The partnership signals an industry push for higher standards in the carbon markets.

JULY 26, 2021, ABU DHABI, LONDON, NEW YORK & SINGAPORE —

AirCarbon Exchange (ACX), the world’s first fully digital carbon exchange, has integrated the BeZero Carbon Ratings (BCR) onto its platform.

The BCR assesses the carbon quality of different offset projects. It has been created by London-based climate solutions provider, BeZero Carbon.

The BCR provides an additional layer of assessment for carbon projects accredited by voluntary offset standards such as VCS, Gold Standard, ACR, CAR and Plan Vivo. Using a scale (ranging from AAA+ to A) BeZero rates offsets by the probability that a credit achieves a tonne of CO2e avoided or removed. An AAA+ rating represents a 90% or more chance that the credit truly equals a tonne of CO2e; a rating of A represents a 30-40% chance.

The BCR is calculated by taking a weighted average score of six risk factors: additionality, over-crediting, leakage, permanence/enforceability, perverse incentives and the political environment (see glossary for definitions). 

BeZero’s dedicated team of carbon credit scientists use a blend of qualitative and quantitative analysis to assign a rating, including satellite imagery, machine learning and data-driven techniques.

The BCR database consists of a deep well of project documents, academic papers, public datasets, economic indices and satellite imagery. Top-down and bottom-up factors are considered for each project score. 

Thanks to the integration, all carbon credits listed on ACX will be given a BeZero Carbon Rating, allowing offset users on the exchange to filter projects against the rating.

This news closely follows ACX’s recent announcement that the Exchange has become the world’s first carbon negative exchange after offsetting its estimated carbon emissions 12 months in advance.

William Pazos, Managing Director and Co-Founder of AirCarbon Exchange, commented:

“BeZero Carbon Rating gives our members more granularity around the type of offsets transacted while maintaining the standardisation infrastructure pioneered by ACX. 

Corporates and individuals looking to offset their emissions can now refine their searches to match their carbon objectives.

ACX has worked closely with BeZero and we are proud to partner with an extremely passionate and knowledgeable team with broad expertise in the voluntary carbon markets.”

Tommy Ricketts & Sebastien Cross, Co-Founders at BeZero, added:

“Transparency and trust are essential for the carbon markets to fully mature and achieve climate impact.

At present, the only measure of quality in the voluntary carbon markets is accreditation from one of the major carbon crediting bodies. While this goes a long way to ensuring standards, market participants need a tool to understand the variation in carbon returns that still exist. This is why we created the BeZero Carbon Rating.

The team at ACX were key to the development of this technology, and we are very happy to now be integrated onto the Exchange.”

Glossary of terms:

Additionality: the likelihood that a credit purchased and retired leads to a tonne of CO2e being avoided or sequestered that would not have otherwise happened.

Over-crediting: the risk that more credits are issued than tonnes of CO2e achieved by a given project due to factors such as unrealistic baseline assumptions.

Permanence/enforceability: the degree of confidence that carbon avoided or removed by a project will remain so for the time committed.

Leakage: the risk that emissions avoided or removed by a project are pushed outside the project boundary.

Perverse incentives: the potential for benefits from a project, such as offset revenues, to incentivise behaviour that reduces the carbon efficacy of its credits.

Political environment: the degree to which activities impacting an offset project are supported or blocked by government policy or actions.

About AirCarbon Exchange

AirCarbon Exchange (“ACX”) is a global exchange revolutionising the voluntary carbon market. The Exchange currently has a 130-strong client base comprised of corporate entities, financial traders, carbon project developers, and other industry stakeholders. ACX provides its clients with an efficient and transparent trading platform which is easy to use, frictionless and with the lowest commission fees available on the market.

Launched in 2019, the Exchange is a hybrid platform with a traditional central order book architecture that will be familiar to all experienced traders. The Exchange also utilises the speed and efficiency of the blockchain to achieve atomic T-0 trade execution, clearing and settlement. The Exchange’s core matching engine can currently match trades in the order ~10k per second.

As of May 2021, ACX is the world’s first carbon negative exchange, having offset its carbon emissions 12 months into the future (to May 2022) through the Onil Stoves Guatemala Uspantan project. ACX is committed to continuing to offset all of its emissions 12 months forward.

For more information or to trade carbon, please reach out to [email protected] or visit https://www.aircarbon.co 

About BeZero Carbon:

BeZero Carbon is a London-based Climate Asset and Liability Management (C·A·L·M) solutions business launched in April, 2020. BeZero offers an integrated hub of data, products, and services for the entire climate economy: decarbonisation, offsetting, and natural capital. The BeZero team combines experienced professionals across earth sciences, economics, engineering and technology. Our focus is on helping organisations adapt to and prosper in a low carbon future by taking a systematic approach to systematic change.

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