Climate-focused technology company, Centigrade, announced that it has launched an open data platform focused on restoring trust in global voluntary carbon markets.
The platform aims to improve data quality, availability, and transparency to create a fair and efficient carbon market. By providing a platform, Centigrade intends to increase trust and participation, ultimately contributing to a more robust carbon market.
According to the company, the platform’s success will depend on factors like data accuracy, user-friendliness, transparency, adoption, and regulatory compliance. If successful, it could positively impact the carbon market by fostering credibility and greater participation.
Bringing transparency, trust and integrity to carbon markets
Centigrade is an independent platform designed for the broader public interest. It does not engage in credit ownership or trading, nor does it offer rating or certification services.
This neutrality enables the company to focus on delivering valuable data to various stakeholders in the carbon market ecosystem. This includes sellers, buyers, and service providers like digital measurement providers, verifiers, auditors, certifiers, and rating agencies.
The platform serves multiple purposes for different participants:
Suppliers: Suppliers can showcase their unique carbon offset products on the platform, allowing them to introduce their offerings to a wider audience.
Exchanges and Buyers: Carbon credit exchanges and buyers can utilise the platform for tasks like price discovery, searching for suitable options, and conducting due diligence on potential transactions.
Service Providers: Various service providers can use the platform to evaluate, track, analyse, and rate carbon credits and their movements. This includes assessing the quality and legitimacy of different credits.
Centigrade aims to go beyond data provision. As time progresses, the platform plans to expand its offerings to include value-added services. This would allow third parties to develop additional products and services that could aid in managing and addressing risks associated with carbon market activities.
Andreas Merkl, co-founder & CEO of Centigrade says, “We cannot end the twin crises of climate change and nature loss without thriving credit markets. All truly functional markets require high-integrity, transparent data – and the complex realm of carbon and nature credits is no exception.”
“Using innovative technologies, Centigrade provides the integrated, interoperable and open data platform that will enable all market actors, private and public, to make sophisticated decisions,” adds Merkl.
Brief about Centigrade
Centigrade is a company driven by public-purpose goals, established to create the infrastructure needed for carbon and nature markets to effectively contribute to global climate objectives and promote fairness and sustainability.
The company’s founding partners include Ripple and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).
Through its open data platform, Centigrade offers carbon and nature projects a means to establish credibility, access markets, secure funding, and build trust among buyers.
The platform facilitates credit differentiation, price discovery, and performance tracking, enhancing the credibility of credits. Centigrade believes this approach will result in a wider supply of verified, high-quality credits with significant climate impact and co-benefits for equity.
Additionally, the platform also ensures accurate valuation of credits based on their climate performance, thereby furthering the market’s efficiency.
Josh Henretig, MD of the Climate Intelligence Program at RMI, says, “We believe that radical transparency, underpinned by a minimum bar for credit performance data, will enable key information to flow across the VCM value chain.”
“This will make it easier and faster to grow the supply of high-quality credits, and help ensure that carbon and nature markets operate effectively,” adds Henretig.