(29 May 2024, Barcelona) Nasdaq hosted a Fireside Chat with UN SSE Chief Coordinator Anthony Miller and WFE CEO Nandini Sukumar on the topic of Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs) and the Net Zero efforts of exchanges. Moderated by Roland Chai, the President of European Market Services for Nasdaq, the session explored the growing interest among exchanges and other financial market infrastructure companies in VCMs and the broader Net Zero movement.
Mr. Miller discussed the key lessons and recommendations of the recent UN SSE publication How exchanges can maximize the opportunities of carbon markets: an action framework to guide exchanges, launched in Q4 2023 at a joint UN SSE - IOSCO session on carbon markets that took place as part of the UN World Investment Forum. VCMs facilitate the buying and selling of credits issued by projects that target avoidance, reduction, removal or sequestration of carbon emissions, enabling buyers to complement emission reduction efforts through offsets
“VCMs face a number of challenges, most especially in the area of ensuring the integrity of the underlying product, that is, making sure that the claimed emissions reductions are accurate and lasting,” said Anthony Miller. “In the face of the ongoing climate crisis, policy makers will need every tool at their disposal so it is imperative that more work be done to strengthen VCMs and create reliable high-quality carbon credits for the difficult-to-abate emissions that companies deal with on their journey towards Net Zero.”
The UN SSE has documented more than 30 exchanges around the world that are engaged in carbon markets, including VCM and compliance carbon markets. Exchanges play roles at various stages in the VCM value chain, from financing the underlying projects, to trading carbon credits and trading futures contracts, to producing the underlying software that makes such trading platforms function.
The session took place as part of Nasdaq’s Technology of the Future conference which featured over 100 attendees representing over 50 organizations from more than 25 countries. The conference convenes global market operators to share industry best practices, key trends and discuss the future of capital markets.
To learn more about the challenges and opportunities of carbon markets, and the role of exchanges in this area, download the SSE’s full report.
Photo: (Left to right): Roland Chai (President of European Market Services, Nasdaq), Nandini Sukumar (CEO, WFE), Anthony Miller (Chief Coordinator, UN SSE)
