Co-Chairs GCMU, Sylvera, RMI and S&P Global Commodity Insights invite experts to advance transparency in carbon markets and collaborate on Carbon Data Open Protocol
–Lack of Standardization Fragments Market & Impedes Markets’ Potential as Driver of Climate Action–
A group of 30 leading businesses, nonprofits and public sector organizations have joined forces to help facilitate and scale carbon markets by launching an open, multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a protocol that harmonizes the definitions and rules that standardize data describing carbon crediting projects and carbon credits across markets, geographies and activity types.
The group’s Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) aims to create the processes and definitions for greater standardization, transparency and fungibility to improve integrity and dramatically scale carbon markets, according to the committee-led initiative’s four co-chairs, The Global Carbon Market Utility (GCMU), a financial services organization focused on building market infrastructure to grow the carbon market, Sylvera, a leading provider of carbon data, RMI, founded as Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent, nonprofit provider of market-driven greenhouse gas emissions intervention solutions, and S&P Global Commodity Insights, the leading independent provider of information, analysis and benchmark prices in energy, commodities and energy transition markets, and global provider of carbon market registries.
Voluntary carbon market stakeholders lack a generally accepted and commonly used protocol for project and credit data. This lack of standards keeps collaboration and data sharing across parties fragmented, cumbersome, and expensive, and impedes the markets’ full potential as a driver of meaningful climate action.
CDOP will complement and build on various industry and market-wide initiatives, drawing on the work of the Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust), The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) Continuous Improvement Work Program #7, the World Bank’s Carbon Market Infrastructure Working Group, Interwork Alliance and other international organizations that focus on climate. Crucially, it will maximize alignment with the emerging frameworks under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. CDOP has already been recognized by The World Bank Group’s Carbon Markets Infrastructure Working Group* as an example of a much-needed multi-stakeholder initiative to address interoperability in carbon markets.
“A successful global carbon market requires transparency, rigorous standards and, critically, high-quality data to ensure that every credit traded represents a real, measurable reduction in emissions,” said Allister Furey, CEO at Sylvera. “By breaking down barriers between data standards, we can unlock the full potential of carbon markets to drive meaningful climate action. We look forward to bringing together voices from across the sector to contribute towards the development of CDOP.”
Leanne Todd, Head of Energy Transition, Sustainability & Services, S&P Global Commodity Insights, commented, “Not only are we excited about expertise of the entities onboard at the initiative’s launch, but we actively invite other interested parties to join the collaboration. With our expertise in environmental registries infrastructure, spot market price benchmarks for carbon credits, and experience with collaborative protocols initiatives, we are excited about helping to lead and contribute to this important carbon data standards initiative and look forward to its outcome.”
“RMI is dedicated to advancing transparency, trust, and standardization in carbon markets. We are excited to collaborate with fellow CDOP members to unify perspectives, dismantle data silos, and develop an open-source framework that surfaces critical carbon credit performance data and improves market interoperability,” said Bonnie Lei, Principal, RMI Carbon Markets Initiative.
Over the course of 2025, the committee will collaborate with players across the carbon market ecosystem to refine a set of principles to inform the purpose, use, and development of a common data schema. Not only will it include proposed definitions and rules that standardize data describing carbon crediting projects and carbon credits across markets, geographies, and activity types, it will also put forward a governance framework for maintaining and updating the protocol.
The first version of the protocol is expected to be launched later this year at New York Climate Week.
Chris Canavan, CEO at GCMU, said, “We welcome this effort to create a Carbon Data Open Protocol, an industry-wide, public good data standard like those at the center of other scaled-up financial markets. This initiative will help us achieve high-quality, standardized data and build consensus among players from across carbon markets – registries, carbon ratings agencies, validation and verification bodies and other infrastructure providers – needed to achieve scale, and more critically, real climate impact.”
SUPPORT FOR INITIATIVE GROWING
“Adoption of common data practices is a crucial step toward greater transparency and informed decision making in carbon credit markets,” said Ieva Steponaviciute, Director, Strategy and Outreach at Climate Action Data Trust. “From evaluating impact on a project level, to supporting high integrity accounting in policy contexts and alignment with Paris goals, speaking a common language will help increase trust in carbon credit data and connect data systems with higher efficiency. At CAD Trust, we share the open data and public good principles of the Protocol and are happy to support efforts, share our expertise, and ensure complementarity for the benefit of all future users.”
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