HAMERKOP Climate Impacts

Singapore’s Carbon Tax System is unique, and it’s worth understanding how it will impact carbon credit demand and Southeast Asian (and global) businesses, in general 🌏👇 🌏 Here’s an overview of the carbon tax framework: Singapore’s carbon tax is Southeast Asia’s first – and it’s admirably ambitious. Introduced in 2019, the tax serves as a strong price signal to spark climate action NOW and push for net zero emissions around mid century. It started at S$5 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e), then increased to S$25 per tCO₂e in 2024-2025, and will rise further to S$45 in 2026-2027, and then S$50-S$80 per tCO₂e by 2030! This rapid and progressive increase will allow Singapore to align their carbon pricing with the international standards and help incentivize the private sector’s transition to low-carbon practices and emission reductions. The Singapore government has also implemented a transition framework for emissions-intensive trade-exposed (EITE) companies, which would otherwise struggle to adapt in the short-term. This allows these companies to offset up to 5% of their emissions using high-quality international carbon credits. 🌏 More about potential demand for these carbon credits 👇 As mentioned above, high-quality international carbon credits are highly important for EITE companies as they serve as a cost-effective way to align with the Singapore’s increasingly strict requirements. For this reason, demand will continue to grow. This also aligns with global trends, and with Singapore already establishing themselves as a hub for green finance they will likely continue to grow as a significant global force in the international carbon market ⬆️ At HAMERKOP Climate Impacts, we have extensive expertise in assessing eligible carbon credit projects and can help businesses identify viable, high-quality projects in partner countries that have signed an agreement with Singapore (like Ghana 🇬🇭 and Papua New Guinea🇵🇬 ) 👉 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for more thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development! (Sources in the comments) 👇

We are excited to welcome a new senior consultant to the HAMERKOP team! 🎉 Francisco Martes Porto Macedo Macedo comes to HAMERKOP with over 7 years of experience in strategy consulting and climate finance. Plus, he’s a member of the World Economic Forum's Expert Task Force on Nature-Positive Cities AND he serves on the Executive Advisory Committee for the FAST-Infra Label! Here is a brief Q&A to learn a little more about Francisco 👇 ⚡️ What led you to HAMERKOP and what kind of work are you most excited about? Joining HAMERKOP felt like the right next step because it provides an opportunity to contribute to the development of carbon markets, one of the most promising instruments for mobilizing climate finance. In this pursuit, I’m especially excited to apply and leverage my experience in strategy consulting and climate finance to help our clients develop their project pipelines or invest in higher quality projects. I’m eager to contribute to the financing of nature-based projects, which deliver huge benefits to the climate, environment, society, and economy. ⚡️ Why do you think this work is important? Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our generation and scaling climate finance is essential to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. Carbon markets play a crucial role in this effort by unlocking funding for climate projects that wouldn’t otherwise materialize. As the market evolves, it’s important to guide clients through the changes and provide the confidence they need to develop and invest in projects that maintain high standards of quality and integrity. ⚡️ What's an interesting fact about yourself? Originally from Brazil, I've had the opportunity to live in eight different countries and meet incredible people along the way. Some of my most memorable experiences came when I lived in the South African savannah, where I would venture out into the bush twice a day to track and monitor the behaviour of a small population of cheetahs! 🤝 Welcome to the team, Francisco! We’re thrilled to have you on board. 🚀 Follow our page and visit our website for thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development!

Big News! Our founder, Olivier Levallois 🌏, will be delivering a keynote speech at the Asia Carbon Summit tomorrow (Thursday)! 🇸🇬 The speech will be about 👇 Maximizing Impact: Innovative Approaches to Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Credits in the Current Market Here’s what you can expect: 🌱 In the evolving landscape of carbon markets, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have emerged as a pivotal strategy for mitigating climate change while delivering a myriad of co-benefits. This session will focus on the latest trends and opportunities in the carbon market, highlighting innovative approaches to implementing #NBS that maximize both environmental and economic impact. Olivier’s Speech will be at 3:45 local time Oct 24, 2024 📍 Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Singapore ✅ Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/gXCnPJwV 👉 If you enjoy content related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development, be sure to follow our page!

This month, Verra registered their first #biochar project using their new methodology 👇 🔥 But first, what is biochar? When organic matter is burned in high heat and low oxygen environments (pyrolysis or gasification), it creates a carbon-rich solid material that will persist for centuries to millennia while boosting soil quality (through benefiting soil microbes, boosting water filtration, and much more). It's amazing, natural technology... 🌱 Why is it important? Biochar is an accessible and scalable way to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in a longterm, stable form that is also beneficial for ecosystem health and agricultural purposes. 🇮🇳 About the project: Project Reignite: Turning Farm Waste into Climate Action (Verra Project ID 4679) is located in Odisha, India. Where rural farmers would usually burn agricultural waste, they have now been brought together to produce biochar which can then be added back to the soil to boost its quality. The project will calculate the emission removals from producing biochar instead of burning the waste, and will then be issued carbon credits. This newest version of the methodology (VM0044 v1.1 in the Verified Carbon Standard Program) features updates to expand eligibility for production facilities, feedstock sources, and monitoring approaches, among other changes. According to Verra, “this marks an important milestone for the development of biochar projects as a viable approach for large-scale carbon dioxide removal.” What are your thoughts on how this will impact the biochar landscape moving forward? Let us know! 📚 Want to learn more? Our consultant Mike was just in Florence delivering a talk on biochar and the manual for biochar carbon removal that we developed this year with International Biochar Initiative. Find it here: https://lnkd.in/gh2B7nwa Learn more about the project on Verra’s website: https://lnkd.in/ejHsggTg 🚀 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for more thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development!

There has been a big shift in the global insurance space over the past two years due to climate change 👀👇 A BlackRock industry survey found that two years ago almost no global insurer had any low-carbon transition goals in their investment plans… Now the majority have made commitments 🌱 The survey was answered by 410 senior executives at companies with a combined $27 trillion in assets… Needless to say, these are big money movers. 💵 The bottom line? Massive companies with massive wealth are coming to terms with the financial implications of climate change… 🔥 This comes after another year (2023 was the fourth in a row) in which global insured losses from natural catastrophes exceeded $100bn. And these massive natural disasters, intensified by climate change, are not slowing down… ✅ The survey signaled the increased conviction of respondents in transition investment, even compared to a year ago. Now, nearly all insurers have a low-carbon objective, with many aiming for net-zero emissions by a certain year. 60% of insurers are targeting clean energy infrastructure investments for these objectives. At the same time, many investors are prioritising these investments in low carbon infrastructure and green energy as opposed to pursuing ESG... This report is timely as disasters have ravaged the globe throughout the year, with Hurricanes Helene and Milton having recently causing an estimated $55+ billion in insured losses... What are your thoughts? Is this a positive trend for the global economy or is it too little, too late? Let us know! 👉 Read BlackRock’s press release here: https://lnkd.in/e7QYmWwi 👉 Read the Financial Times article here: https://lnkd.in/eQ7wfvn7 Image via USGS (unsplash) 🚀 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for more thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development!

Ecosystem Marketplace recently published the “State of the Blue Carbon” 2024 👇 Here’s what you need to know First, some background: 💦 Blue Carbon: Carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, including saltmarsh, mangrove forest, seagrass meadows, macroalgae forests, and benthos. 🌴 Coastal and marine biomes are necessary for global climate change mitigation efforts… 🌱 They sequester carbon at high rates – much higher than terrestrial forests 🐬 They also provide numerous other ecosystem services (protecting land from storms & erosion, fostering biodiversity, providing food security for local communities, and much more.) ✅ Unsurprisingly, the verdict is that we need MORE restoration and conservation The report states that “more could be done to catalyze marine initiatives, both in terms of scaling up existing projects and expansion to new geographies.” ❗️ Blue Carbon is being incorporated into countries’ NDCs… So it’s an important piece of the climate mitigation strategy right now. That being said, there is a disconnect between supply and demand; BC projects cannot meet the demand right now, largely because supply is limited by the high upfront costs and the lack of verifiers for BC Methodologies. Predictably, BC credits are sold at a significant premium over current carbon market rates (although the prices have been volatile over the past 4 years) 💹 Recommendations for scaling: improving data & analytics, combining novel tech/science with traditional knowledge of BC to boost resilience, securing new finance streams/models (like coupling BC credit schemes with biodiversity certification or the use of “blue bonds”) 👉 The report offers further information on the state of different kinds of BC ecosystems, challenges, potential, and much more. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/evAgC6Kc Well done to Dr. Tundi Agardy & Genevieve Bennett on the publication! 🚀 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for more thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development!

A big congrats to our consultant Michael Tye who will be speaking at the “8th Biochar School 2024” Conference in Florence, Italy! 👏 Mike will be discussing the Biochar Manual for Carbon Removal, the guide HAMERKOP developed with International Biochar Initiative to serve as a roadmap for biochar producers, investors, and stakeholders keen on understanding the intricacies of biochar carbon removal certification (linked at the bottom) 🍇 The overall focus of the conference is the use of biochar in viticulture. How cool is that?! When: Oct 15 at 3:10 pm Where: Florence, Italy (Salone Brunelleschi, Istituto degli Innocenti) Hosted by: ICHAR 🇮🇹 (The Italian Biochar Association) Well done, Mike! We’re thrilled that HAMERKOP will be part of this future-oriented conference showcasing the applications and further potential of #biochar ✅ Learn more about the event here and register to attend online: https://lnkd.in/dHut9538 📕 Download the Biochar Manual for Carbon Removal here: https://lnkd.in/gh2B7nwa 👉 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable project development!

What are your thoughts on blockchain REVOLUTIONISING carbon markets? 👇 Here's a little insight into how blockchain could change the game: 🔀 Better tracking of credits & transactions – altered records and double-counting could become a thing of the past. This would boost transparency and help build trust among all stakeholders from issuance to retirement. 🧑💻 Better automation to reduce overhead and human error and speed up the transaction process 💹 Streamlining the process: Useful for scalability, reduces the need for intermediaries and lowers transaction costs 📲 Smart tech: when blockchain technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) are mobilised together, they can provide transparent, realtime monitoring 🤝 Blockchain could also allow the reliable tokenisation of carbon credits, allowing smaller companies to get involved with carbon trading on a smaller scale. This could make carbon markets more accessible to participants of all sizes and purchasing powers. ⚡️ It would be remiss not to mention the huge energy consumption of blockchain technology. Last year, blockchain is estimated to have consumed more electricity than Argentina or Australia 👀 Without addressing this, it feels contradictory to pursue climate positive projects through blockchain technology… Fortunately, proof-of-stake blockchains (as opposed to proof-of-work ones) use SIGNIFICANTLY less energy. This is where most tokenised carbon credits exist, which is good news. What are your thoughts on the role of Blockchain in the future of carbon markets? How do you think will the space continue to evolve? Let us know! 👇 [Sources in the comments] 🚀 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for more thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development!

HAMERKOP is six years old today!! 🥳 Here’s how far we have come since Olivier Levallois 🌏 founded the company with a single employee… 👇 We’re still a young consultancy, but we’ve accomplished a lot in our 6 years. Thank you for all of the support as we have continued to quickly grow 🚀 ☝️ As you may or may not know, HAMERKOP started with just one employee… Our founder, Olivier. 🤝 In the 6 years since then, we have grown to a team of 14, plus an extensive roster of experts around the world. As our team and capacity has grown, so has our global impact: Just in the past year we have worked in: Zambia 🇿🇲, Argentina 🇦🇷, Togo 🇹🇬, Malaysia 🇲🇾, The DRC 🇨🇩, Madagascar 🇲🇬, Senegal 🇸🇳, Guinea-Bissau 🇬🇼 (and we’re headed to Cameroon 🇨🇲 soon)! It has been a great honour to work with fantastic clients and communities all over the world. 🗣️ And we have spoken at industry events in Kigali, Rwanda 🇷🇼, spoke at the launch of the Mongolia Forest Carbon Program 🇲🇳, and hosted a Carbon Finance Bootcamp Bangkok, Thailand 🇹🇭! ⭐ We were also awarded the Best Carbon Markets Consultancy by ESG Investing And we are just getting started… 😉 So, thank you for the continued support throughout the year and for joining in our 6th birthday festivities 🎉 We are proud of how far we have come and cannot wait to continue growing and supporting your projects at the crossroads of international development and climate change 🌱 👉 Learn more about our work on our website: www.hamerkop.co [Hamerkop image credit: Jacques de Speville via africanbirdclub.org]

Need help visualising Article 6’s implementation around the world? 👇 Here’s what we use: First, a little refresher. What is Article 6? 🌱 Article 6 was approved at COP26 climate summit in Glasgow 2021. It’s a voluntary mechanism that allows countries to work cooperatively to reach their climate goals. This means one country can transfer carbon credits that they earn through greenhouse gas emission reductions to another country (just as one example). 🔀 Naturally, this can be complex when accounting for the hundreds of countries interacting with each other in different ways… Some are buying carbon credits, others are selling, and others have only signaled their intention to become involved. Fortunately, there are some great resources to keep track of what is going on 👇 IETA hosts a number of helpful visuals including: 🌍 The "International Cooperative Approaches Tracking Map" that showcases countries that are actively engaged in a cooperative mechanism (and those intending to) 🌏 The "International Cooperative Approaches Detailed Landscape" (Government to Government Agreements). This diagram shows which countries are working with each other. For example, you can track Singapore’s bilateral agreements/memoranda of understandings (MoUs) with Costa Rica, Mongolia, and Senegal (among others) 🌏 The "Letter of Authorisation Tracker" - tracking unilateral and bilateral authorisation (like Vanuatu, Thailand, and Ghana → Switzerland) These resources are quite helpful when it comes to understanding the complexities of Article 6, and they help us keep track of the web of relationships around the world. 🤝 You can also find a table of the agreements, projects, methodologies and verification programs used – from cookstove projects in Madagascar to e-bus operation in Thailand (and much more). Enjoy these resources and let us know if you find them useful, too! Well done, IETA! -- ✅ Find the visuals here: https://lnkd.in/eBwW2Ykg ✅ A good Article 6 summary here: https://lnkd.in/giwgFZ8d 🚀 Enjoy this kind of content? Follow our page and visit our website for more thought leadership related to the carbon market, climate finance, and sustainable development!