Integrity in Carbon Markets: Key Takeaways from the IETA North America Climate Summit
New York Climate Week brought together industry leaders to tackle the most pressing challenge in carbon markets: ensuring integrity through data, transparency, and robust regulatory frameworks.
The Integrity Imperative
Today's key focus at the IETA North America Climate Summit was unequivocally integrity. In a room filled with heavy hitters—including Annette Nazareth from The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), Hannah Hauman from Trafigura, Alice Carr from Climate Data Steering Committee, Benedict Chia from the National Climate Change Secretariat, Singapore, Federico di Credico from the Climate Action Data Trust, and Aloiso Lopes Pereira de Melo, Secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Brazil—the conversation centered on four critical pillars:
Data-driven transparency to build market confidence
Regulatory frameworks to provide market certainty
Robust accounting to ensure the sanctity of carbon credits
Clear price signals and the evolving role of secondary markets
This wasn't just another climate conference. Everything was on the table: business realities, political complexities, the rule of law, market sanctity, carbon border adjustments, sustainable finance, credit vintages, and pricing mechanisms.
Our Mission: Science-Based Solutions at Scale
Harmaan had the opportunity to present what Alimentary Systems is building—specifically how we capitalise gross emissions reductions from waste to build critical infrastructure. Our approach centres on using data to authentically represent the volume of CO2e avoided, putting us on course for a potential 9.3 gigatonne reduction in global emissions.
He admitted, "I was nervous at first" But I found my groove because I believe deeply in what Matthew Jackson and I are building. I believe in the mission of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF), and I drew courage from the legacy of beautiful Aotearoa. I touched my toki before I spoke—grounding myself in purpose and place.
Most importantly, I anchored every point in science, facts, and truth.
Concrete Outcomes and Market Opportunities
The conversations yielded three significant developments:
Potential Bilateral Results-based Reduction Programs (BRRPs) in Brazil, South Africa, and Indonesia—representing massive emerging market opportunities in regions with significant waste sector emissions.
Data linkages with Climate Action Data Trust—enabling enhanced transparency and verification of our emissions reductions methodology.
Regulatory market offerings in Singapore—positioning us within one of Asia's most sophisticated carbon trading frameworks.
The Fragmentation Challenge
What's becoming crystal clear during New York Climate Week is that qualified, certified, high-quality carbon credits remain scarce. Even more challenging, different jurisdictions are developing their own methodologies, creating what I'm hearing in every conversation: fragmentation.
This fragmentation is precisely the problem Alimentary Systems solves. We're laser-focused on the waste and primary sectors, which account for 25% of global emissions—a massive, often overlooked opportunity compared to the crowded energy transition space.
A Call to Action
For sovereign governments and responsible corporate citizens who have been burned by low-quality credits or inconsistent methodologies: this is your opportunity to engage with science-based, verifiable solutions.
The carbon credit market desperately needs integrity. It needs consistent, transparent methodologies. It needs players who prioritize science over marketing, and long-term impact over short-term profits.
That's exactly what we're building. Invest with us here.
New York Climate Week continues to demonstrate both the urgency of climate action and the critical importance of market integrity. The path forward requires not just ambitious targets, but robust, science-based solutions that can deliver at the scale and speed the climate crisis demands.