The Next Industrial Revolution 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. 

I said this at COP28, and I am repeating it here, carbon credits are the new oil.  With the proper strategic framework, it becomes a strategic asset that can influence energy and financial policy of related nations.  These are the steps that I believe we should work at, which democratises the process. 

We need to encourage private players to run carbon exchanges, in the same way that the cryptocurrency market has grown.  We should create the hype, and ride it, instead of stifling it.  Perhaps an offshore compliance exchange is an option. 

This is my controversial opinion: Fold the voluntary carbon credit market into the compliance market.  This is inevitable anyway.  As we develop carbon credits as financial instruments, I foresee increasingly more comprehensive compliance and regulatory frameworks.  There is no space for the laissez-faire approach of the voluntary market. 

We need to work towards creating rated, investment-grade compliance carbon credits, as a first step towards having them recognised as financial instruments.  The best carbon credits projects to create the necessary volume for trade is blue carbon credits from seagrass projects.  This is why Red Sycamore is in this space. 

The strategic intent for this is to create a secondary market for carbon credits.  When we have carbon credit futures, ETFs, and other derivatives, we have speculation and a viable secondary market that is a means to create the liquidity and encourage investment into more sustainability projects globally. 

This is how we address the funding gap, and bring in more players into the market.  If there is money to be made, there will be investment.  An appeal to self-interest is far more realistic than an appeal to altruism.  Major corporations and funds are beholden to self-interest.  Any claim of altruism is cynical and hypocritical.