Research
In the aftermath of the lack of political agreement at COP 30 in Brazil, effective carbon action faces multiple challenges. Scientific authorities concur that remaining carbon budgets consistent with agreed levels of global well-being are rapidly depleting. At the same time, the pace of decarbonization consistent with pledged commitments to stabilize (net) carbon emissions at zero has been retarded by high capital costs, fiscal and economic dependence on fossil fuels, and the technical complexities of running low carbon energy in most nations. Consequently, as governments prepare strategies for more ambitious national commitments on climate action, they must supplement plans for decarbonization with expectations around managing increasing climate damages and relying on expanding supplies of (affordable) carbon removals, whether technological or natural, to balance their residual carbon emissions. These challenges imply that credible and scalable carbon markets for removals have emerged as essential components of the next decades of carbon action.
Carbon markets trading offset credits have been imagined as a principal source of carbon finance over the past three decades. However, as currently practiced, they have remained marginal in volume, low in price, often fraudulent in content, and controversial topics of political attention. Yet, if properly accounted, and credibly traded, removals of carbon from the atmosphere are increasingly recognized in major emitting jurisdictions, at COP 30, and in its proposed action agenda as necessary complements to a disappointingly slow pace of decarbonization in achieving carbon stability at acceptable levels. With fortunate timing in the correlate development of information (data, sensors, computation) and (synthetic) materials science, the range and efficacy of removals technologies offer significant promise. SFI’s principal objective is to design, implement, diffuse and scale trading of carbon removals in the light of known practices and principles of effective financial markets, at scales consistent with widely accepted carbon budgets and realistically expectable rates of decarbonization.
SFI’s 2026 agenda for applied research and associated engagements in reforms of carbon action is built around four work programs:
Carbon accounting for assets and asset trading market architecture
Work program 1
Building sound and accountable markets for carbon assets (removals), with emphasis on developing, promoting and diffusing a rule book for asset definition and credibility that trade consistently with E-ledgers accounting and forward emissions commitments; participate in COP 30 action agenda and associated expert accounting forums to promote E-ledgers asset accounting and risk-priced trading of removals.
Delivery before COP 31 of a sovereign-to-sovereign reforestation transaction
Work program 2
At significant scale consistent with sound asset accounting principles and effective asset trading market architectural design to demonstrate practical prototype application of these reforms.
Portfolios, risk management, supervision
Work program 3
Defining, building and ensuring efficient removals portfolios (across fungible removals modalities) for commercial and sovereign carbon solvency.
Measurement, products and pricing
Work program 4
Building scientifically and financially credible products through empirical research connecting the science and technology of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) with fit-to-purpose institutional, economic, and accounting infrastructures. At the scientific level, much of this near-term work focuses initially on soil-based CDR strategies—such as biochar carbon removal (BCR) and enhanced weathering (EW)—and on the development of a universal, science-based accounting framework capable (OAB) of ensuring comparability, credibility, and interoperability across carbon markets and jurisdictions.