Spark Change and BJSS Partner to Develop an Innovative FinTech Solution to Curb Climate Change
LONDON, May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Spark Change, leading FinTech for the creation of green financial products, and BJSS, the UK's leading privately-owned IT and business consultancy, today announced completion of the first phase of their partnership to deliver a unique combination of Commodity and Trading and Risk Management (CTRM) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) solutions to create the world's first global carbon price.
Climate Change has been widely recognised as one of the greatest challenges for and threats to society. However, placing a cost on emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) has been limited to regional markets that are not interconnected, with the price paid by emitters being insufficient to incentivise investment in cleaner technologies.
Spark Change has created a transformational financial instrument, Spark, that integrates regional carbon markets into a single product, simultaneously allowing investors to gain exposure to a global carbon price and crucially, forcing emitters to invest in cleaner technologies and accelerate the reduction in emissions.
This innovative product is made possible through Spark Change's technology solution, developed with the support of BJSS' wide-ranging agile software engineering capabilities. Spark Change's Cloud-based CTRM platform gathers live pricing information via regional integrations with exchanges across Europe, North America and soon China. Smart contracts are used to calculate a global carbon price using the weighted emissions per GDP of each of these regions, and the proceeds from every investment in Spark used to automatically execute the purchase of emission allowances from across the regional markets. The distributed ledger allows reconciliation of the number of Spark held by investors with the number of emissions allowances being held in reserve, creating a one-to-one asset backed financial instrument.
Joff Hamilton-Dick, CEO of Spark Change, says, "Many investors today rank sustainability as a key investment criterion. The technology we have developed with the support of BJSS means investors have a new option for investing with impact at scale without having to compromise on delivering returns."
Amir Soufizadeh, BJSS Head of Commodities and Utilities, says, "As the carbon market becomes more global and integrated, launching a secure, transparent and decentralised DLT platform will enable Spark to shape the future of the carbon market and positively impact climate change."
How Carbon Markets Work
Within local carbon markets, regulators place an annual cap on the number of permits to pollute. These emissions allowances are issued into an openly traded marketplace in which emitters compete to either pay the price of buying a permit to pollute or instead invest in cleaner technologies. The cap on emissions allowances declines each year until the regulator reaches its environmental targets.
How Spark Works
For every investment in Spark, a global basket of emission allowances is purchased and held in reserve, removing them from circulation. By increasing the scarcity of these allowances, Spark not only forces emitters to cut pollution but accelerates appreciation of the carbon price, benefiting the environment and Spark holders.
About Spark Change
Spark Change (www.sparkchange.io) Spark Change Group is a Seattle-London based FinTech company founded in 2018. The company's mission is to simplify carbon investing for both institutional and retail investors and create positive environmental impact on an unprecedented scale.
About BJSS
BJSS (www.bjss.com) is the UK's leading privately-owned IT and business consultancy. As the winner of a Queen's Award for Enterprise, the company works with the world's largest organisations, delivering the IT solutions that millions of people use every day.
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