Climate Impact X launches digital platform Project Marketplace

Singapore

CARBON exchange and marketplace Climate Impact X (CIX) on Wednesday (Mar 16) launched its first platform, Project Marketplace, which enables businesses and carbon project suppliers to list, compare, buy and retire carbon credits.

The digital platform will offer "robust information" on projects, along with third-party ratings, and satellite monitoring technology to create greater trust in the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

It aims to accelerate the corporate sector's ability to take climate action by providing verified carbon projects and is designed for "seamless user experience" with features such as one-click retirement and transfers.

"Responsible corporates are looking for assurance that the credits they buy will deliver tangible, lasting climate impact," said CIX chief executive officer (CEO) Mikkel Larsen. "Therefore, we chose to launch Project Marketplace ahead of our Auction and Spot Exchange platforms," he added, noting that the venue is "ideal" for companies that wish to explore VCM.

Established last year by DBS, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Standard Chartered (StanChart) and Temasek, Singapore-based CIX has an initial focus on natural climate solutions, which involve the protection and restoration of ecosystems such as forests and mangroves. The Project Marketplace platform currently offers credits from nature-based projects, with the aim of expanding into other credits later in the year.

CIX said quality is a core component in its project curation so as to scale up genuine climate impact. All the projects that are listed on the platform are verified by global registries, subjected to internal evaluations over various metrics, and checked against independent ratings.

During a media briefing at the launch of Project Marketplace, Larsen said there are already between 10 and 15 projects getting onboarded, and he added that the number will grow as they are just getting started.

One project that is on the platform is the Tambopata-Bahuaja Biodiversity Reserve in Peru, which creates an economic buffer zone around a 573,299-hectare forest that is habitat to 30 threatened species. It also assists farmers to transition to sustainable cocoa production, restore degraded land and helps relieve deforestation pressures by working with local and indigenous communities.

CIX said the marketplace enables businesses of all sizes - from small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to larger global players - to participate in the VCM by lowering barriers to access quality carbon credits.

Larsen said that they are in the process of onboarding "well north of 100 companies right now".

Some companies have voiced their support for the platform.

Vandita Pant, chief commercial officer at mining company BHP, said in a statement that it supports CIX's ambition to establish a marketplace that provides transparency and a curation of high-quality carbon compensation projects.

"We see the platform not just providing access to these types of projects for market participants, but also enabling project suppliers' access to a broader market, which creates a positive multiplier effect on ecosystems and communities in otherwise at-risk landscapes," she added.

In terms of pricing, Larsen noted that some of their competitors have pricing of credits that has fallen from around US$16-US$17 per tonne recently, to around US$12 per tonne today.

"I do expect that our project for nature-based solution would price at the high end of it," he said, noting that they are bringing in quality projects. "Ultimately, it will depend on what the suppliers would want to charge for it."

During a discussion, Claire O'Neill, co-chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Imperatives Advisory Board, observed that there could be a bump in emissions this year amid the Russian-Ukraine conflict, with some turning to coal or fossil fuel exploration that have not been as active for several years.

"All of this means that there will be more carbon we have to remove," she said, noting this may be positive for carbon markets because there's going to be more focus on high-quality carbon removal.

CIX is also working to facilitate deeper understanding of VCM, and has set up an independent international advisory council comprising a panel of subject matter experts - from academia, NGOs, global verification bodies and industry, as well as individual observers.

The company also announced on Wednesday the members of its board of directors, which comprises Larsen, O'Neill, and the chief executives of the 4 founding companies: Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS; Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX; Bill Winters, group CEO of StanChart; and Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek Holdings. There will be a rotational chairperson system, with DBS' Gupta being the first chairperson of the board.

Apart from the Project Marketplace, CIX is also developing 2 other platforms, including the "Auction" - expected to launch during the second quarter of 2022 - which is a digital venue for discovering prices of unique projects and standardised products through aggregation of market supply and demand.

CIX is also working to launch the "Exchange" in the fourth quarter of 2022, which enables 2-way spot trade of high-quality credits through standardised contracts.