About us
Who we are
Climate Focus is a pioneering international advisory company and think tank that provides advice to governments and multilateral organizations, non-governmental and philanthropic organizations, and to companies across the globe. We support our clients with shaping and navigating through international and domestic climate policies, accessing climate finance, and engaging with new climate mechanisms and cooperative approaches.
Climate Focus was founded in 2004 and has offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bogotá, Rotterdam and Washington, DC. Our team is complemented by a broad and diverse pool of in-country experts and international partners.
Climate Focus is a NYDF Assessment Partner, a Charter Member of the Global Landscapes Forum, a member of the Project Developer Forum, as well as the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition and MVO Nederland.
What we do
Climate Focus has extensive experience in climate, energy and land-use policies and interventions. Our work ranges from advising on the formulation of international and domestic climate policies, designing public and private climate finance strategies, and supporting the implementation of mitigation and adaptation activities. We also provide capacity building at the local and regional level, engaging businesses and communities in the transition to a sustainable and low carbon future.
Our policy and project advisory is complemented by our legal expertise on a range of issues associated with climate change interventions and transactions. Our legal experts have extensive experience regarding carbon markets infrastructure, institutional and governance capacities, the development of national and subnational legal frameworks, due diligences and contracts.
How we work
We work with a diverse team of experts to ensure that our advice is rooted in a profound knowledge of international and domestic climate policies, international climate finance modalities, carbon pricing initiatives, as well as mitigation and adaptation projects.
We integrate our experience and consultancy at the international level with our advisory services on the ground, ensuring that climate-related activities and investments are based on sound concepts and practical experience. In addition, our legal team adds to our array of services by offering cross-cutting legal advice on climate law and governance, as well as on climate-related transactions.
Our way of travelling
Like others in our industry, we frequently travel via airplane for conferences, meetings, workshops, and other events. In doing so, we’re contributing to the rapid increase of air travel emissions. So far we’ve done the usual approach to clean up our emissions with carbon credits, but at only EUR 10 per ton, this practice hardly captures the damage being done. Therefore, we launched an initiative to reduce the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of our travel. As of July 2019, we are taking the following steps:
- We minimise travel wherever and whenever possible;
- When a trip is under 8 hours, we will travel by train or share a car;
- When air travel cannot be avoided, we will clean up our emissions and pay for the climate cost of the trip through a surcharge;
- We’ll recycle the proceeds to activities that further mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Climate Policy
Climate Focus has extensive experience assessing international and national climate policies. By being involved in high-level international climate negotiations and in domestic policymaking, we are continuously building and expanding our knowledge to provide a comprehensive foundation for our advisory work. We advise on existing and new carbon market mechanisms, international GHG accounting, environmental integrity standards, and climate law and governance in a variety of sectors, including energy, forests, agriculture and transport. Our work includes: assisting countries in international negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on new market mechanisms and non-market approaches, advising on the development of carbon pricing policies, and implementing carbon programs and projects grounded on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
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Climate Finance
Climate Focus advises businesses and governments on low carbon investments and the deployment of mitigation and adaptation finance. Our long-term experience with climate financing modalities, due diligence and transaction support, as well as with GHG mitigation policies and programs, provides the foundation on which we build our advisory work for sound climate-related investments. We assist institutions and companies in the design of financing models for blended and results-based finance, both at the international and the domestic level.
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Mitigation and Adaptation Projects
Climate Focus is engaged in advising developers in structuring mitigation and adaptation programs and projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Climate Focus assists developers and investors with methodological issues and monitoring, reporting and verification procedures at the activity level for different carbon standards. We also provide advisory associated with identifying GHG abatement opportunities, undertaking legal and technical due diligence for climate financiers and investors, as well as preparing and negotiating Emission Reduction Purchase Agreements and results-based finance arrangements.
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Land Use
A recognized leader in advising on forestry and agriculture, Climate Focus provides clients with a suite of comprehensive services on land-use policies, financing mechanisms, country-level planning and implementation. Moreover, we are engaged in climate-smart agricultural and REDD+ program development, where our advisory services are rooted in profound expertise in jurisdictional and landscape approaches. Climate Focus also works extensively for public and private sector partners in developing effective strategies for supply-chain zero deforestation efforts. In addition, our land-use team develops climate-smart agriculture business models and we have extensive experience in supporting activities and investments, land tenure assessment, benefit-sharing, and carbon rights.
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Related Projects
Energy
Climate Focus has long-standing involvement in the renewable energy sector. Our advisory services are based on extensive on the ground experience in supporting developers with the financing and implementation of clean or low carbon energy development in developing countries, including both large-scale interventions such as hydropower and wind power investments as well as household level programs targeting the dissemination of domestic biogas, solar home systems and energy efficient cook stoves. We support developers with accessing carbon finance through compliance or voluntary schemes, as well as by linking initiatives to international climate financiers.
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Carbon Pricing
Building on over 10 years of experience, Climate Focus supports governments and international organizations with structuring carbon pricing interventions. Our experience ranges from advising on the design and implementation of domestic carbon taxes and emissions trading in a number of countries, to the application and design of instruments of the carbon market. Climate Focus is contributing to the continuous advancement of carbon standards such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Gold Standard and the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) through direct engagement and specialized publications. A common building block to the application of carbon pricing are robust Monitoring, Reporting and Verification frameworks at international, national, subnational and project levels. Climate Focus is also a member of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition.