Enhancing Market Confidence from AlterCOP29

The following are notes of the presentation delivered at AlterCOP29, on the 14^th November 2024.  These are my opinions, as President of Red Sycamore. 

To enhance market confidence, the obvious next step is establishing clear, standardised criteria for what constitutes a high-quality carbon credits.  From a financial perspective, we need to agree, across financial institutions, on the status of carbon credits, whether commodity, options contract, or something different.  The independent verification by accredited third parties should be made more stringent.  Gold, Verra and similar organisations are not the answer.  We need something that functions just like rating agencies like Moody’s and Fitch.  Perhaps, we need something similar for the carbon market. 

Projects need a better, legally enforceable framework for transparent, publicly available information about their methodologies, results, and impacts when reporting.  This framework needs to be standardised across projects, as far as practicable.  What we have is nowhere near enough.  Also, considering the different kinds of credits, even in the compliance market, we need a mechanism for convertibility.  This is a step towards fungibility. 

At COP29, there is a push to mobilise US$65 billion annually from the private sector to complement public funding for climate projects.  I am sceptical. The answer is not found in philanthropy and localised private funding.  This is publicity, not reality.  This level of coordination is not going to compete with the energy lobby, the mining lobby and other special interest groups.  The way forward is the appeal to self-interest, not altruism.