SINGAPORE, ABU DHABI, UAE and LONDON, Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AirCarbon Exchange (ACX), the world's first carbon negative exchange, has offset all its emissions through to the end of next year by retiring Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) from the Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project.
The Exchange, which is revolutionizing the voluntary carbon markets by making them as easy to access and as low cost as possible, is demonstrating its commitment to the environment and leadership in the sector by offsetting all its emissions on a forward-looking basis through to end-2023.
ACX purchased and retired VCUs from the Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project, an ecosystem restoration initiative on a peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The project seeks to protect and restore 149,800 hectares of peatland ecosystems, to offer local people sustainable sources of income, and to tackle global climate change – all based on a solid business model. As well as storing vast amounts of CO2, the forest plays a vital role in stabilizing water flows, preventing devastating peat fires, enriching soil nutrients and providing clean water. The offsets are used to cover the Exchange's emissions from 2021 through to December 2023. In May 2021, ACX became the world's first carbon negative exchange, having offset its carbon emissions for the year ahead through the Onil Stoves Guatemala Uspantan project. This latest retirement underscores ACX's commitment to remain carbon negative.
"In addition to helping others achieve their carbon neutral goals, we are pleased to continue to lead by example and to do our part by offsetting our carbon footprint" said William Pazos, Managing Director and Co-Founder of ACX.
As part of the global carbon trading market, companies and individuals can offset the emissions they are unable to reduce by buying and retiring carbon offsets. These offsets are generated by verified projects designed to benefit the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These projects must meet the strict criteria set by carbon registries like VERRA or Gold Standard and undergo strict verification and validation before offsets can be issued. Once these offsets are retired, they can no longer be traded or used.
Interest and investment in carbon trading has surged in recent years following the emergence of new regional markets. New mandatory emissions trading programs and growing pressure from consumers for businesses to become more carbon-neutral has driven companies to turn to the voluntary market for offsets.
ACX is at the forefront of efforts to make carbon markets global having expanded from its origins in Singapore into the Middle East, Brazil and most recently into Africa with its announced collaboration with the Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC) and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to develop Kenya's first carbon exchange.
About AirCarbon Exchange (ACX):
AirCarbon Exchange ("ACX") is a global exchange revolutionizing the voluntary carbon market. The Exchange's client base comprises corporate entities, financial traders, carbon project developers and other industry stakeholders. ACX provides its participants with an efficient and transparent trading platform which is easy to use, frictionless and with the lowest transaction fees available on the market. Its underlying distributed ledger technology will allow the carbon market to scale efficiently to meet global ambitions of Net Zero.
ACX was recognized as the Best Carbon Exchange globally in Environmental Finance's prestigious Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings 2021 - the largest and most closely watched survey of the world's Voluntary Carbon Market. ACX was also named as the 'Best Solution in Energy Trading' by Wired UK and Publicis Sapient at their Global EnergyTech Awards, which spotlighted the companies that are 'Winning the Race to Reinvent Energy'.
For more information or to trade carbon, please reach out to info@aircarbon.co or visit www.aircarbon.co.
