Carbon Market Programme Officer

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development projects around the world.  Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement, and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors, and United Nations organizations.  With over 8,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it.  By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

The UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC) was established in early 2022. UNEP-CCC is programmatically guided by UN Environment (UNEP) and operationally supported by UNOPS. UNEP-CCC was established to ensure preservation and continuation of the experience and capacity established through a 30-year working relationship between UNEP, the Danish Technical University (DTU), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), known as the UNEP DTU Partnership (UDP). 

UNEP-CCC is a leading international advisory institution on energy, climate and sustainable development. Its work focuses on assisting developing countries and emerging economies transition towards more low carbon development paths and supports integration of climate-resilience in national development. UNEP-CCC is actively engaged in implementing UN Environment’s Climate Change Strategy and Energy Programme by delivering technical assistance and analytical work to emerging markets and developing countries in context of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

The Institutional Development Section (ID) is one of five sections at UNEP-CCC. The ID section provides the institutional development expertise required to engage on policy, planning, transparency, and market development and for climate policy integration into regular development processes.

The ID section is involved in several projects that support the center strategy in the areas of policy, transparency, and implementation. The ID seeks to recruit carbon market programme officer in climate governance and carbon markets to work on project management, technical analysis, and administrative support.  The successful candidate will be part of the team supporting capacity building projects to implement Article 6 of the Paris Agreement including Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPAR6C), Integrated Assessment for Article Six (IAA6), Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) for Article 6, the Article 6 and Voluntary Carbon Market Database and Pipeline Analysis, and Implementation of TOZCA (Towards Zero Carbon Asia). The candidate will strengthen the visibility of UNEP-CCC’s work on implementation of Article 6 carbon market approaches in international fora and contribute to analytical work and publications.

The ID section also supports countries to translate their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into concrete sector strategies and actions ready for financing and implementation, and to increase the ambition of their NDCs. The section engages key decision-makers and stakeholders: national and sub-national government entities, the private sector, financial institutions, civil society, etc.

The main responsibility of the candidate will be to provide science-based, analytic and project management support in the areas of: GHG, SDG, and transformational impact assessment, institutional development for carbon market accounting and reporting of Internationally Traded Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), and transparency for tracking progress of NDCs enabling ambition raising. The candidate is expected to work independently on a varied portfolio of activities, including project management support, collaboration with partners, quantitative and qualitative analysis, presentation of analytical results using digital tools and web-based platforms as well as collaboration with relevant colleagues across the UNEP-CCC sections and UNEP Climate Change Division.

Specific areas of work will include:

• Being part of an international team of experts working on the analysis and capacity building support for implementation of Article 6 cooperative approaches in emerging markets and developing countries.

• Supporting the work of the ID section, including the development and management of institutional frameworks and databases for carbon market implementation, integrated assessment of mitigation policies and actions with long-term mitigation strategies for net zero emissions to achieve the global goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

• Enhance and support to implement the GHG and SDG impact assessment of mitigation activities for trading in ITMOs using digital tools and approaches for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).

As part of the above work also be responsible for project management and coordination support, allocation of budget resources within the assigned projects and for regularly monitoring and assessing performance against KPIs and project milestones. In addition, it is expected that the Carbon Market Programme Officer contributes to the visibility and communication of UNEP-CCC’s activities and outcomes publicly. The candidate will contribute to analytical work, resulting in both peer-reviewed publications and reports, perspectives, and policy briefings.

• A master’s degree or equivalent work experience preferably in Natural or Computer Science / Engineering / Business / Policy / Economics / Social science with a thesis and/or work experience related to carbon markets.
• A bachelor’s degree with an additional 2 years of relevant experience will be accepted in lieu of a Master’s degree

b. Experience

Required

• The candidate should have 2 years of work experience related to the carbon market area.
• Demonstrated knowledge of working in areas such as climate change mitigation

Desired

• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary and international environment
• Experience working with emerging markets and developing countries
• Proficiency in analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, and effectively presenting analytical findings using digital tools and web-based platforms such as Excel, Tableau, and other relevant software is desirable.

• Fluency in English is required, with an emphasis on both speaking and writing skills. 
• Fluency in one or more other languages, in particular French and Spanish are an asset.

Contract type: International Individual Contractor Agreement 
Contract level: IICA 1 / ICS 9
Contract duration: One year (12 months) initially, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funds

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 

• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.