我们的碳市场报告——不仅仅是空谈

Authors Neil McLoughlinClimateTech Policy LeadStartup Coalition Charlie MercerDeputy Policy Director AboutStartup Coalition Startup Coalition, formerly the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), is an independent advocacygroup that serves as the policy voice for Britain’s technology-led startups and scaleups. Startup Coalition was founded in 2010 by Mike Butcher, Editor-at-Large of technology news publisherTechCrunch, and Jeff Lynn, Chairman and Co-Founder of online investment platform Seedrs. StartupCoalition works across a broad range of policy areas that matter the most to startups and scaleups:access to talent, access to finance & regulation. We have over 3,500 startups on our mailing list. Startup In 2022, Startup Coalition convened the ClimateTech Policy Coalition, consisting of the Startup Coalition,Undaunted,techUK,Tech Nation,Cleantech for UK,and TechZero.Together they represent across-sectionof entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators on the forefront of climate technology, orClimateTech. The coalition publishes an annual report highlighting low to no cost policy opportunities tounlock climate innovation. The latest of these reports, from November 2023, can be found here. In March Acknowledgements We are grateful to the startups and investors who provided valuable insights to support the production ofthis report. We are specifically grateful to the members of the Carbon Markets Innovation Forum steering ExecutiveSummary At COP29 in Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Keir Starmer upped the UK’s climate ambition - with the UK nowcommittedto cutting its carbon emissions by 81% on 1990 levels by 2035. This is a formidable At its core, the challenge of combatting climate change is one of quantifying an externality: today we donot pay for emitting harmful greenhouse gases. Whilst reducing emissions at source must be the priority,carbon markets offer a way to price in the cost of carbon. All over the world, Governments have introduced regulated “compliance markets” where businesses are mandated to pay for what they emit,but these only cover 24% of global emissions today.1For the remaining three quarters, the Voluntary Once a wild west, the VCM has matured thanks to industry collaboration and standards, but in recentyears, it has come under attack. From firms making spurious claims to green-wash their products, to theunderlying credits being no more than hot air, confidence in the market is low. But the impact of this is At Startup Coalition, we think that technology is the answer to solving the puzzle of maximisingquality in the VCM. This is where the UK’s £1.7bn startup sector comes in. From startups removing CO2 from thin air, to firms using satellites to monitor tree planting, the UK ishome to a carbon markets startup ecosystem that has raised over £790m in investment, and todayemploys over 1,500 people across the country. These startups are world-leading, using cutting edge The Carbon Markets startup sector has made great strides, but can only achieve so much withoutGovernment support and this report outlines the role of the UK Government in maximising the potentialof the VCM. Indeed, when our Carbon Markets startup sector is combined with our world-leading 1.Publish a voluntary carbon market consultation as soon as possible. This is our most importantrecommendation.2.Create a “claims sandbox” to enable firms to collaborate with regulators in making high-integrityclaims about their use of novel carbon credits.3.Subsidise access to tools that enable small businesses to quantify their emissions, enabling them 6.Create an Office of Carbon Removal to oversee UK based removal activities.7.A national database needs to be established to track all VCM transactions, credit issuances and Introduction In most transactions, all over the world, every day, there is a missing cost. This missing cost is the costof carbon. Its absence in everything from global financial flows, to your everyday meal deal, means that If we are to combat the climate crisis, we must confront this externality head-on. A “carbon price” that covers all the constituent parts of an economy is often viewed as the answer, butthis is politically contentious, and practically complex. It is also not going to happen in the short term, and In this report we delve into the VCM supply chain and why and how firms operate within the VCM; tacklethe myths and acknowledge the flaws and bad press surrounding the market. The report exploresdifferent types of carbon credits and their potential relationship with the UK Emissions Trading Scheme The report goes on to discuss industry and government efforts to date around carbon markets; and therole of big and small players within the VCM including the Carbon Markets Innovation Forum (CMIF) andthe sector’s demands from Government. Finally, we outline a Blueprint containingthree tracks: 1) To set the scene, however, we must start with the two ways to price carbon into the UK economy today:Compli