Centigrade orients platform toward carbon credit, market integrity
Sources: Centigrade, San Francisco; CMCM staff
A climate-focused technology provider presents its new open data platform as “providing the fundamental data quality, availability, and transparency required for a liquid, fair, and efficient carbon market.” Centigrade has launched with backing from RMI, Colorado-based climate policy advocate, and Ripple, a San Francisco blockchain technology developer with solutions for carbon credit sources, including concrete production-geared CarbonCure Technologies.
Centigrade does not own or trade credits, nor provide rating or certification services. As such, it can remain neutral and focus on delivering data to sellers and buyers, along with digital measurement providers, verifiers, auditors, certifiers and ratings agencies. Suppliers can use the platform to introduce their differentiated product to the world; exchanges and buyers for price discovery, searches and due diligence; and, service providers to evaluate, track, analyze and rate credits and their movements. Centigrade will add features and project types to the platform over time, increasing its utility beyond transparency and differentiation. Those addition will enable ever more sophisticated tracking, asset and risk management for a) “ex ante” credits, those that are early in their lifecycle, such as recently seeded forests or carbon removal plants under construction; and, b) “ex post” credits, representing carbon reduction or removal that has already occurred.
Centigrade addresses carbon market challenges outlined earlier this year in a World Economic Forum report, posted at www.weforum.org. Ripple SVP Ken Weber and fellow Crypto Sustainability Coalition Working Group on Blockchain Carbon Credit members contributed to the document.
“All truly functional markets require high-integrity, transparent data. 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,” says Centigrade Co-Founder and CEO Andreas Merkl.
“A well-functioning, liquid carbon market has the potential to top $50 billion by 2030, providing much-needed financing for high-impact, climate-related projects. With the launch of Centigrade, we hope to make a significant contribution to restoring trust in voluntary carbon markets,” adds Ripple Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Social Impact Ken Weber, whose firm committed $100 million in 2022 to help scale global carbon markets.
“We believe that radical transparency, underpinned by a minimum bar for credit performance data, will enable key information to flow across the voluntary carbon market 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,” affirms RMI Climate Intelligence Program Managing Director Josh Henretig.
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