From 3 until 12 May 2016, the 15th ICAP Training Course on Emissions Trading brought together climate policy professionals from Latin America to learn about emissions trading as a tool for climate protection and to discuss the options of implementing such systems in Latin America. The São Paulo course was the fifteenth of its kind and continues a series of past ICAP events held around the world since 2009. 25 mid-career professionals from seven Latin American countries attended the course, which was facilitated by Benjamin Görlach and Pedro Barata led the course.

Ecologic Institute designed the curriculum and helped organize the course, which was carried out under the auspices of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) in close cooperation with the Iniciativa Empresarial em Clima, the Ethos Institute and the Centro de Estudos em Sustentabilidade at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, which hosted the event. ICAP is a forum of 29 national and regional governments and jurisdictions, including several EU countries, the EU Commission, as well as a number of US states and Canadian provinces part of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Australia, New Zealand and Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), aiming to advance international cooperation on carbon markets. The course was funded by the EU Commission.

During the two-week course, participants gained an in-depth understanding of the design and implementation of carbon trading systems as a tool to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. They had the opportunity to discuss various aspects of emissions trading with experienced practitioners from several EU Member States, the State of Massachusetts, and other jurisdictions with emissions trading systems around the world. The faculty also included experts from academia, think tanks and the private sector in the US, Latin America and Europe. Brazilian speakers accounted for about half of the faculty, representing the local and federal government, energy sector and industry, academia, as well as civil society.

Course topics addressed during the two weeks included the economics of climate change, choosing and combining policy instruments for climate protection, design and scope of emissions trading, allocation mechanisms, GHG inventories and registries, the link of domestic ETS to the international climate regime, carbon market dynamics, and other advanced aspects of ETS design and implementation. In discussing these issues, the course relied on interactive formats and group work, and made ample use of first-hand experience gained with the existing trading schemes in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific region.

The course was attended by decision makers and future leaders from government, NGOs, academia and the private sector. Participants came from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Peru. They were selected from more than hundred applicants worldwide.