Energy and commodities markets information, benchmark and analytics provider S&P Global Platts and ESG-focused commodities marketplace provider Xpansiv announced today the launch of a new partnership aimed at advancing transparency in the global carbon markets space. Under the new collaboration, the companies will work together on the development and distribution of assessed daily closing prices for voluntary carbon market (VCM) instruments.

Demand for carbon offset projects that counteract the release of greenhouse gases, and related credits, is expected to increase significantly over the next several years, as companies and businesses increasingly launch net zero ambitions, and turn to offsets as a bridge to their own absolute emissions reduction efforts, or to balance difficult to avoid emissions.

The market took a major step forward at the COP26 climate summit this month, with the establishment of a global accounting rulebook for voluntary carbon markets, providing a consistent and transparent framework. Platts and Xpansiv stated that the new rules provided a strong foundation to develop the collaboration.

Platts has been actively growing its presence in the carbon markets assessments space, with the launch earlier this year of the first daily voluntary carbon credit assessments for CORSIA-eligible carbon credits (Platts CEC), and the recent extension of its voluntary carbon credit assessments to seven project types, including avoidance based projects (Platts CAC), which reduce the volume of emissions generated and released into the atmosphere, and removal projects (Platts CRC) that actively capture and sequester emissions, in addition to assessments for Renewable Energy carbon credits and Methane Collection Carbon Credits.

Saugata Saha, President, S&P Global Platts, said:

“The voluntary markets have the potential to play a pivotal role in helping close the gap between what governments can deliver and what the world needs to achieve in terms of overall emissions reductions. The value of the market is now more than $1 billion and forecast to increase fifteen-fold by 2030, according to the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets. Our suite of VCM assessments is providing increased transparency and understanding of these markets, and this partnership with Xpansiv will enable us to develop scalable opportunities as this market continues to evolve.”

The agreement will see Xpansiv marketplace CBL expand the data it makes available to Platts for the development and management of daily market price assessments, and the companies will also collaborate with market participants to develop new types of price assessments and spot contracts to respond to rapidly evolving demand.

John Melby, Xpansiv President and Chief Operating Officer, said:

“This partnership brings together all the necessary elements of a well-ordered market ecosystem—price transparency, liquid spot and futures markets, and robust market data. It will enable the carbon market to further scale to accommodate demand and provide much-needed investment in high-quality carbon offset projects.”