UNFCCC partners with the AirCarbon Exchange to promote carbon offsetting

ABU DHABI, UAE and LONDON and SINGAPORE, Jan. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is partnering with the AirCarbon Exchange (ACX), the world's first fully digital carbon exchange, to promote carbon offsetting via UNFCCC Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).

The partnership will allow ACX clients representing 30 different countries to purchase and retire CERs for their carbon offsetting purposes. ACX will be the second exchange in the world, and the first in Asia, to list CERs held in the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) registry. Through this partnership, ACX will work closely with the UNFCCC to raise awareness and facilitate the use of CERs in the carbon markets.

ACX was launched in 2019 with a vision of bringing transparency, efficiency and liquidity to the carbon markets and in 2021 was recognised as the Best Carbon Exchange in Environmental Finance's prestigious Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings.

James Grabert, Director Mitigation Division at UNFCCC, said: 

"This partnership comes at a time of growing commitment to climate action in line with the strong agreements made by countries at the Glasgow climate conference last year. As countries embark on implementing the Paris Agreement carbon markets, this arrangement will enable early movers to reward projects already underway with the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). By offsetting emissions through CDM projects that have ongoing crediting periods, investors can support the successful transition of such projects to the Paris era."

Thomas McMahon, CEO and Co-Founder of AirCarbon Exchange, said:

"We are honoured to partner with the UNFCCC to promote and facilitate the use of CERs for voluntary offsetting. We look forward to working with the UNFCCC to direct much-needed finance to a wide range of carbon projects under the UN Clean Development Mechanism."

About UNFCCC

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the focus of the political process to address climate change. The UNFCCC secretariat supports the Convention, its Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement through a range of activities, including substantive and organizational support to meetings of the Parties and the implementation of commitments.

The UNFCCC secretariat serves the Executive Board of the clean development mechanism (CDM), one of the three mechanisms deployed to assist countries with meeting their Kyoto Protocol targets. The CDM allows emission-reduction projects that contribute to sustainable development in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. The CERs can be used to meet a part of countries' obligations or be used for other voluntarily defined targets and purposes.

About AirCarbon Pte. Ltd.

AirCarbon Exchange ("ACX") is a global exchange revolutionising the voluntary carbon market. The Exchange's client base comprises 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. Its underlying technology will allow the carbon market to scale efficiently to meet global ambitions of Net Zero.

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 info@AirCarbon.co or visit https://www.aircarbon.co.