Tim Clairs

He has more than 25 years’ experience working with the UN in the forest and land-use sector. His career began implementing biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management projects across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. In 2008 he led the creation of the UN-REDD Programme, subsequently supporting 60 developing countries prepare for Jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+).

Over the last 15 years, he has partnered and worked closely with most of the leading J-REDD+ initiatives: the World Bank’s Forest and Climate Partnership Facility; the Governors’ Climate & Forests Tasks Force; the Green Climate Fund’s REDD+ Results-Based Payments; Emergent and the LEAF Coalition; the ART/TREES standard; and the Forests and Climate Leaders Partnership.

At UNDP, he represented the organisation at 10 UNFCCC COP meetings, as well as in major climate-finance and forest-governance partnerships, collaborating with Indigenous Peoples’ groups, NGOs, governments, and advisory firms.

Tim’s early concerns about the misuse of jurisdictional results in the voluntary carbon markets led to his involvement in the creation of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI).

After taking early retirement from UNDP, he founded Forest Integrity, advising on high-integrity nature-based solutions. Then he became Director of Climate Contributions, promoting credible corporate climate claims and structures to channel contribution finance to mitigation outcomes linked to NDCs, in alignment with emerging standards.

He serves on the UNFCCC’s Expert Roster for Article 6.4, the SBTi Expert Group revising the Corporate Net-Zero Standard and contributes to several other international expert panels.

Tim is based in Point Lonsdale on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria, where he is active in his local community as a member of the Swan Bay Environment Association and a committee member of Queenscliffe Climate Action Now (QCAN).