图书和索赔如何将绿色索赔转化为绿背贷款

Michael SharovDavid KaplanRichard OomsDouwe Lycklama COMPANIES CAN MAKE PURSUING SUSTAINABILITYMORE SUSTAINABLE Many companies made promises to shareholders and the public to pursue sustainability.While most are trying to fulfill their pledges despite some relaxation in mandates, theyaren’t finding it easy. The market has tried to help by developing decarbonization claimsthat allow businesses to increase their sustainability rating, but their use has been criticizedfor not directly reducing emissions in corporate supply chains and production. That’s onereason why book and claim accounting systems were created: It addresses the problemsdecarbonization credits currently face with a flexible approach to funding and managingsustainability initiatives. Its most attractive business benefit is the system’s ability to decouple low-carbonproducts from the associated decarbonization claims and allow companies to separatelysell the carbon attributes. This decoupling can streamline sales efforts while stimulatingdecarbonizationefforts. WHAT IS BOOK AND CLAIM? Book and claim systems are several years old, but only a limited number of companieshave caught on to their potential. A market-based solution, the book and claim approachallows companies to buy low- or zero-carbon products, such as sustainable aviation fuel(SAF), without taking physical delivery of the product or passing it through their supplychains. This enables decarbonization financing to be unbundled from purchase of theunderlying products and physical supply chains. It’s a carbon accounting system thatstreamlines sales, so gains can berealized. With this unbundling, the direct physical consumer of a lower-carbon product may nothave to pay the so-called green premium when there are buyers downstream willing to paythis premium for the right to claim the decarbonization certificate. For instance, corporatetravelers can buy the rights to claim credit for SAF used by airlines without having toexclusively fly on planes fueled by SAF. Thus, the SAF market itself also benefits with morefinancial support for the product, which can be used to expandcapacity. Book and claim operates on a carbon inset principle, which involves replacing existing carbonintensive processes with more sustainable alternatives within an industry’s or company’sown extended value chain, making it more credible and actionable. This differentiates bookand claim mechanisms from carbon offsets where no action is necessarily taken that directlyaffects a company’s or even an industry’s supply chain. Instead, emissions are offset throughinvestment in projects most often unrelated to the supply chains or production of thecompany buying the credits, such astree-planting. MARKETS WHERE BOOK AND CLAIM IS UTILIZED Currently, the book and claim market is mostly used in energy and transportation markets.Sales of the claims can be handled by either clean energy producers, such as those that makeSAF or utilities that generate renewable energy, or users, such as airlines or any companybuying low-carbonsubstitutes. Here’s how it works in aviation: A SAF producer sells SAF at regular jet fuel prices to airlines.Separately, the SAF producer sells the decarbonization claim attached to the SAF sale tocompanies with extensive travel budgets. The emissions generated by these corporatepassengers represent the airlines’ downstream Scope 3 downstream emissions. The sale, inthe end, helps both the airline and company buying the claim reduce their carbonfootprints. By decoupling the purchase of SAF from its physical delivery, book and claim facilitates greaterinvestment in low- or zero-carbon fuel initiatives, promoting the overall growth of the SAFmarket by making it cost competitive with traditional jet fuel. We also are starting to seebook and claim initiatives take root in agriculture, cement making, iron and steel production,maritime shipping fuels, and railroads (Exhibit1). When it comes to buying green claims on renewable energy, it often involves long-term powerpurchase agreements (PPAs) that allow companies and consumers to buy long-term suppliesof green energy. PPAs usually cover between five and 20 years, typically at a premium tomarket-rate energy. The agreements let buyers claim use of green energy during the lengthof the contract, while it provides the seller with the financial stability required to invest inthe development of sustainable electricity production by wind and solar farms. However, theenergy used by the buyer may not actually come from electrons generated by a specific greenproduction farm, but rather from the grid. Thus, PPAs help streamline electricity access andbuild energy reliability HOW BUSINESSES BENEFIT FROM BOOK AND CLAIM Implementing a book and claim system can offer numerous advantages for all participantsof the transaction. For producers of green products, book and claim systems can help scalecapacity by streamlining sale of green products to willing buyers. With book