Carbonplace to help drive transition
Source: Carbonplace to help drive transition
Author: Richard Gluyas
A partly-owned NAB platform designed to settle carbon-credit transactions will help drive an expected 15-fold surge in demand for the keenly-sought environmental offsets, as companies implement their plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. NAB Group Executive, Corporate and Institutional Banking, David Gall, said London-based Carbonplace, founded by NAB and eight other global banks, was expected to go live before the end of this year, with carbon credits expected to play a particularly important role for businesses over the shor-term horizon to 2030. Companies buy carbon credits to compensate for emissions which are difficult to remove or reduce in industries such as steel and cement production. The credits fund verified projects like reforestation, revegetation and improved forest management to help remove or prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. The money, contributed by banks with $US9 trillion in total assets, will be used to scale up the platform, recruit more staff and expand services to more lenders and carbon-market participants, including registries and carbon marketplaces. Carbonplace has already facilitated a number of pilot transactions, notably global payments company Visa’s purchase last May of carbon credits from leading offsets developer Sustainable Carbon, which were certified by Verra.