The Asia Carbon Institute (ACI), a non-profit organization dedicated to certifying and registering carbon credits in Asia, has been established in Singapore, as reported by Bloomberg on August 29. The ACI, founded by John Lo, focuses on certifying offsets generated from eco-friendly technologies, energy-efficient buildings, and other low-emission infrastructure, rather than solely nature-based projects. As part of its launch, the ACI has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to enhance the efficiency and transparency of the validation and verification processes associated with carbon credits.

Asia has emerged as the world’s largest producer of carbon offsets, contributing to 44% of global carbon credits. However, the growing carbon credit market in the region faces challenges such as the absence of unified certification standards and transparency issues. The ACI aims to address these challenges by implementing rigorous and science-based project validation and verification processes to ensure that certified carbon credits represent genuine, measurable, and permanent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The ACI is currently engaged in discussions with developers for more than 20 projects and plans to register 50 projects within the next six to 12 months. Each of these projects is expected to result in the avoidance or removal of emissions ranging from 1,000 tons to 1 million tons.

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-29/asia-focused-carbon-offsets-registry-launches-in-singapore?srnd=green

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/esg/asia-carbon-institute-launches-voluntary-carbon-credit-registry-tech-and-urban-solutions-focus

https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/sustainability/carbon-credit-certification-and-registration-non-profit-asia-carbon-institute

https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/archives/economics/asias-booming-voluntary-carbon-market#:~:text=The%20potential%20funds%20raised%20by,most%20valuable%20investable%20carbon%20stock.