AlliedCrowds at COP26
We sat down with our founder Lars and Head of Research Anton to learn about their week in Glasgow.
Our founder Lars Kroijer and Head of Research Anton Root attended the 26th Conference of the Parties summit in Glasgow, where two weeks of intense negotiations finalized the Paris Agreement.
We sat down with them to hear about their experience and what the results will mean for AlliedOffsets moving forward.
Before going to Glasgow, what were you hoping to accomplish or take away from the conference? What were your plans and strategies?
Root: We spent five days in Glasgow during the first week of the event. It’s a short train ride from London, so it was a bit of a last-minute decision for us to go. But we found a place to stay and decided to go for it! My goal was to get a better understanding of the conversations taking place behind the scenes, and meeting with stakeholders in the carbon finance space.
Kroijer: It was interesting to be in a place where everyone, ranging from politicians, to activists, to academics, cared about climate action. It gave us the push to attend and we felt as though it’s our responsibility to be there. My aim was to witness a broad diversity of approaches to climate actions that we don’t see or hear everyday.
Who did you meet with and what has the interaction taught you? How will these discussions affect plans for the future?
Root: We met primarily with people in the carbon offsetting space — registries, exchanges, brokers, buyers, etc. We discussed the importance of transparency, and how our data can help them make more informed decisions in their day to day operations. My goal was to understand how clients, and potential clients, are using our database, and what additional data points and features may be useful to them — that will help us a lot in terms of shaping the product to make sure it fits with the needs of our clients.
Kroijer: At large conferences like COP26, there are often individuals or groups you don’t expect to meet otherwise. One of the major groups we met were representatives of the Albanian government who were interested in methane projects and how methane capture works in landfills. Prior to this meeting, we had no idea Albania had many landfills, making them the perfect host for methane projects. Their representatives were interested in the unique data we have on sector and it was like an impromptu exchange of knowledge, which is why it’s so important for us. COP26 is like an orchestrated serendipity of climate action teachers and students.
What topics would you have liked to see covered at the conference and why?
Kroijer: I think COP is great, as I mentioned before, but there should be a secondary COP for those who act behind the scenes. A major part of the solution is not the flashy speeches or the green decor, but the actual representation and voice of people who work on climate action daily. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that we have politicians and celebrities helping to draw attention to the topics, but the space is constantly lost in the media. The media is always picking at the mode of transportation or the use of specific words in speeches, but it forgets to focus on people who do the practical work to figure out the tangible solutions. Tangible solutions can be overlooked by the grand statements if there was a secondary COP for companies like ours to meet and actually practice what we preach! You can’t just tell people not to fly and not give alternatives; it’s like telling Texans they can’t have meat!
Now that they’ve revealed the new agreement, what will be AO’s goals in the near future? And how will it affect the business model?
Root: With carbon markets growing rapidly in the last couple of months, and COP26 having provided some clarity for the market, we are looking to use this moment to promote market transparency by growing and enriching the data we collect and analyze. We also discussed how the data can be used for project development with several government representatives — stay tuned for more information on that!
Kroijer: Our focus has been and remains data and market transparency. In a growing market that’s still so opaque, partially due to the previously mentioned flashiness, there is a lack of centralized news on projects. People want to know where the money goes — would you ever invest in Facebook without the full audit of the news behind it or its market representation? So what we’ve done is create a centralized way to view and share news on projects through our Premium Data Dashboard. It gives every angle of the market direct access to the news based on the project of interest.
Overall how satisfied were you with the event and its outcome? And why? Do you plan to attend COP27 in the future and why?
Root: Leaders could and should have sent stronger signals — and made larger commitments — on the urgency of combating climate change. Having said that, we had a lot of great conversations around how to best use climate finance to promote investment in sustainable projects and companies. We look forward to traveling to Sharm el Sheikh for next year’s COP!
Kroijer: I definitely plan on attending the next one as we did go on a macro level, but I also hope there is a secondary one! With Covid-19 hopefully coming to an end, I hope that people in the space put in the effort to exchange knowledge. But I am glad there’s at least a general standard to hold politicians accountable on the statements they’ve made later on.
