CIBC, IItaú Unibanco (the largest bank in Latin America), National Australia Bank (Australia’s largest business bank), and NatWest Group (a leading banking and financial services group in the UK and Ireland) today announced the launching of Project Carbon (the Project), a carbon offset platform which will seek to increase transparency in the voluntary carbon markets. The Project aims to provide carbon offsets to clients of the four banks with clear and consistent pricing and standards and aligns with the Mark Carney led Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) (read our earlier bulletins on the TSVCM here and here).
Key features of the Project:
- Represents the book of record for ownership of carbon credits;
- Allows owners of credits to clearly demonstrate possession, reducing risks of double counting and simplifying reporting;
- Supports price discovery through the posting of executed trade sizes and prices to the market;
- Promotes project investment through the transparent demonstration of market demand;
- Provides full traceability and linkage back to source of the credit;
- Assists Registries by facilitating the rapid scaling of client base;
- Takes care of post trade settlement, allowing all market participants including exchanges and marketplaces to offer additional value added services;
- Aligned with the objectives of the TSVCM;
- Pilot built on a private Ethereum platform developed with ConsenSys.
The Project seeks to increase the delivery of high-quality carbon offset projects, facilitate a liquid carbon credit marketplace, create a strong ecosystem to support offset markets, and develop tools to help manage climate-related risks. The Project is launching as a pilot in August. Institutions interested in advancing the objectives of the of TSVCM are invited to join the Project.
For further information or to discuss the contents of this bulletin, please contact Lisa DeMarco at lisa@resilientllp.com.