LEAF Coalition Technical Assistance

The Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition is a voluntary global coalition bringing together the private sector and governments to provide finance for tropical and subtropical forest conservation through carbon markets. The UK Government played a key role launching the LEAF Coalition in April 2021, alongside the US and Norwegian governments. At the World Leaders Summit at COP 26 the LEAF Coalition announced it met its initial goal of mobilising $1 billion USD for countries and states committed to increasing ambition to protect tropical and sub-tropical forests and reduce deforestation. At COP27 it announced that a further $500m has been mobilised, with 100% coming from private companies. Funding will be delivered to jurisdictions that successfully reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation. This will be done through payments for verified emission reductions – payments which are made only after reductions in deforestation have been independently confirmed.

Due to the complexity and number of different requirements needed to transact carbon credits under the LEAF programme, the UK hopes to design a bespoke technical assistance (TA) programme to support countries that are close to signing emissions reductions payment agreements (ERPAs). And those where strategic projects and technical support could unblock national approval for subnational participation in LEAF. The LEAF TA programme would be demand led by forest country governments (with direct input from BEIS and Embassy colleagues) to find out what their specific needs and support requirements are. This would enable them to engage/sign up to the LEAF coalition more quickly and comfortably. The overall aim of the programme is to help them sign their ERPAs, generate the credits and ultimately received results-based payments.

The UK is looking to procure a TA delivery partner to lead on the design and implementation of this programme of support, working closely with BEIS and UK embassies overseas. This would include sourcing technical consultants that could carry out the work in country.

The key skills and experience BEIS is looking for are:

• Ability to supply, manage and monitor high quality technical assistance to multiple countries at the same time.
• Strong subcontracting skills
• Extensive contract management experience
• Strong impact monitoring skills
• Strong value for money

Indicative timelines for this programme would be to have a delivery partner in place by April 2023 with an indicative set of programme activities devised by June. Implementation would begin in July/August.

Indicative Deliverables:

• Direct scoping work with forest country governments to accurately understand the need (working closely with BEIS and embassy colleagues).
• Source experienced technical consultants to carry out the work directly in country.
• Design bespoke support programmes for each of the chosen countries and work flexibly to respond to evolving demands and needs from forest countries.
• Quickly and effective subcontract consultants/organisations and accurately monitoring and track the work being implemented.
• Accurate and timely reporting to BEIS. Additional information: This PIN provides notice of a planned early market engagement event on this new procurement. This will be held on Wednesday, the 18th of January 2023 at 10:00am GMT. The event will be hosted on MS Teams.

To attend, please register at this link - forms.office.com/e/2vx4P2bW6R ↗ or email [email protected]