New US carbon debits scheme makes first issuances

Announcing a new start-up: Fantastic Carbon.

REDD-Monitor received the following anonymous Guest Post this morning:

New US carbon debits scheme makes first issuances

Silicon Valley start-up Fantastic Carbon has announced its first issuances of carbon debits, in a move that could revolutionise thinking around carbon markets. Instead of rewarding claims about supposed reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the new scheme will penalize those responsible for “cheating” the climate.

The climate debits methodology has been under development for about 18 years, “ever since the carbon markets really got started”, said Fantastic Carbon Founder and CEO, Costas Allott.

Explaining the innovative approach, Allott said, “The debits reflect the special contribution individuals and organisations have made in obstructing real climate mitigation. The idea is that they should buy our carbon debits as a kind of redemption. It’s a business model the recipients will surely understand.”

The first recipients of debits appearing on Fantastic’s registry today are:

• David Antonioli: the former CEO of Verra has been issued with 1.1 billion debits, one for every “questionable” carbon offset credit issued by the organisation until his departure in 2023. A further 200 million debits had been placed in a ‘reversals’ buffer, should Antonioli attempt to fake amends.

• Mike Korchinsky: the CEO of Wildlife Works Carbon, the leading offset project developer, has been issued with 100 million debits. Allott said that a further 100 million debits are currently undergoing verification in relation to WWC’s intended new offsetting schemes in Brazil, DR Congo and Cambodia.

• Dr Frances Seymour: chief architect of the ART-TREES REDD+ programme and now working with the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate was issued with a preliminary 100 million debits, though Allott said that number “could grow significantly” in coming months.

• Renat Heuberger: former CEO of South Pole Capital. 50 million debits have been issued immediately, with a further 100 million still under evaluation (by his former staff).

Allott said that ongoing verifications would “quickly add scores more recipients and hundreds of millions of debits to be issued” throughout 2024. The debits will be priced at the true social cost of carbon, “so around $300 per ton”, said Allott. They will be traded on the Singapore-based exchange, CarbolloX.

Responding to questions from REDD-Monitor about possible double counting, Allott said “Yeah, well given the disregard for double counting in the carbon markets, we don’t really care about double- triple- or even quadruple issuing our own carbon debits. If someone’s been cheating the climate, carbon debits will come back to haunt them, possibly many times over.”

Allott continued, “We’ve consulted hundreds of climate scientists and analysts, industry whistleblowers, and indigenous leaders - pretty much anyone with any common sense and integrity, in fact. And they’ve all agreed that, as governments and the law are taking no action whatsoever against carbon profiteers and bandits, it’s time for the climate cheats to pay up.”

In answer to questions about the distribution of benefits from the debits scheme, Allott said, “The proceeds will be distributed to the victims of climate injustice. We won’t be paying ourselves salaries many times that of the President of the United States, nor buying private ranches in Kenya and pretending they’re helping to fight climate change.”

But the new initiative drew sharp reactions from offsetters and their allies. A spokesperson for the carbon industry lobby group, the International Emissions Trading Association, said that holding carbon traders to account would deter the innovation and private investment which has so far helped mitigate projected climate change to a mere 3.8 degrees of warming. Dr Grimson Bron of the Nature Conservancy, the world’s richest conservation corporation and leading promoter of ‘nature-based solutions’ questioned, “How on Earth are we going to fill our coffers if selling dodgy offsets is penalised?” A spokesperson for the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets said that the recent increase in nature-based credit prices from $0.02 to $0.03 per ton reflected surging confidence in high quality offsets, and added, “We should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Or even the abysmal be the enemy of the disastrous.”

Dismissing such criticism as “predictable self-interested whining”, Allott said that Fantastic Carbon plans to expand the scheme in the coming months. “We’re already developing new methodologies to issue climate debits to governmental and multilateral organisations,” said Allott. REDD-Monitor has seen documents suggesting these could include the Norwegian International Climate and Forests Initiative, the World Bank Carbon Unit, WEF, and the governments of Germany and the UK. “We’re going after the big offsetting ‘Godfathers’ further up the supply chain. We won’t bother issuing debits to the likes of Lee White and Kevin Conrad, as their carbon credit offerings are so obviously fraudulent that no-one wants them anyway.”

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