Former UN Carbon Markets Negotiator Joins Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced the hiring of Pedro Martins Barata as its new Associate Vice President for Carbon Markets and Private Sector Decarbonization. With more than 20 years of experience in international climate policy and carbon markets, Barata comes to EDF’s global mission as COP27 commences in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, where he will participate in events and track discussions on carbon markets and Article 6.  

As COP27 kicks off in Egypt, this is our time to hold companies to their grand Glasgow promises. In the same breath, however, we also have to give them the right tools and incentives to achieve and raise their climate ambitions,” said Barata. “Well-designed and integrity-driven carbon markets are one tool in our toolbox to drive corporate action in the right direction, while delivering benefits for ecosystems and communities.

Barata will lead EDF’s work to assist the private sector and governments in leveraging carbon markets to address the climate challenge and contributing to global efforts to decarbonize toward a net-zero world.  

He previously worked with EDF as a consultant, leading initiatives to improve the integrity and functioning of compliance and voluntary carbon markets around the world, including through the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative and the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative. He is also currently serving as the co-Chair of the Expert panel for the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM).

Previously, Barata was a carbon market negotiator under the United Nations, working on the set-up of compliance carbon markets under the Kyoto Protocol since 1999. Barata also led the negotiations for his home country of Portugal on the development of the European Union Emission Trading System, which was until recently the largest carbon market in the world. 

He was also vice chair of the Clean Development Mechanism of the UNFCCC, and, while working as a consultant for various international organizations, including OECD, European Commission, World Bank and the United Nations. He has assisted national governments in developing and shaping domestic carbon pricing instruments in countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Morocco.