Walid Al Saqqaf - Rebalance Earth

Good to see more progress from colleagues at The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) in efforts to build end to end integrity in the VCMs. The helps the buyers VCMI focuses on identity high integrity credits. https://lnkd.in/dJMSNxus #carbonmarkets #integrity #climatefinance

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New technology analysis post coming next week, today I'm sharing my article on the origin and evolution of offsets. it's important that we keep in frame how long it can take to develop new solutions and how much of that goes on without public awareness. To be successful in addressing climate change we need a variety of strategies and we need broader buy-in. VCMs are imperfect but improving and they are acting as the proving grounds that will help regulators and policy wonks to act with greater authority and confidence. Take a peek and let me know where you agree or disagree. p.s. if you have special requests for analysis articles, or want to talk about the problem you're tackling, drop a comment.

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It takes 50 years to reabsorb deforestation emmissions! You often hear/read me drone on about the critical importance of avoidance carbon credits, particularly in the context of avoided deforestation. Steve Zwick elegantly summarised why those in the nature based solutions space insist on avoidance credits, citing this 2019 paper from Nature: One hectare of deforestation emits 355 tons of CO2 (all at once). One hectare of reforestation absorbs 6.7 tons of CO2 per year. In other words, it will take 50 years for newly planted trees to reabsorb the carbon released by every hectare deforested today. Reforestation is great, but stopping deforestation and degradation is critical. When you find yourself in a hole and want to get out: first, stop digging. https://lnkd.in/eyjqSEED

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📢 Last week The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) confirmed that both Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) program met the rigorous Core Carbon Principles (#CCPs). Proud to be one of the members of the group that helped create these principles, can’t wait to see more and more standards to be aligned with them. This is a significant achievement for the voluntary carbon market, marking a major step towards ensuring the highest levels of integrity and transparency in carbon credits. So who will be next? Thoughts? #CarbonMarket #VCM #CarbonCredits https://lnkd.in/ecYWpexc

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Perhaps the world is waking up and realising that no carbon credit is as important and valuable for our planet as a REDD+ credit. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has approved three REDD+ methodologies, as high-integrity Now all we need is for bodies like Verra to stop overreacting to negative press (you cannot appease anti-market fundamentalists, or academics funded by oil countries), stop overreaching (stick to the science, no need for arbitrary virtue-signaling changes), and start realising that project developers are their customers, and that customer service (including timeliness) is extremely important. Demand is going to take off in the next years, as thousands of large firms approach the 2030 deadline for their NetZero pledges. (High quality) REDD+ will be key.

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A piece I wrote recently about green investment and nature markets. https://lnkd.in/eav8GdUx There's so much potential. Crucially an expert, trusted, intermediary or broker, bringing together investment, environment & community expertise, could bundle up projects and income streams to offer attractive investment opportunities.

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Are you a UK-based climate tech founder or investor? Have you joined our Climate Tech Pioneers community? You'll also get access to our events and the next two are lining up to be great ones! ⭐ Sept 17th (virtual) - How to Build a Culture of Inclusion in Your Startup Team, with Rachel Crowther from Squash ⭐ Oct 23rd (in-person, London) - Understanding the Legalities of Fundraising, with VC lawyer, Fran Spooner ❓ How do I join? Comment 'JOIN' on this post and we'll be in touch with a joining link. We will be reviewing everyone before giving access to the group - we want this to be a safe, valuable and relevant space for founders and funders. ❓ Who are we for? ✅ Founders and C-Suite of UK-based climate tech start-ups. ✅ VCs and angels investing in climate start-ups at pre-seed to series A. ❓ What can you expect? 💚 A space for founders to connect with each other privately, in a locked channel, to share their challenges, issues and ask for advice. 💚 A space for investors to connect with each other privately, in a locked channel, to share live deals. 💚 An open channel for founders and investors to connect - where founders can post their fundraise and reach out to suitable investors. ❓ Where does it take place? 💻 On Slack. ☕️ But we also hold bi-monthly roundtable sessions focused on different aspects of the start-up and fundraising journey. We alternate between in-person and virtual for these. #ClimateTechPioneers #ClimateTech #WorkonClimate #ClimateInvestors #ClimateFounders

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Distribution of Latest Credit Prices by Registry for projects Renoster has rated. These prices are generated through our partnership with AlliedOffsets and are featured in our upcoming whitepaper, 'Investigating Price vs Quality within NBS Carbon Markets.' Verra Both reviewed and reviewable projects under Verra show the broadest distribution of credit prices ($1 to $40), with reviewed projects having a slightly higher median ($9 vs $7.50) and mean price ($12 vs $11). Outliers indicate occasional high-value credits, but most prices are clearly clustered towards the lower end, reflecting moderate pricing overall. Verra is clearly the one with the widest variability in market valuation, and the only registry with projects fetching above the $33/credit mark. Climate Action Reserve Unreviewed projects have a wider distribution of credit prices ($1 to $33) compared to reviewed projects. Reviewed projects have a median price of $18 and a mean price of $14.69, while reviewable projects have a median price of $8 and a mean price of $10.47. Outliers indicate occasional high-value credits. It seems that for projects we have rated, the median price ($18) is a lot higher than reviewable projects ($8). ACR at Winrock International Both reviewed and reviewable projects under ACR show a broad distribution of credit prices ($2 to $27). Reviewed projects have a median price of $11 and a mean price of $13.19, while reviewable projects have a median price of $11 and a mean price of $11.58. Outliers indicate occasional high-value credits, but most prices are clustered around the median, reflecting moderate to high pricing overall. Gold Standard Both reviewed and reviewable projects under GS show a consistent distribution of credit prices ($15 to $29), with identical median ($21) and mean prices ($21.35). Outliers indicate occasional deviations, but most prices are closely clustered around the median, reflecting stable pricing. This, coupled with the fact that Gold Standard had the highest median price of all registries, aligns closely with what I make of the overall market perception of a stable registry. EcoRegistry Both reviewed and reviewable projects under ER show a relatively narrow distribution of credit prices ($2 to $17). Reviewable and reviewed projects have a similar median & mean, clustered around $5-6. It's worth noting that ER list of projects is almost entirely comprised of Avoided Deforestation, so the pricing is likely indicative of market perceptions of this project type rather than ER's own performance as a registry. Thanks to Anton Root, Antonia Drummond and the AlliedOffsets team for their collaboration on this project. Comment below if this is useful, and if you'd like to see more research like this in the NBS space. #nature #pricefornature #carbonmarkets #carbon #analytics Mark Trexler Anna Lerner Nesbitt Margaret Morales Racheal Notto Jeremy Epstein Farouq Ghandour Eilís O’Keefe

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Can we make sense of Nature? 🌱 It's almost beyond understanding. But without clear data, how do we know if our efforts and investment into regeneration are paying off? The Nature Tech Collective created an entire map of 427 nature-based fintech companies focused on accelerating the understanding of nature. Nature-based fintech leverages financial services and products and then combines them with digital technologies to drive investment into regenerative uses of natural resources. These companies create economic incentives and viable business models that benefit the environment, addressing critical issues like deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, water management, and regenerative agriculture. The map is broken down into 4 sectors ⤵️ 📈 Market Pressures 🔬 Measurement & Monitoring 🖥️ Modeling 💰 Monetization Each sector contributes to the success of the others. 🔁 Without clear infrastructure for gathering reliable nature-data, we will never know if regeneration is happening. We must model that information, create markets that allow monetization, and build financial ramps to encourage regeneration. Dive into these organizations to see how rich the nature-tech ecosystem is. #soilhealth #sustainableagriculture #farming #agriculture #organicfarming #regenerativeagriculture #farm #climate #fintech #nature

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Absolutely thrilled to share the expanded version of the Carbon Market 4 Global Equity (#CM4GE) initiative, spearheaded by Sergi Cuadrat and myself. This initiative delves deep into harmonizing standards, utilizing blockchain and AI for transparency, and upholding rigorous verification processes to drive sustainable development. Our comprehensive report emphasizes the critical need for global alignment to ensure fairness and efficiency in the carbon market. By fostering collaboration among stakeholders and reinforcing market integrity, we are dedicated to creating a future that is both sustainable and equitable for all. Discover both versions of our report and join us in catalysing a more sustainable world: https://lnkd.in/dWHiXdHp. #CM4GE #Fairness #CarbonMarket #Sustainability #Innovation El Hadji Mbaye Diagne Ousmane Fall SARR Nathalie FLORES Fabio Arjona Idrissa Diatta Juan Pedro Searle Solar Conservation International Conservación Internacional Colombia Espacios Naturales y Desarrollo Sustentable A.C. Karina Barrera Lev Gantly Wes Geisenberger Erica Vertefeuille Stephen Gill Miguel Angel Garcia Tamargo Jorge Gómez Lechaptois ALLCOT IO Sana Lingorsky Mark Lewis Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez Juan Sebastián Castellanos Vargas Bouna manel Fall Ricardo Javier Torres Hernández Sustainability Magazine Quantum Commodity Intelligence

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Are there any groups out there focused on businesses and organisations actually delivering circular economy or regenerative products or services? There seems to be lots of chatter but a shortage of groups linking organisations who are taking action. Input welcome!

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This is a brilliant step by Verra 👏. We at Carbon Growth Partners highly recommend that parties accept the invitation to participate in the consultation process. 💡📝 Providing an optional pathway to transition from 'legacy' carbon accounting methodologies to their CCP descendants will: ✅️ Give project proponents and host communities choice in their approach. ✅️ Help to raise the real and perceived quality bar for carbon projects. ✅️ Maintain investment confidence by mitigating stranded asset risk. It is also important to note that projects that choose not to transition are not necessarily 'bad' or 'worse' than those that do. But they are different. That's especially true for forest conservation under the REDD+ program's VM0048, which is just a completely different way of accounting for forest carbon conservation. Well done to Justin Wheler and Andrew Howard for your process design and Judith Simon, Robin Rix, Toby Janson-Smith, Naomi Swickard and others on the Verra team for your leadership. Link to the process - including the relevant feedback forms - in the Verra link. Have your say! 🗣👇

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Breaking news on low carbon and the Labour Manifesto …… Key strategies include: - Introducing a carbon border adjustment mechanism to protect British industries and meet climate objectives. - Ensuring the institutional framework supports reaching net zero and meeting carbon budgets. - Mandating UK-regulated financial institutions to implement credible transition plans aligning with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. ### Heat Pumps and Low Carbon Heating Support the widespread adoption of low-carbon heating solutions, including heat pumps, through: - Offering grants and low-interest loans under the Warm Homes Plan to support the installation of heat pumps and other low-carbon heating systems. - Ensuring private rented sector homes meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030. ### Solar PV To expand solar power usage, Labour intends to: - Triple solar power capacity by 2030 as part of the mission to deliver clean power. - Provide support through the Warm Homes Plan for solar panel installations. - Deploy more distributed production capacity through the Local Power Plan, partnering with local authorities and cooperatives for community-based solar projects. ### Insulating Homes Labour's manifesto highlights a significant focus on improving energy efficiency in homes through: - Investing an extra £6.6 billion over the next parliament to upgrade five million homes, aiming to reduce bills and fuel poverty. - Providing grants and low-interest loans for insulation and other improvements. - Working with combined authorities, local, and devolved governments to roll out the Warm Homes Plan. - Ensuring that no one will be forced to replace their boiler as a result of these plans. ### Details on the Warm Homes Plan The Warm Homes Plan is a cornerstone of Labour's strategy to improve energy efficiency in homes. Key elements include: - Offering grants and low-interest loans to support investment in insulation, solar panels, batteries, and low-carbon heating solutions. - Partnering with combined authorities, local and devolved governments for a comprehensive rollout. - Collaborating with the private sector, including banks and building societies, to provide additional private finance to accelerate home upgrades and low-carbon heating. - Ensuring homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030, which will save renters hundreds of pounds per year. - Guaranteeing that no one will be forced to remove their boiler as part of these improvements. ### Training on Low Carbon Technologies To support the transition to a green economy, Labour plans to: - Establish Skills England to bring together businesses, training providers, and unions with national and local government to ensure a highly trained workforce for the Industrial Strategy. - Devolve adult skills funding to Combined Authorities - Reform the Apprenticeships Levy to create a flexible Growth and Skills Levy. GTEC Training

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Last week, Supercritical released a white paper, Unlocking the Potential of NBS, highlighting community-led agroforestry as a powerful yet underutilised solution to scale carbon removal while driving social and environmental impact. The key takeaways from the white paper are: 1️⃣ Community agroforestry makes up 10% of the global Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) carbon market, which is expected to triple in size within the next decade. 2️⃣ Over 85% of community agroforestry projects pass Supercritical’s initial vetting—well above the average for conventional NBS—showcasing their inherently high quality. 3️⃣ These projects go beyond carbon removal: up to 90% of profits go directly to local farmers and community leaders, driving social benefits like poverty reduction and gender equality. 👉 Read the full Supercritical white paper (link in the comments) #BlueLayer #CarbonMarkets #Supercritical #Agroforestry #NBS

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Questions for a Sustainable Future // 1. What are the topics you'd like to explore with AberInnovation, me and colleagues at our Shaping a Sustainable Future Conference on 3rd December? 2. What help might you need to develop a strategy and business plan that's based on working with the laws of physics and biology rather than the convenient comfort of continuing to do the wrong things better, and call that enough? 3. What people skills will you and your teams need to respond fully to the wild scale of disruption coming our way as we head towards our planned and intended temperature increase of +3c? 4. What would you set out to do if you took the evidence around as real, and knew that when you responded, you couldn't fail? Climate LinkUP Mark Jones Alan Horton Rhian Hayward MBE Iain Donnison

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Extract below from Bill Blain's excellent Morning Porridge blog (link below): "The big issue across Western Economies remains consumption – how much can consumers actually buy after their disposable incomes have been slashed by energy price inflation, higher taxation, inflation and low wages – the latter being a consequence of the increasing “financialisation”, aka greed, of corporates to pay workers less to make bosses richer. (That’s the reality of the last 20 years; bosses got insanely rich and higher paid. Workers got poorer.) When consumers can’t consume because all their income is consumed by higher rents, paying of credit cards, taxes, and dismal jobs… that’s when to worry. That time is now. Crashing consumption is the issue we haven’t yet seen on company earnings – yet." https://lnkd.in/d42VhKd9

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Very excited to share our new #fundinginstrument: the D-SAFE. It's modeled after the standard #SAFE (simple agreement for future equity). The D stands for "Development," and it's meant to address the specific #financing needs of #startups developing their first few pilot plants or commercial facilities. The D-SAFE gives the CEO the option to convert the #equity into a loan once the project is fully funded and underway, a feature that allows the CEO to redeem this capital to the investor – rather than automatically take on further dilution. It also makes it easier to finance new project developments with additional capital partners. The team Elemental Excelerator has been working on this for a while, and I'm excited to see it out in the wild. Our goal is to have the dollars recycle back to us as soon as the projects get larger financing so that we can re-deploy capital for #impact. We've already issued eight of these D-SAFEs to various portfolio companies and are excited for more! You can learn more about what this means in our announcement here: https://lnkd.in/gU74XqQU Huge props to everyone involved! Dawn Lippert Avra van der Zee Danya Hakeem Amir Chireh Mehr Mason Darryl Gunter Aparna Reddy Mike Curtis Lisa Kanehiro #financialinnovation #climatetech

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That's a wrap on Series 5 of the Climate Pioneers Show 🎤 It was such a joy deep diving into the world of 'Angel Investing for Impact' We covered all aspects of investing including: 💡 Why climate is a savvy investment strategy. 💡 The lack of gender diversity in the angel community. 💡 Why angel investment is an important source of capital for Founders. 💡 How to build (and execute) an angel fundraising strategy. 💡 How to prepare for due diligence. 💡 The legal aspects of raising angel investment. 💡 How to start your own angel investing journey. If you missed any of the episodes - they're all on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts - please go back and listen! 🎧 (Links in the comments below) And please 'follow' the Climate Pioneers Show to get updates when Series 6 launches this Summer. Watch this space 👀

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