Last week, voluntary carbon market (VCM) leaders came together for Gold Standard’s Grow to Zero Conference in London

Last week, leaders in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) gathered in London for the Grow to Zero Conference hosted by Gold Standard. The conference aimed to explore solutions for scaling the market quickly and with integrity in order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We are pleased to announce that our CEO and co-founder, Raphael Haupt, participated in one of the panels and we are excited to share some of our insights and impressions from the event.

Innovation was a central theme throughout the conference, with discussions focusing on the role of digitalized carbon credits in areas such as tokenization and digital assets, digital MRV, and connected marketplaces. Raphael took the stage to emphasize the importance of open infrastructure for digital carbon markets, highlighting blockchain technology as a valuable tool for building this infrastructure. He also discussed how tokenized carbon credits can benefit project developers on the ground.

Throughout the event, the Gold Standard team demonstrated a strong interest in understanding and utilizing emerging digital technologies, which was inspiring to witness. Now, let’s delve into some of the key takeaways on innovation in the VCM.

1. Blockchain technology presents many opportunities to improve and grow the VCM

In 2021, digitalized carbon credits made a significant impact on the VCM, surprising many market participants. However, over the past two years, it has become evident how blockchains can benefit the VCM, and stakeholders are now accepting its adoption as inevitable. Some key advantages include:

• Transparent access to credits at clear prices for all participants
• Increased liquidity for specific project methodologies
• Potential for royalties to be distributed to project developers on the ground if a credit is traded multiple times before retirement
• Ability to fractionalize credits into smaller quantities, making them more affordable and opening up new markets for project developers
• Enhanced auditability of projects from ground to payment through tangible data

2. VCM and blockchain communities must collaborate

In order to avoid adding reputational risk to the VCM, it is crucial for the VCM and blockchain communities to work together and adopt digital technologies wisely. This collaboration should involve listening to and including the insights of market experts and participants. For example, industry experts involved in various climate projects could collaboratively define standards for different tokenized carbon credit pools. Technological tools like smart contracts can then be used to automatically implement these standards. The willingness of young climate tech companies to collaborate and involve all stakeholders is a positive aspect of this collaboration.

3. Digital carbon markets should serve stakeholders on the ground

The ultimate goal of the VCM should be to benefit the communities in which carbon projects are developed. This not only brings economic benefits but also contributes to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. A digital VCM should specifically aim to serve these stakeholders and should not be used solely for speculation or trading with no real climate impact. As an example, our infrastructure has already retired around 300,000 credits, demonstrating tangible impact.

4. Innovative financial solutions are needed for scale

While digital solutions are important, they alone are not enough to drive climate action at scale. Financial innovation is also necessary to enable project developers to access capital for large-scale deployment. This requires mobilizing financial resources in new ways, involving private and public capital, funds from multinational development banks, and philanthropic efforts. Blended finance stands out as a key opportunity, but public institutions must help reduce the risks associated with early-stage investments in carbon projects.

We extend our gratitude to the Gold Standard team for inviting us to speak at the conference, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the VCM community.

For more information on important terms and concepts in the digital VCM, please visit our website.

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