Carbonplace, Visa partner for Carbon Credit Transfer

The transaction involved Visa purchasing Verra-certified credits from Sustainable Carbon, a carbon credit project developer. It reportedly demonstrates the capability of Carbonplace's settlement technology to increase the speed, efficiency, and security required to support the growing demand for voluntary carbon credits, and in doing so, to drive private sector capital towards global climate solutions.

The transfer was facilitated by two of Carbonplace's founding banks, National Australia Bank (NAB) on behalf of Visa and Itaú Unibanco on behalf of Sustainable Carbon. It underscores how the institutions behind Carbonplace – which also include BNP Paribas, CIBC, NatWest Group, Standard Chartered, and UBS – can collaboratively leverage their existing infrastructure, including KYC and anti-money laundering procedures, to address some of the challenges that have held back the development of the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

In April 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report highlighted that decarbonisation, and in turn, scalable carbon innovation is critical to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Against this backdrop, corporations across the globe continue to set ambitious climate action pledges in the drive towards a net zero economy. Carbon credits will play an important, complementary role in these commitments by compensating for unavoidable emissions, and as a result, the VCM continues to grow, surpassing USD 1 billion in 2021.

This new collaboration is part of Visa's global aspirations to become a climate-positive company through new partnerships and initiatives. In 2021, Visa pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement goal. Together with Carbonplace, Visa will continue to explore delivering additional technology-led sustainable solutions for its customers.

The pilot will also inform the further development of Carbonplace, which has been likened to the SWIFT system of the carbon markets, including the exploration of more innovative ways to settle transactions. It is currently expected that Carbonplace will be operational at the end of 2022.