elected member of Pontifical Academy of Science (council member); Royal Swedish Academy of Science (which awards the Nobel prizes), the American Philosophical Society and the US National Academy of Science; and the Honorary Doctor of Science degree from UMASS_Boston in 2023.

Location: Grand B

Lisa DeMarco is a Senior Partner and the CEO at Resilient LLP. She is called to the bar in Canada and England and is recognized as a global expert in climate and energy law. Lisa has nearly three decades of experience in all aspects of climate change and clean energy law. She assists financial institutions, energy companies, innovators, governments, non-governmental organizations, and Indigenous business organizations on domestic and overseas renewable power and energy transition projects, sustainable and climate finance transactions, carbon dioxide removals, carbon capture use and storage, climate-related financial disclosure, corporate climate strategy, environmental and social governance (ESG), green bonds, net-zero target setting and pathways, the Paris Agreement, carbon trading (domestic, international, voluntary, and compliance), climate-related compliance and litigation, and sustainable business strategy. She also represents several governments and leading energy companies in a wide variety of international dispute resolution proceedings, and natural gas, power, pipeline and energy storage matters before the Ontario Energy Board and the Canadian Energy Regulator.
Lisa is a director of the boards of the and International Emissions Trading Association, MaRS Discovery District, and Planetary Technologies and member of Climate Economy Strategic Council and of the Expert Advisory Group of Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity initiative (VCMI). Lisa is ranked by Chambers Global as one of the world’s leading climate change lawyers and regularly attends on the United Nations climate negotiations.
Lisa has a Bachelor of Science (Hon.) in Human and Environmental Biology (Western University), a Master of Science in Environmental Toxicology (University of Toronto), a Bachelor of Laws (Osgoode Hall), and a Master of Studies in International Environmental Law, summa cum laude (Vermont Law School).


Mark Lewis is Co-PM on the ACET Fund since 25 September 2023, having joined Andurand Capital in June 2021 as Head of Climate Research immediately prior to the launch of ACET.
Prior to joining Andurand Capital, Mark was Chief Sustainability Strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management (2019-21), and before that a sell-side analyst for 20 years covering the energy space as both an equity and a commodities analyst: as Managing Director and Head of European Utilities Research at Barclays (2015-18), Chief Energy Economist at Kepler Cheuvreux (2014-15), and at Deutsche Bank as MD and Global Head of Carbon and Energy Research (2005-13) and Director, European Utilities equity research, 1999-2004.
He has also worked for the leading energy think tank Carbon Tracker (MD and Head of Research, 2018) and for the German utility E.ON (Deputy Head of Investor Relations, 2004-05). Prior to his career as a sell-side analyst Mark worked as a sovereign credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s (1997-99), and as an academic at the University f London (1994-97).
Mark has been a member of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) since May 2016, and a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) since 2020. His research on carbon and energy markets has won numerous awards and he has published numerous opinion pieces for the Financial Times on energy and climate topics.
Mark is a UK and French Citizen and holds a BA (First-Class Hons) in Modern Languages and Economics from Sheffield University (1988), an MPhil from Cambridge University (1990), and an MA from London University (1994).

Location: Grand A

Path 1: Markets and Finance
Location: Grand B
Latin America is the world’s second largest provider of voluntary credits, representing around 20 percent of market supply. The region will play a critical role in Article 6 action and has various emerging compliance markets at all scales, including carbon taxes, national and subnational ETS, and various approaches converging and blending compliance and voluntary markets. Hear from government officials and market actors across LATAM on the advances of carbon markets in the region and their role in meeting global climate objectives.

Jose Luis Rivera, a mechanical engineer and MSc. graduate in Process, Energy, and Environmental Systems Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, is dedicated to the mitigation of climate change. With over a decade of experience in environmental consulting and climate change, he currently serves as the General Director of CO2CERO SAS. Jose with CO2CERO, have successfully developed more than three REDD+ projects in Colombia and one in Panama, and over 15 ARR projects, covering more than 35,000 hectares and trading over 21 million carbon credits.


Ana Carolina Moreno Villarreal: Architect with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with emphasis on Management Strategy. She has 12 years of work experience, the last 4 years dedicated exclusively to climate change. She is part of the Mitigation Department of the Climate Change Directorate of the Ministry of Environment of Panama, and has participated in several projects, such as the development of the First Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC1), the development and design of the Second Biennial Update Report (2BUR) and the National Inventory Report, the Reduce Your Footprint initiative, the National Climate Transparency Platform (PNTC) and the development of the National Carbon Market of Panama (MNCP), among others. She is currently coordinating the development of the National Carbon Market of Panama (MNCP) and the progress of each of its three components.


Combining a background in economics with leadership roles in public sector transformation, Pablo Gabutti currently serves as Secretary of Energy Transition in the Province of Córdoba, a major agricultural and industrial region of Argentina. His experience in public services regulation, Argentina’s pioneering carbon market pilot program, and energy policy advisory, positions him to help design and implement innovative solutions for the challenges of climate change and Córdoba’s sustainable energy future.


Nathalie is an international public policy specialist with 13 years of experience providing senior services on climate change policy, international development and environmental issues. Since 2010 Nathalie has contributed to help understand, develop and enforce the climate change agenda in her various roles in the government of the Dominican Republic. During her MSc studies at the University of Wolverhampton, she had the opportunity to work in the United Kingdom under the frame of the European Regional Development Fund as Climate Change Researcher, focusing on the changes and behavior of elderly social housing tenants from the installation of solar panels to lower their energy bills. At the Secretariat of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations in New York City she held Senior technical and administrative positions providing assistance to 55+ member countries, including legal assistance to negotiate carbon markets approaches under the UNFCCC and GHG inventories training for the AFOLU sector. In her Sustainability Coordination at the British Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic Nathalie is helping businesses, civil society and academia in taking their part to reverse the adverse impacts of climate change. Nathalie served as Director for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic for the past three years and now, while performing Strategy and Government Affairs consulting, she serves as voluntary Senior Advisor to the Government of DR for the UN Climate Change Negotiations. She was the country’s Art. 6 – Paris Agreement, Lead Technical Negotiator and in-sessions currently serves as Deputy Head of Delegation. In June 2023 Nathalie was elected Vice-Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the Convention, which she’ll perform during the Bonn Climate Talks and at the Conferences of the Parties (CoPs) within a two years mandate.


Path 2: Policy
Location: Imperial A
The potential for growth of clean fuel standard programs across North America remains strong. Active programs include the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Canada Clean Fuel Standard, Oregon Clean Fuels Program, Washington Clean Fuel Standard and British Columbia Low Carbon Fuel Standard. New York, Minnesota and New Mexico all have clean fuel standard bills being considered. This session will review the status of LCFS programs, discuss forward movement of programs under consideration and cover market impacts.

Matthew Botill is a Division Chief at the California Air Resources Board. Matthew is responsible for overseeing several of the state’s climate programs, including the Scoping Plan, Cap-and-Trade Program, and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Matthew also serves as the agency’s policy lead for natural and working lands, including their relationship to carbon neutrality.


Richard W. Corey served the second-longest Executive Officer (EO) tenure in the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) 50-plus year history. In his role at AJW, Richard supports clients with his deep knowledge of decarbonization policy mechanisms, markets, technologies, and stakeholders at the state, federal, and international levels.
He has over 30 years of experience developing and implementing California’s program. Richard’s work included establishing and strengthening partnerships with local air districts, other states in the U.S., and jurisdictions worldwide, including Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, and many members of the European Union.
While at CARB, Richard managed a team of more than 1,700 engineers, scientists, and other professionals responsible for a broad range of programs, including those concerning clean fuels, ozone and particulate-forming pollutants, climate, incentives, air toxics, and enforcement and administered these projects through an annual budget of up to $3 billion.
His team was responsible for developing and implementing a series of first-in-the-world programs to slash greenhouse gas and ozone-forming emissions and several strategies to reduce toxic air contaminants from various sources that adversely impact communities. In addition, they developed measures and incentives to reduce emissions from a variety of freight-related sources, including port trucks, transport refrigeration units, cargo handling operations, maritime operations, rail-related goods movement, and measures to reduce emissions from stationary and portable diesel engines.


Path 3: Implementation
Location: Imperial B
Once criticized for not having any consistent guidance, the voluntary carbon market is now gaining guidance at the programmatic level, protocol level and project level. The ratings and standards organizations – both for-profit and nonprofit – are striving to enhance transparency and mitigate risk, but are they also creating confusion and hindering progress with conflicting ratings for the same projects and programs?

Donna has worked on climate change for nearly two decades. Along with being a co-founder of Calyx Global, she is currently on the ICVCM’s Expert Panel and on the BVCM SBTi Expert Advisory Group. She was formerly at the State Department where, among other duties, she served as a climate change negotiator for the United States; thereafter, she served as an advisor to governments, philanthropies and companies seeking to take climate action. Her goals in life align with Calyx’s mission: to contribute to the well-being of people and to protect the planet. Donna has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Education from UCLA, and a Masters in International Policy from Stanford University. In her free time, you can find Donna wandering the Colorado Rockies by foot or on nordic skis.


Dr. Spencer Meyer is an expert in forests and climate, and has been working for over 20 years on developing nature-based solutions. As a forester and landscape ecologist, Spencer has worked with forest industry, conservation NGOs, private foundations and governments on forest management, carbon markets, conservation finance, and partnership development.
Before joining BeZero, Spencer was the head of science at NCX, a climate tech pioneer in the voluntary carbon market. Spencer previously worked at the Highstead Foundation, Harvard Forest, Yale School of the Environment, The Nature Conservancy and the University of Maine. He earned his A.B. from Dartmouth College and his M.S. and Ph.D. in forest management and sustainability science from the University of Maine. Spencer lives with his family between the woods and the waters of Guilford, CT.

As Head of Sustainability Policy & Engagement at Indigo Ag, Max co-leads a team whose areas of focus include the GHG accounting standards and methodologies, MRV for carbon credits and supply chain programs, strategic engagement with external partners, thought leadership and positioning within the sustainability sector, and engaging with corporate customers for ag sustainability solutions. With a background in biology, corporate environmental management, and eco-entrepreneurship, he has strived to build rigor and credibility within the context of market-based climate solutions since 2008. Prior to joining Indigo Max was Policy Director at the Climate Action Reserve, a leading voluntary offset registry and standards organization.

Annalise Downey is Senior Manager of the Technical Climate Consulting team at Sylvera, a firm providing trusted carbon data for genuine climate impact. In her role, Annalise leads the technical consulting team to help clients and partners navigate risk in the voluntary carbon market and ensure their carbon strategy drives real climate impact. She began at Sylvera on the ratings team working to develop the firm’s first frameworks and ratings assessments.
Prior to Sylvera, Annalise worked in coral restoration and was a co-founder of a subsea remote sensing company.
Annalise holds a MSc in Business Strategy and Innovation from University of Southampton.


Path 4: Innovation and Scaling in Carbon Credits
Location: Franciscan
In addition to addressing climate impacts, carbon projects are increasingly focusing on how they can also address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This session will discuss how carbon projects can address these concerns, the challenges involved in properly accounting for them, and other impediments to quantifying and monetizing SDGs at the project level.

Areas of Expertise
Subnational Policy Implementation; Strategy Development; Energy Efficiency; Climate Philanthropy
About Kirsten
Kirsten has dedicated her career to solving the biggest challenges across climate, clean energy, and sustainability. She brings an extensive background in technical research and policy implementation to her role at Hua Nani Partners, where she partners with private, public, and philanthropic organizations to advance ambitious climate solutions.
Before joining Hua Nani Partners, Kirsten managed a portfolio of for-profit and nonprofit climate investments at High Tide Foundation. In close partnership with grantees and portfolio companies, she worked to accelerate the clean energy transition in the US and across Southeast Asia. She developed and implemented grantmaking strategies and built diverse coalitions to support the empowerment of nontraditional voices within these issues. Prior to climate philanthropy, Kirsten served as an earth science consultant at NASA’s Ames Research Center, where she studied the effects of climate change through the lens of remote sensing. Previously, she was a sustainability consultant at Innovative Workshop Consulting focusing on the design, construction, and operations of high-performance buildings to achieve USGBC LEED Certification.
Kirsten holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and a BA in Urban Studies, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
Kirsten lives in Southern California with her two mischievous kittens. In her free time, she can be found metalsmithing jewelry, reading nonfiction, and hiking.


María Teresa Tattersfield, holds a degree in International Relations with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Policy and Management, Specialization in Sustainable Development (LEAD program from the Colegio de México) and Energy Efficiency and Environment at FLACSO.
She is currently, Co Founder of Bret Consultores. Director of Origination, responsible to source for investment opportunities, generating deals to potential buyers, and creating long term alliances. She is a specialist in the design and development of methodologies and protocols that have been implemented in Mexico with great success in the sale of offsets in the international market.
During the previous 4 years she was the forest carbon Manager of WRI Mexico responsible of the execution of CO2munitario (forest carbon capture), and previously coordinating the Program of Natural Solutions at Tecnológico de Monterrey University and was an advisor to the Neutralízate Program of the organization Pronatura México, in the area of voluntary forest carbon markets.
She has been part of the special team of advisers in sustainable development and climate change for the Foreign Ministry of the British Commonwealth Government, and was in charge of the relationship with the priority states on mitigation and adaptation issues, promoted the realization of the first Plans State of Climate Change, as well as political analysis and preparation of recommendations for decision making in the design of agreements and memoranda of understanding in the Mexico-United Kingdom relationship on issues such as low carbon economy.
On the other hand, she has been responsible for the elaboration of strategies that combine the efforts of local and federal governments in the development of international initiatives such as Methane to Markets. In her work at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, she coordinated initiatives such as the restoration of the Lerma Chapala Basin. She has also coordinated cooperation projects for Mexico in the field of rural training with different international organizations and institutions such as the CEC, USAID, UNDP, etc., and has had the opportunity to participate in several publications of the same.
Teresa is an expert in project execution and evaluation, with extensive experience in the Federal Government, non-governmental organizations, international organizations and academia.


Sarah Leugers is Chief Growth Officer at Gold Standard, a senior executive with 20+ years’ experience in strategy and market development with a focus on how carbon markets and broader climate finance can catalyse sustainable development. She has published various thought leadership pieces on the nexus of gender equality and climate, corporate climate leadership, the evolution of carbon offsetting and the need for a paradigm shift to truly sustainable finance. Sarah works to advocate for Gold Standard’s best practice approaches to maximising impact toward the Sustainable Development Goals helping to achieve Gold Standard’s vision of “climate security and sustainable development for all.”

Lunch: Yosemite
Exhibit Hall: Grand A

Path 1: Markets and Finance
Location: Grand B
The voluntary carbon market provides a critical avenue for corporations striving towards ambitious net zero goals. This session is part one of a two-part series and will focus on the supply side of the equation. Panelists will discuss the current levels of integrity in VCM credits and how corporations and others can identify high integrity credits, including use of the developing guidance from ICVCM.

Pedro Barata is the AVP, Carbon Markets & Private Sector Decarbonization for the Global Climate Cooperation at Environmental Defense Fund, one of the world’s leading international nonprofit organizations.
He leads EDF’s work to assist the private sector and governments in leveraging carbon markets to address the climate challenge and contribute to global efforts to decarbonize toward a netzero world. He also leads EDF’s initiatives to improve the integrity and functioning of compliance and voluntary carbon markets around the world, including through the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative (CCQI). He is an international expert with more than 20 years of experience in international climate policy and carbon markets, and currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Expert Panel for the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM).


Derek Six joined ClimeCo in 2015 after serving as CEO of Environmental Credit Corp. He has been working in environmental markets since 2006. In addition to overseeing operations at ClimeCo, he leads ClimeCo’s ODS Destruction program and has completed more than 35 ODS Destruction projects. Derek has been deeply involved in Cap-and-Trade and Offset policy, including co-founding the Carbon Offset Provider’s Coalition (COPC) and participating in the Compliance Offset Developer’s Association (CODA), the Verified Emission Reduction Association (VERA), the Climate Action Reserve ODS workgroup, and many other policy and trade associations. He has produced several research studies, articles, and blogs involving climate change policy, cap-and-trade design, and the roles of voluntary and compliance offsets, and writes ClimeCo’s Monthly Market update.


As Verra’s Director of Financial Innovation, Benoît Clément spearheads strategies to unlock and scale up investment in climate action and sustainable development through cutting-edge product and market strategies focused on finance and technology. With over 15 years of experience driving transformative change across diverse sectors, including environmental services, finance, agriculture, and business development, Benoît brings a unique blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and a passion for nature-based solutions. His proven track record encompasses leading multimillion-dollar programs, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and delivering customer-centric products that create lasting impact. Benoît’s leadership and entrepreneurship, coupled with his experiences in program and project management, have been instrumental in shaping industry best practices and driving meaningful progress toward a more resilient and sustainable world.


Path 2: Policy
Location: Imperial A
Even though it had been eight years since the Paris Agreement was made, COP28 failed to create a centralized system for global carbon trading, but it did achieve what was hailed as “historic progress” with a deal to transition away from fossil fuels. This session will do a review of Article 6 activity, discuss how VCM stakeholders are moving ahead in the continued absence of a centralized system and look ahead to COP29.

Nathalie is an international public policy specialist with 13 years of experience providing senior services on climate change policy, international development and environmental issues. Since 2010 Nathalie has contributed to help understand, develop and enforce the climate change agenda in her various roles in the government of the Dominican Republic. During her MSc studies at the University of Wolverhampton, she had the opportunity to work in the United Kingdom under the frame of the European Regional Development Fund as Climate Change Researcher, focusing on the changes and behavior of elderly social housing tenants from the installation of solar panels to lower their energy bills. At the Secretariat of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations in New York City she held Senior technical and administrative positions providing assistance to 55+ member countries, including legal assistance to negotiate carbon markets approaches under the UNFCCC and GHG inventories training for the AFOLU sector. In her Sustainability Coordination at the British Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic Nathalie is helping businesses, civil society and academia in taking their part to reverse the adverse impacts of climate change. Nathalie served as Director for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic for the past three years and now, while performing Strategy and Government Affairs consulting, she serves as voluntary Senior Advisor to the Government of DR for the UN Climate Change Negotiations. She was the country’s Art. 6 – Paris Agreement, Lead Technical Negotiator and in-sessions currently serves as Deputy Head of Delegation. In June 2023 Nathalie was elected Vice-Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the Convention, which she’ll perform during the Bonn Climate Talks and at the Conferences of the Parties (CoPs) within a two years mandate.


Leveraging 20 years of experience and a proven track record in the financial services industry, Ms. Durschinger founded Terra Global Capital in 2006 to attract private sector capital to nature-based solutions. Ms. Durschinger is recognized as a pioneer and innovator in alignment of development values and financially viable approaches to sustainable landscape management. Terra is a global leader in nature-based solutions program development, greenhouse gas quantification and community-based business model development, by providing technical expertise and investment capital to a global client base of governments, NGOs, and private companies in a collaborative and participatory manner. Under Durschinger’s leadership, Terra has financed numerous commercially viable sustainable landscape management programs, launched an investment fund that provides climate finance to the nature-based solutions sector in the global south. Prior to Terra, Ms. Durschinger held senior management positions in the areas of derivatives trading, investment management, algorithmic trading, risk management, and securities lending. She is a member of the IETA Council and Co-chair Natural Capital Solutions Working Group and has served on numerous standards committees including the Verra VCS Program Advisory Group, REDD+ Social & Environmental Standards Committee, and Verra – VCS JNR Expert Working Group. Ms. Durschinger and her family make small production olive oil on their farm in Mendocino County. Among her previous employers are JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Global Investors, and Charles Schwab.


Lisa DeMarco is a Senior Partner and the CEO at Resilient LLP. She is called to the bar in Canada and England and is recognized as a global expert in climate and energy law. Lisa has nearly three decades of experience in all aspects of climate change and clean energy law. She assists financial institutions, energy companies, innovators, governments, non-governmental organizations, and Indigenous business organizations on domestic and overseas renewable power and energy transition projects, sustainable and climate finance transactions, carbon dioxide removals, carbon capture use and storage, climate-related financial disclosure, corporate climate strategy, environmental and social governance (ESG), green bonds, net-zero target setting and pathways, the Paris Agreement, carbon trading (domestic, international, voluntary, and compliance), climate-related compliance and litigation, and sustainable business strategy. She also represents several governments and leading energy companies in a wide variety of international dispute resolution proceedings, and natural gas, power, pipeline and energy storage matters before the Ontario Energy Board and the Canadian Energy Regulator.
Lisa is a director of the boards of the and International Emissions Trading Association, MaRS Discovery District, and Planetary Technologies and member of Climate Economy Strategic Council and of the Expert Advisory Group of Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity initiative (VCMI). Lisa is ranked by Chambers Global as one of the world’s leading climate change lawyers and regularly attends on the United Nations climate negotiations.
Lisa has a Bachelor of Science (Hon.) in Human and Environmental Biology (Western University), a Master of Science in Environmental Toxicology (University of Toronto), a Bachelor of Laws (Osgoode Hall), and a Master of Studies in International Environmental Law, summa cum laude (Vermont Law School).


Kim Myers is a Senior Associate, Carbon Markets Policy at The Nature Conservancy, where she contributes research and thought leadership to improve the integrity of supply and demand in voluntary carbon markets. She has co-authored numerous reports on corporate climate claims, carbon credit procurement, benefit-sharing in carbon projects, and the Article 6 market. Her previous experience includes work at Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, World Wildlife Fund, and U.S. Development Finance Corporation, and a master’s degree from the Nicholas School for the Environment at Duke University.


Path 3: Implementation
Location: Imperial B
One criticism leveled at many carbon policies, including carbon projects, is the failure to adequately consider the impact on local communities and how best to assure that these local voices are heard during policy development and implementation. This session will address these concerns and discuss the various options available to ensure that local communities, including indigenous voices, are heard and their concerns addressed.

Dee Lawrence is the Co-Founder and Director of Carbon Projects at Cool Effect, a San Francisco Bay Area 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to reducing carbon emissions around the world. Dee is backed by decades of experience in the voluntary carbon market, and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Governance Body of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM).
Dee founded her very own carbon project alongside her husband, Richard, following a medical mission visit to Honduras in 1998 to aid in recovery efforts following the destruction from Hurricane Mitch. Using her skills from 25 years prior in marketing and advertising, Dee successfully promoted and grew Proyecto Mirador, now a decades-long family effort to reduce smoke from indoor cookfires in rural Honduras. She helped create a project with social benefits that could also, with considerable science and third-party verification, cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) while delivering daily health benefits to women and children. This was the first project that inspired the inception of the nonprofit Cool Effect which, as of today, has reduced over 8 million tonnes of CO₂.
While sustainability has always been a passion point for Dee, she has dedicated the last twenty plus years of her life to fighting the climate crisis, and now through her experience establishing a nonprofit and organization that funds the highest quality carbon projects, Dee works every day to educate individuals and business that there is something measurable and verifiable that they can do to save our planet.


Jack D. Blackwell serves as Vice President of Lands & Resources for Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC) which owns nearly 1 million acres along the Northern Gulf of Alaska. One of twelve regional Alaska Native Corporations, CAC was created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. CAC is participating in California’s cap-and-trade program and was one of the first Alaska Native Corporations to sell carbon offset credits.
Blackwell attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Management from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and has spent his career managing public and private land in Alaska. Blackwell recently retired from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources where he spent over three decades managing state parks in coastal Alaska, retiring as Superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound Region.


John is a Registered Professional Forester in California and is the owner of his own consultancy entitled Dogwood Springs Forestry (DSF). He led a stakeholder process in California that led to the forest carbon protocol that is now in use in California’s compliance market. His substantial experience in ‘hands-on’ forest management, with an emphasis on quantification and planning for excellent environmental, social, and economic outcomes, has provided a practical voice to how forests and other land use are considered in climate policy and ecosystem markets.


Path 4: Innovation and Scaling in Carbon Credits
Location: Franciscan
Technology advancements, including remote sensing and big data processing, are opening new possibilities for accurate measurement and tracking of carbon stocks and land use activity. They also can open the doors for the development of more projects, which will add more high integrity credits to the market. In this session, experts will discuss challenges and opportunities for integrating these technology solutions into projects.

Dr. Sassan Saatchi is co-founder and CEO of CTrees, a nonprofit that tracks carbon in every tree on the planet and provides data to governments, companies, and organizations seeking to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation and restore forests at all scales.
Dr. Saatchi is a senior scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and an adjunct professor at the Center for Tropical Research at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. His present research interests include the global carbon cycle, in particular, forest biomass and carbon dynamics; land use and land cover change; forest structure and regeneration; and the impact of climate change and variability on global forest function and resilience. He is currently directing several interdisciplinary research projects on the carbon cycling of tropical forests, particularly in the Amazon and Congo Basin. For NASA’s NISAR and ESA’s BIOMASS satellite missions, he is developing algorithms to retrieve changes of vegetation above ground biomass across different landscapes and ecoregions. Dr. Saatchi received a Ph.D. degree from George Washington University with a concentration in electrophysics and applied mathematics.


Ashley Conrad-Saydah serves as Chief of Policy and Community Affairs at Vibrant Planet, a nature tech company deploying a common operating platform for wildfire and ecosystem resilience. A recognized expert in climate change, renewable energy and natural resources policy for two decades, Ashley forges cross-sectoral collaborations to address the climate crisis.
Ashley began serving on Sandia National Laboratories’ Energy & Homeland Security External Advisory Board in 2022 and on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board, appointed by California Governor Newsom, in 2021. Ashley previously held climate and energy policy positions at the California Environmental Protection Agency (appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown) and in the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, beginning her tenure as a Presidential Management Fellow.
Ashley mentors graduate students and serves on the Advisory Board of the UC Davis Graduate Program of Environmental Policy and Management. She has a masters in environmental science and management from UC Santa Barbara and an AB in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University.
Throughout her career, Ashley has worked to provide all people access to nature, education, healthy communities, and good jobs. Ashley lives in Sacramento with her husband, two children and anxious dog.


Dr. Adam Moreno is the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) manager of Nature-Based Strategies. He leads CARB’s science and modeling to identify the role that natural and working lands play in the state’s efforts in becoming carbon neutral. This work incorporates modeling, remote sensing, and data analytics to set carbon targets, track progress towards these targets, assess the effectiveness of policies, programs, and management strategies, and to use all of this information to inform policy development. He was previously an earth scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and has also been a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, South America, and a wildland firefighter as a hotshot with the U.S. forest service. He holds a bachelors in computer engineering, a masters in ecological modeling, and a doctorate in remote sensing and forest ecology.


Chris Tolles, CEO and co-founder of Yard Stick PBC, is a Boston-based entrepreneur focused on science commercialization in service of the climate change crisis. Prior to Yard Stick he was CEO and co-founder of Sundaily, an ingestible sun protection product company which he sold to Grove Collaborative in 2020. Previous to his founding roles, Chris worked with HBS Professor Clay Christensen, creator of the theory of disruptive innovation, at Clay’s firm Innosight, focused on entrepreneurial innovation efforts at large corporate clients including Bose, Biogen, and Eli Lilly. Before Innosight, Chris worked in various emerging market-focused impact roles in Switzerland, Norway, Liberia, Honduras, and Hong Kong. Chris holds an MBA from Boston University and a BFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He’s proudly from the great state of New Jersey.

Location: Grand A

Path 1: Markets and Finance
Location: Grand B
The second discussion in a two-session series on the role of the VCM in meeting net zero targets will focus on the demand side of the equation. While ICVCM is developing guidance for high integrity in the global supply of credits, other entities like VCMI and SBTi have been working to provide guidance on the demand side. In this session, panelists will discuss the status of demand-side guidance, what it means for the VCM and if it meets stakeholders’ needs.

Henrique Luz is Manager – Markets and Standards at VCMI where he is focused on developing the Scope 3 Flexibility Claim, enabling a greater number of corporates to use voluntary carbon markets with high integrity while incentivize them to get back to making progress towards meeting their targets.
With a background in energy planning and valuation of environmental impacts, Henrique has dedicated his career to the study and implementation of sustainable practices in various economic sectors in Brazil. He has participated in international associations such as Business for Nature, Capitals Coalition, Task-force for Nature Related Financial Disclosures, and Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity.
Henrique has a degree in Biology and holds a PhD in Environmental Planning from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he also earned his MSc in Energy Planning.


Steph Harris is a buyer on the Microsoft Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) team, focused on Microsoft’s nature-based CDR portfolio, upstream origination, and expanding Microsoft’s pipeline of new CDR projects. Before joining Microsoft in 2023, Steph spent over 8 years at 3Degrees as a Director on the Carbon Markets team, where she was responsible for managing the company’s voluntary carbon credit portfolio. Prior to 3Degrees, Steph completed a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and Management at the Bren School at the University of California, Santa Barbara.


Path 2: Policy
Location: Imperial A
As national and international policies to address the climate crisis expand, one key concern among many countries is how to assure the competitiveness of their domestic economies as they compete with other economies taking less action. This session will explore the fundamentals underpinning these concerns, the types of policies being considered and/or implemented (such as cross-border adjustments), and the reaction of countries that feel unfairly targeted by such policies and their responses.

Michael Berends is the CEO and Co-Founder of ClearBlue Markets, an award-winning advisory firm focused on compliance and voluntary carbon markets. ClearBlue Markets is the creator of the pioneering AI-enabled carbon intelligence platform, ClearBlue Vantage. Michael’s two decades of experience in carbon markets span policy, strategy, transactions, market analysis, and offset development. He has executed thousands of global carbon product deals and developed pricing and risk management strategies for emitters in over 50 countries across compliance and voluntary markets.
Under his leadership, ClearBlue supports hundreds of companies globally to take strategic actions, manage risk, and unlock value by effectively utilizing carbon markets.
Before ClearBlue, Michael worked at Barclays Capital, Vattenfall Energy Trading, and ICL Ltd. Michael holds a Master’s degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Toronto and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from the University of Amsterdam.


Areas of Expertise
Economic Impact Analysis; Subnational Policy Implementation; Carbon Markets; State and Federal Transportation Policy
About Emily
Emily brings nearly 20 years of experience in climate policy and economic modeling to Hua Nani Partners. As Managing Partner, Emily works broadly across climate and environmental policy advocacy with a focus on the economic analysis and implementation of subnational policies.
Prior to joining Hua Nani Partners, Emily served as Climate Economist at Rhodium Group where she analyzed the economic impact of climate change and policy responses, with an emphasis on state and transportation policies. Emily also provided state outreach support to the Climate Impact Lab, focusing on climate damages and the Social Cost of Carbon. Prior to Rhodium, Emily served as the Chief Economist for the California Air Resources Board where she assessed the economic impact of California’s portfolio of climate and air quality policies and programs with a focus on carbon markets and transportation.
Emily holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Davis and a Bachelor’s degree in energy, environmental, and mineral economics from Penn State. Emily lives in Sacramento, California.egree from Penn State.


Path 3: Implementation
Location: Imperial B
A critical concern about the use of carbon credits revolves around the fear that credits may be double counted and/or double issued. Avoiding these outcomes is an important objective for stimulating confidence in voluntary markets. In this session experts will weigh in on the steps being taken to avoid these problems, including efforts around integrated data warehousing, such as the Climate Action Date Trust and other technology efforts, to enhance security and confidence in carbon credits.

As Vice President of Programs for the Climate Action Reserve, Kristen oversees implementation of the Reserve’s registry services including the voluntary offset project registry, the Reserve’s role as a California Offset Project Registry, and Climate Forward; ensuring effective and efficient process across the programs. Her responsibilities include managing staff that provide support for the reporting, verification of emissions reduction projects and overseeing the verification accreditation program. Kristen and the Analytical team provide technical assistance to project developers and verification bodies, develop updates to the Program and Verification Program Manuals, and provide support for utilization of the Reserve software.
Kristen previously worked at the Reserve for 7 years, serving in several roles including Program Director, where she played a key role in implementing the Reserve’s role as Offset Project Registry in California’s cap-and-trade program. She also served as the Reserve’s Program Manager, where she was the lead in supporting the Forest Project Protocol, and as the Reserve Administrator, Program Associate and Program Assistant. After her time at the Reserve, she pursued another passion to work in the community and taught high school math and physics. Most recently, Kristen was a management consultant working to support federal hazard mitigation grant administration with the State of California. Kristen completed her Bachelor’s degree in health science with a concentration in community health and economics at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and has a Masters in Public Administration from the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific.


Jeff Berman is the Senior Director for Registries at Xpansiv. In this role, Jeff works with a range of non-profit, public, and private sector entities to design and implement the digital infrastructure necessary to scale environmental markets around the world.
Jeff joined Xpansiv in 2023 following more than a decade as an energy and environmental commodity analyst at S&P Global Platts, PIRA Energy Group (acquired by S&P in 2016), and Rapidan Energy Group. While at S&P, Jeff served as director of emissions and clean energy analytics, and in this role was the lead analyst for numerous environmental markets, including the EU ETS, RGGI, and CDM/JI, as well as global carbon pricing initiatives. He was also a key contributor to their long-term energy sector modeling and scenario analysis efforts. Jeff sits on the Technical Committee for the Climate Action Data Trust, and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science as well as a Masters of International Affairs in energy management and policy from Columbia University.


Joanne Hochheiser is an Executive Director in the Environmental Solutions Team at S&P Global with product development oversight for carbon market products, including registry, auctions, and Meta Registry™ as well as commodity market products. She is also responsible for providing operational services to support the entire Environmental Solutions product suite.
Prior to joining S&P Global in 2013, Joanne had a 20+ year career at Goldman Sachs in various leadership roles within operations, human resources and finance and her last role was Vice President of commodities regulatory reporting where she interfaced with various regulatory bodies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
Joanne holds a BA in Economics from New York University.


Path 4: Innovation and Scaling in Carbon Credits
Location: Franciscan
For a wide variety of reasons, buyers are keenly interested in nature-based solutions (NBS) for helping to achieve their net zero goals. Perhaps the most fundamental challenge to NBS projects is the inherent uncertainties when dealing with ever-changing natural conditions, i.e., Mother Nature is always throwing us curve balls. This session will examine how best to manage risk with NBS projects, including concerns over additionality and non-permanence.

Bronson leads Conservation International’s Natural Climate Solutions science team, playing a key role in the strategic development of natural climate solutions science across the organization, leading a research agenda that helps deliver on Conservation International’s climate goals.
He works closely with a network of scientists and experts across divisions and in collaboration with some of the world’s leading climate-focused institutions and global thought leaders. Bronson and his team conduct transformative research on natural climate solutions, including monitoring and evaluation, global climate mitigation potential, and the re-design of conservation, restoration, and improved land management strategies to maximize their climate and co-benefit impacts.
He is the lead author of a landmark study that introduced the term “Natural Climate Solutions” and revealed that these solutions provide over 30% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to keep global temperature increases under 2 degrees Celsius. He published the study with colleagues in 2017 while in his previous role with The Nature Conservancy as Director of Forest Carbon Science to design, measure, and scale Natural Climate Solutions.
Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, Bronson coordinated a successful effort at the U.S. Department of State, as an AAAS fellow, to make climate change funding available for forest-climate initiatives through the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). He completed a post-doc at the Canaan Valley Institute in West Virginia studying restoration of high elevation Appalachian watersheds. He completed a Ph.D. in tropical forest ecology from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2003 and received a M.Sc. from New York University in plant genetics and conservation.


Dr. Christina McCain is Founder and Principal of Ecosophy, LLC. Christina advises non-profit, corporate and government clients and has focused the last 15 years of her career on domestic and international climate change policy, including nature-based climate solutions, carbon markets, and emissions trading at international, national, and state levels. She brings over 25 years of experience in forests and land use change, particularly in tropical landscapes in Latin America to this work. Prior to founding Ecosophy, Christina held senior-level positions in the climate change and land use sector, including at the Climate & Land Use Alliance and Environmental Defense Fund. Christina was a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State from 2006-2009. She earned her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Miami, focused on the ecological effects of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and hold a B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.


Lisa Gonzales-Kramer, RPF, Sr. Director, Forest Carbon Development, leads Mast’s Forest Carbon Development team to restore post-catastrophic wildfire forests in the Intermountain West. Previously, Lisa worked as Project Manager for the Cuyamaca Reforestation Project, a California State Parks initiative to restore the native mixed conifer forest at the headwaters of three San Diego County watersheds. Being the first large-scale reforestation effort initiated after the 2003 Cedar Fire burned 10,000 acres of sky island forests, the iconic project is restoring watershed function and important habitat for mountain lions, bald and golden eagles and other rare and sensitive species. Lisa led the restoration project from planning and development through rigorous third-party verification to become the first forest carbon reforestation project on public lands to be registered with the Climate Action Reserve. Lisa led carbon funding negotiations with key partners and through an innovative blend of public-private partnerships; the project was partially financed by ex ante credits prior to the development of the Reserve’s current ex ante Climate Forward Methodology. Lisa was also instrumental in launching the first Native American Conservation Corps for California State Parks, a collaborative effort with local tribal nations and state and local agencies.


Kyler oversees The Climate Trust’s acquisition programs, sales, offset project portfolio and project development. Kyler ensures The Climate Trust develops projects that yield the highest quality carbon offsets for our landowner partners and offset purchasers. Prior to joining The Climate Trust, Kyler worked at the Rangeland Resources Unit. Kyler holds a Masters of Greenhouse Gas Management and Accounting, and Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University.
