New Carbon Data Standards Initiative to Aid and Scale Carbon Markets
Leading organizations launch Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) to standardize carbon market data. A coalition of 30 businesses, nonprofits, and public sector organizations, co-chaired by GCMU, Sylvera, RMI, and S&P Global Commodity Insights, aims to develop protocols harmonizing carbon credit project data across markets and geographies.
The initiative addresses the current lack of standardization in voluntary carbon markets, which hampers collaboration and market scaling. CDOP will align with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and complement existing industry initiatives. The World Bank Group has recognized CDOP as a important multi-stakeholder initiative for carbon market interoperability.
The committee will work throughout 2025 to create a common data schema and governance framework, with the first protocol version expected to launch at New York Climate Week. The initiative has gained support from key industry players including Climate Action Data Trust, Puro.earth, Verra, and Isometric.
Organizzazioni leader lanciano il Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) per standardizzare i dati del mercato del carbonio. Una coalizione di 30 aziende, organizzazioni non profit e del settore pubblico, co-presieduta da GCMU, Sylvera, RMI e S&P Global Commodity Insights, mira a sviluppare protocolli che armonizzino i dati sui progetti di crediti di carbonio attraverso mercati e geografie.
L'iniziativa affronta l'attuale mancanza di standardizzazione nei mercati volontari del carbonio, che ostacola la collaborazione e l'espansione del mercato. Il CDOP si allineerà con l'Articolo 6 dell'Accordo di Parigi e completerà le iniziative industriali esistenti. Il Gruppo della Banca Mondiale ha riconosciuto il CDOP come un'importante iniziativa multi-stakeholder per l'interoperabilità del mercato del carbonio.
Il comitato lavorerà per tutto il 2025 per creare uno schema di dati comune e un quadro di governance, con la prima versione del protocollo prevista per il lancio durante la New York Climate Week. L'iniziativa ha ottenuto il supporto di importanti attori del settore, tra cui Climate Action Data Trust, Puro.earth, Verra e Isometric.
Las organizaciones líderes lanzan el Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) para estandarizar los datos del mercado de carbono. Una coalición de 30 empresas, organizaciones sin fines de lucro y del sector público, copresidida por GCMU, Sylvera, RMI y S&P Global Commodity Insights, tiene como objetivo desarrollar protocolos que armonicen los datos de proyectos de créditos de carbono a través de mercados y geografías.
La iniciativa aborda la actual falta de estandarización en los mercados voluntarios de carbono, lo que obstaculiza la colaboración y la expansión del mercado. El CDOP se alineará con el Artículo 6 del Acuerdo de París y complementará las iniciativas industriales existentes. El Grupo del Banco Mundial ha reconocido el CDOP como una importante iniciativa de múltiples partes interesadas para la interoperabilidad del mercado de carbono.
El comité trabajará durante 2025 para crear un esquema de datos común y un marco de gobernanza, con la primera versión del protocolo prevista para lanzarse durante la Semana del Clima de Nueva York. La iniciativa ha recibido el apoyo de actores clave de la industria, incluidos Climate Action Data Trust, Puro.earth, Verra e Isometric.
선도 기관들이 탄소 데이터 개방 프로토콜(CDOP)을 출시합니다 탄소 시장 데이터를 표준화하기 위해. GCMU, Sylvera, RMI 및 S&P Global Commodity Insights가 공동 의장을 맡고 있는 30개 기업, 비영리 단체 및 공공 부문 조직의 연합은 시장과 지리 전반에 걸쳐 탄소 크레딧 프로젝트 데이터를 조화시키는 프로토콜을 개발하는 것을 목표로 하고 있습니다.
이 이니셔티브는 자발적인 탄소 시장에서의 표준화 부족 문제를 해결하여 협업과 시장 확장을 저해하고 있습니다. CDOP는 파리 협정 제6조와 일치하며 기존 산업 이니셔티브를 보완할 것입니다. 세계은행 그룹은 CDOP를 탄소 시장 상호 운용성을 위한 중요한 다자 이해관계자 이니셔티브로 인정했습니다.
위원회는 2025년까지 공통 데이터 스키마 및 거버넌스 프레임워크를 만들기 위해 작업할 것이며, 첫 번째 프로토콜 버전은 뉴욕 기후 주간에 출시될 것으로 예상됩니다. 이 이니셔티브는 Climate Action Data Trust, Puro.earth, Verra 및 Isometric을 포함한 주요 산업 참여자들의 지원을 받았습니다.
Des organisations leaders lancent le Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) pour standardiser les données du marché du carbone. Une coalition de 30 entreprises, d'organisations à but non lucratif et d'organisations du secteur public, co-présidée par GCMU, Sylvera, RMI et S&P Global Commodity Insights, vise à développer des protocoles harmonisant les données des projets de crédits carbone à travers les marchés et les géographies.
L'initiative répond au manque de standardisation actuel sur les marchés volontaires du carbone, qui entrave la collaboration et l'expansion du marché. Le CDOP sera aligné avec l'Article 6 de l'Accord de Paris et complétera les initiatives industrielles existantes. Le Groupe de la Banque Mondiale a reconnu le CDOP comme une initiative importante de plusieurs parties prenantes pour l'interopérabilité du marché du carbone.
Le comité travaillera tout au long de 2025 pour créer un schéma de données commun et un cadre de gouvernance, avec la première version du protocole prévue pour être lancée lors de la New York Climate Week. L'initiative a reçu le soutien d'acteurs clés de l'industrie, notamment Climate Action Data Trust, Puro.earth, Verra et Isometric.
Führende Organisationen starten das Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP), um die Daten des Kohlenstoffmarktes zu standardisieren. Eine Koalition aus 30 Unternehmen, gemeinnützigen Organisationen und öffentlichen Einrichtungen, die von GCMU, Sylvera, RMI und S&P Global Commodity Insights gemeinsam geleitet wird, hat das Ziel, Protokolle zu entwickeln, die die Daten von Kohlenstoffgutschriftenprojekten über Märkte und geografische Regionen hinweg harmonisieren.
Die Initiative geht auf den aktuellen Mangel an Standardisierung in den freiwilligen Kohlenstoffmärkten ein, der die Zusammenarbeit und das Marktwachstum behindert. Das CDOP wird sich an Artikel 6 des Pariser Abkommens orientieren und bestehende Brancheninitiativen ergänzen. Die Weltbankgruppe hat das CDOP als wichtige Initiative von mehreren Interessengruppen für die Interoperabilität des Kohlenstoffmarktes anerkannt.
Das Komitee wird bis 2025 daran arbeiten, ein gemeinsames Datenschema und einen Governance-Rahmen zu erstellen, wobei die erste Protokollversion während der New York Climate Week erwartet wird. Die Initiative hat Unterstützung von wichtigen Akteuren der Branche erhalten, darunter Climate Action Data Trust, Puro.earth, Verra und Isometric.
- Initiative backed by 30 major organizations indicates strong industry support
- World Bank recognition provides credibility to the protocol
- Alignment with Paris Agreement enhances global market compatibility
- Current market fragmentation and lack of standardization impeding carbon market growth
- Protocol implementation timeline extends through 2025, delaying potential market improvements
- Success depends on voluntary adoption by market participants
Insights
S&P Global's co-leadership of the new Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) initiative represents a strategic positioning move in the evolving carbon markets infrastructure space. This collaboration with 30 organizations directly aligns with S&P Global's core business model of providing market data, analytics, and benchmarks across financial markets.
The initiative addresses a fundamental market inefficiency: the current fragmentation and lack of standardization in carbon market data that impedes market growth and liquidity. By helping establish foundational data standards, S&P Global is positioning itself to potentially develop valuable commercial data products and services built upon these standards.
From a business perspective, S&P Global's expertise in environmental registries infrastructure and carbon credit price benchmarks gives them a competitive advantage in shaping standards they may later monetize through specialized data products. This follows their established playbook of creating value through market infrastructure development.
While the announcement doesn't quantify immediate financial impacts or required investment, this initiative represents a logical extension of S&P Global's data services business into an emerging market segment with growth potential as climate regulations and corporate commitments drive increased carbon market activity.
The first version of the protocol expected later in 2025 suggests a deliberate timeline before any commercial applications might emerge, making this a longer-term strategic investment rather than a near-term revenue driver.
Co-Chairs GCMU, Sylvera, RMI and S&P Global Commodity Insights invite experts to advance transparency in carbon markets and collaborate on Carbon Data Open Protocol
-Lack of Standardization Fragments Market & Impedes Markets' Potential as Driver of Climate Action-
The group's Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) aims to create the processes and definitions for greater standardization, transparency and fungibility to improve integrity and dramatically scale carbon markets, according to the committee-led initiative's four co-chairs, The Global Carbon Market Utility (GCMU), a financial services organization focused on building market infrastructure to grow the carbon market, Sylvera, a leading provider of carbon data, RMI, founded as Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent, nonprofit provider of market-driven greenhouse gas emissions intervention solutions, and S&P Global Commodity Insights, the leading independent provider of information, analysis and benchmark prices in energy, commodities and energy transition markets, and global provider of carbon market registries.
Voluntary carbon market stakeholders lack a generally accepted and commonly used protocol for project and credit data. This lack of standards keeps collaboration and data sharing across parties fragmented, cumbersome, and expensive, and impedes the markets' full potential as a driver of meaningful climate action.
CDOP will complement and build on various industry and market-wide initiatives, drawing on the work of the Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust), The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) Continuous Improvement Work Program #7, the World Bank's Carbon Market Infrastructure Working Group, Interwork Alliance and other international organizations that focus on climate. Crucially, it will maximize alignment with the emerging frameworks under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. CDOP has already been recognized by The World Bank Group's Carbon Markets Infrastructure Working Group* as an example of a much-needed multi-stakeholder initiative to address interoperability in carbon markets.
"A successful global carbon market requires transparency, rigorous standards and, critically, high-quality data to ensure that every credit traded represents a real, measurable reduction in emissions," said Allister Furey, CEO at Sylvera. "By breaking down barriers between data standards, we can unlock the full potential of carbon markets to drive meaningful climate action. We look forward to bringing together voices from across the sector to contribute towards the development of CDOP."
Leanne Todd, Head of Energy Transition, Sustainability & Services, S&P Global Commodity Insights, commented, "Not only are we excited about expertise of the entities onboard at the initiative's launch, but we actively invite other interested parties to join the collaboration. With our expertise in environmental registries infrastructure, spot market price benchmarks for carbon credits, and experience with collaborative protocols initiatives, we are excited about helping to lead and contribute to this important carbon data standards initiative and look forward to its outcome."
"RMI is dedicated to advancing transparency, trust, and standardization in carbon markets. We are excited to collaborate with fellow CDOP members to unify perspectives, dismantle data silos, and develop an open-source framework that surfaces critical carbon credit performance data and improves market interoperability," said Bonnie Lei, Principal, RMI Carbon Markets Initiative.
Over the course of 2025, the committee will collaborate with players across the carbon market ecosystem to refine a set of principles to inform the purpose, use, and development of a common data schema. Not only will it include proposed definitions and rules that standardize data describing carbon crediting projects and carbon credits across markets, geographies, and activity types, it will also put forward a governance framework for maintaining and updating the protocol.
The first version of the protocol is expected to be launched later this year at New York Climate Week.
Chris Canavan, CEO at GCMU, said, "We welcome this effort to create a Carbon Data Open Protocol, an industry-wide, public good data standard like those at the center of other scaled-up financial markets. This initiative will help us achieve high-quality, standardized data and build consensus among players from across carbon markets – registries, carbon ratings agencies, validation and verification bodies and other infrastructure providers – needed to achieve scale, and more critically, real climate impact."
SUPPORT FOR INITIATIVE GROWING
"Adoption of common data practices is a crucial step toward greater transparency and informed decision making in carbon credit markets," said Ieva Steponaviciute, Director, Strategy and Outreach at Climate Action Data Trust. "From evaluating impact on a project level, to supporting high integrity accounting in policy contexts and alignment with
Puro.earth Chief Operating Officer Benno Fuchs said, "Puro.earth is at the forefront of bringing transparency and credibility to carbon markets by making data as accessible as possible—that's why we're happy to contribute to the Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) efforts on standardizing data processing even further to allow for maximum efficiency and usability of data in the carbon markets."
Benktesh Sharma, Senior Director of Technology Solutions at Verra, added, "I am pleased to participate in the formulation of the Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP). CDOP's collaborative approach has the potential to address transparency, interoperability, and accessibility in the carbon markets."
Lukas May, Chief Commercial Officer at Isometric, said, "We believe transparency is essential for rebuilding trust in carbon markets. A common language will help with that, so we are pleased to be supporting the efforts of the Carbon Data Open Protocol."
*CDOP was referenced in The World Bank Group's 'A Roadmap for Safe, Efficient, and Interoperable Carbon Markets Infrastructure' published by its Carbon Markets Infrastructure Working Group.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Benjamin Carr (Sylvera), benjamin.carr@mhpgroup.com
Monica Greco (GCMU), monica.greco@gcmu.net
Sara Herrin (RMI), sherrin@rmi.org
Kathleen Tanzy (S&P Global Commodity Insights), kathleen.tanzy@spglobal.com
About Sylvera
Sylvera, a leading provider of carbon ratings, tools and data, is on a mission to incentivize investment in real climate action. Global corporations, financial institutions, and governments rely on Sylvera to develop and execute their carbon credit strategies, drive measurable progress toward net zero goals, and optimize returns on investment. Co-founded in 2020 by Dr. Allister Furey and Sam Gill, the company is headquartered in
About GCMU
The Global Carbon Market Utility (GCMU) is a public utility with a mission to transform the carbon market into a fully developed financial market. The GCMU serves as a central book of record, offering best-in-class financial market infrastructure and registry services. This infrastructure will enable financial intermediaries, like banks and insurance companies, to enter the market, provide project financing, and house risk for end-buyers. The GCMU was launched at
About RMI
RMI, founded as Rocky Mountain Institute, is an independent nonprofit founded in 1982 that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5°C future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. We work in the world's most critical geographies and engage businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale energy system interventions that will cut greenhouse gas emissions at least
About S&P Global Commodity Insights
At S&P Global Commodity Insights, our complete view of global energy and commodity markets enables our customers to make decisions with conviction and create long-term, sustainable value.
We're a trusted connector that brings together thought leaders, market participants, governments, and regulators and we create solutions that lead to progress. Vital to navigating commodity markets, our coverage includes oil and gas, power, chemicals, metals, agriculture, shipping and energy transition. Platts® products and services, including leading benchmark price assessments in the physical commodity markets, are offered through S&P Global Commodity Insights. S&P Global Commodity Insights maintains clear structural and operational separation between its price assessment activities and the other activities carried out by S&P Global Commodity Insights and the other business divisions of S&P Global.
S&P Global Commodity Insights is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world's leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today. For more information visit https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights.
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SOURCE S&P Global Commodity Insights; The Global Carbon Market Utility; Sylvera; RMI
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