Susan Biniaz, 1PointFive, and REI Co-op celebrated at annual awards event

SAN DIEGO – ACR recognized trailblazing individuals and organizations for their commitments to climate action at its 2026 ACR Climate Impact Awards, which has been held annually for nearly 20 years. The 2026 ACR Climate Leadership Award was presented to Susan Biniaz, a lawyer and U.S. climate negotiator who is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of international climate policy, including the Paris Climate Agreement. ACR also recognized 1PointFive and REI Co-Op with awards.

“These award winners demonstrate that action is an antidote, especially in challenging times,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “From international climate policy to corporate climate achievement and project-level actions, these leaders show the vast array of opportunities to take practical steps forward to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We thank each of the award winners for their tireless dedication.”

U.S. Climate Negotiator Susan Biniaz received the 2026 Climate Leadership Award for her indefatigable dedication over more than three decades as one of the most influential architects of modern international climate policy, from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to Copenhagen/Cancun, the Paris Agreement, and ICAO’s CORSIA. As a lead climate attorney and highly respected negotiator for the U.S. Government, most recently as Deputy Special Envoy for Climate, Biniaz was trusted by every COP Presidency to understand diverse and often divergent government positions and to brilliantly engineer and draft solutions to achieve consensus outcomes. Through her extensive diplomatic tours, she fostered relationships with other governments and fine-tuned political compromises – including in the run up to the high-pressure negotiations of the Paris Agreement, which she is often credited with saving. Standing at the door of the Oval Office, President Obama expressed his gratitude for her efforts saying “Sue, Sue, Sue; You saved the world.”

“Thanks very much to ACR for this award and for your leadership. We negotiators may design the agreements, but organizations like ACR help bring them to life,” Biniaz said. 

1PointFive, a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) company, received the 2026 Innovation Award for its STRATOS Direct Air Capture facility in Texas, which is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually once fully operational. The plant is currently progressing through commissioning and start-up activities. Offering a practical solution to help a variety of sectors address CO2 emissions, 1PointFive has signed carbon removal agreements with Microsoft, Amazon, JPMorganChase, All Nippon Airways and others.

“Direct Air Capture is a vital technology that will help the world address carbon dioxide emissions and provide a way to produce domestic low-carbon energy resources,” said Anthony Cottone, President and General Manager of 1PointFive. “We’re grateful to receive this honor which represents our team’s enthusiasm and dedication to delivering carbon removal at industrial scale.”

REI Co-op received the 2026 Corporate Excellence Award for longstanding climate leadership. As the nation’s largest specialty outdoor retailer and consumer cooperative, REI Co-op has long focused on reducing its carbon emissions and contributing to climate solutions. In pursuit of its Science Based Target, REI continues to achieve year over year reductions in its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. REI has earned certification to The Climate Label, which requires brands to create and deploy a climate transition budget towards qualifying emission reductions projects within their own value chains and beyond. As part of their ongoing commitment to maintaining climate neutrality, REI also retires carbon credits each year from a variety of high-quality projects to compensate for its operational emissions.

“We’re thrilled to receive this leadership award from ACR. Protecting the future of a healthy outdoors means we have a responsibility to invest in climate action and take accountability for our ongoing emissions. The Climate Label and the voluntary carbon market remain power pathways for doing so,” said Andrew Dempsey, Director of Sustainability, REI Co-op.

Past ACR Climate Leadership awardees include Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC; John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate; Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur and author; Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board; Frances Seymour, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and author; and last year, world renowned Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre.

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ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program that operates in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. A nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, ACR was founded in 1996 as the first private greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the world with the mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment. Learn more at ACRclimate.org.

SPOTLIGHT
A Record Year for ACR

Last year, ACR issued more than 53 million emission reduction and removal credits, an increase of nearly 20% from 2024 and an annual record since we issued the world’s first greenhouse gas credits in 2002. 43% of the credits were from forestry projects and 57% were from industrial projects. The issued credits are approved for use by entities in regulated markets, such as California, Washington and ICAO’s CORSIA, as well as by corporates towards voluntary climate commitments. In 2026, we will continue to build on this momentum.

Late last year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) approved ACR, along with sister organization ART, as one of the first four independent crediting programs to supply carbon credits for the Second Phase of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), covering the period 2027–2029. All of ACR’s active methodologies are approved for CORSIA’s Second Phase, demonstrating that ACR continues to meet the high bar for quality in the global aviation carbon market.

Throughout 2025, ACR engaged deeply with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), earning its Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label for our Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands and Improved Forest Management on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands (IFM v2.1) methodologies. Following these accomplishments, GreenTrees (ACR114) had the first nature-based CCP-Approved credits in the world, and The Conservation Fund’s Hodag Forest Project (ACR709) was issued the first CCP-Approved IFM credits in the world. While these approvals are important steps forward, ACR will continue to engage with ICVCM throughout its assessment process with the intent of securing CCP-Approved labels across our portfolio of active methodologies.

Looking ahead, 2026 is a big year for ACR. We are celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the founding of Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), our organizational home. We will transition to a next-generation registry platform, publish version 2.0 of our Carbon Capture and Storage methodology, and build a co-benefits certification program. Each of these advances is designed to increase our collective impact and drive additional value from actions that reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions.

All of this is a testament to the exceptional work of the ACR team, the community of partners who are developing and investing in high-quality emission reduction and removals projects, as well as those ensuring robust market infrastructure and implementing policy frameworks to scale climate action globally. Across North America and around the world, carbon markets are financing climate action beyond “Business as Usual” and supporting enhanced ambition towards Paris Agreement goals.

Despite continued headwinds, I remain optimistic about the year ahead. Mostly I am grateful for the community of partners and team of experts ACR has assembled, all working to implement meaningful climate actions. In challenging times, action is an antidote. And at ACR, we are laser focused on creating ambitious climate results. Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Mary Grady

Executive Director, ACR

SPOTLIGHT
Planting a Forest Across Generations

Janie Cater’s grandfather, Grover C. Womack, first settled in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana in 1870. Establishing a family farm that operated for more than 100 years, generations of the Womack family were raised on the land. “It’s where everything happened,” Cater explained. “It’s where we rode horses, went hunting and walked with the children. I consider it a family legacy.”

Just over 1,000 acres, the farm was not fertile enough to grow cotton, the last crop the family tried. Instead, it was mostly used for grazing cattle. Then, the family was approached by GreenTrees with an opportunity to partner, offering an alternative income source via carbon credits to offset ownership costs. As a result, something different was planted, trees.

Read the case study here.

SPOTLIGHT
ACR Team in the Field

Late last year, the ACR Forestry Team held a retreat and site visit in Arkansas, including a tour of the Weyerhaeuser Razorback IFM Project (ACR885). Located in the southeastern part of the state, the project covers 56,879 acres of forestland, primarily loblolly pine stands and hardwood bottomlands. Historically managed for timber, Weyerhaeuser reduced timber production through extended rotations to increase greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals.

Weyerhaeuser owns and manages 6.4 million acres of timberlands in the southeast U.S., a substantial part of their 10.4 million acres overall. In Arkansas alone the company owns 1.2 million acres. As Frederick Weyerhaeuser stated when he founded the company 125 years ago, “this is not for us, nor for our children, but for our grandchildren.”

Our host at Weyerhaeuser was Jason Gibson, Director of Forest Carbon. With 25 years of experience at the company, Jason and his colleagues showed us around the project area. Weyerhaeuser is committed to the forest economy in the rural communities where it operates. As a result, the carbon project incentivizes climate mitigation while ensuring ensure adequate supply to mills in the region. Set in the Saline and Bayou Bartholomew watersheds, the project area is ecologically rich, with more than 100 species of fish and numerous wildlife species. In addition, the Saline River is the last major stream in the Ouachita Mountains that has not been dammed.

ACR offers our sincere thanks to Weyerhaeuser for hosting us and for generously sharing their time and expertise.

In 2025, ACR team members audited verifications of the following 16 projects:

• ACR276 – Allegheny Improved Forest Management Project
• ACR313 / CALS5263 – High Island Dairy
• ACR407 / CAMM5407 – BMMC1
• ACR545 / CAMM5545 – WMMC2
• ACR651 / CAMM5651 – CH4 – BWM Carbon Capture Project 1
• ACR751 – Green Assets – DLT Avoided Conversion Project
• ACR800 / CAMM5800 – CH4-BWM Carbon Capture Project 2
• ACR831 – LandYield Small Scale IFM Project I
• ACR917 / CAMM5917 – PMR VT2
• ACR966 – Heartland Methane Abatement and Land Restoration Project 2
• ACR1040 / CAOD1040 – Tradewater ODS 55
• ACR1067 / CAOD1067– Tradewater ODS 56
• ACR1090 / CAOD1090 – Tradewater ODS 57
• ACR1094 / CAMM1094 – RMMC1
• ACR1113 / ECYOD1113 – A-Gas 2-2024
• ACR1154 – Hay Road Landfill, Vacaville, CA: GHG Emission Reduction Automation Collection of Landfill Gas

NEWS & UPDATES

ACR Issues First IFM Credits for Washington Compliance Market

In September 2025, ACR issued more than 450,000 credits to the Rudio Mountain Forest Carbon Project (ACR1053 / ECYFR1053), in a first for the Washington State “Cap-and-Invest” market. The credits are the first to be issued to a project using the Washington State Compliance Offset Protocol for U.S. Forest Projects. 

Set on nearly 18,000 acres of forest in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, the improved forest management project was previously managed for timber production. As part of the project, the forest manager will increase rotation lengths to increase carbon stocks.

ACR is an approved Offset Project Registry (OPR) for the Washington State Cap and Invest compliance program.

Partners for Change in Peru

In a landmark collaboration, Grupo Perú and the Ministry of Environment of Perú partnered to develop the world’s first Indigenous Jurisdictional REDD+ Program under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), earning the 2025 ACR Innovation Award.

Read the case study.

Video: Bringing Bison Back to the Blackfeet Nation

The National Indian Carbon Coalition is working with the Blackfeet Nation to develop an improved forest management carbon project to sequester carbon and steward lands for American Bison.

Watch the video.

MARKET NEWS

NativState Secures Investment from the  Inlandsis Fund to Grow its Portfolio of North American Nature-Based Carbon  Removal Projects – November 18, 2025, in Inlandis

Peatland Carbon Credits: Microsoft Invests in Pantheon to Restore Peatlands for Durable Carbon Removal – December 8, 2025, in CarbonCredits [dot] com

Anew Climate, Aurora Issue First Forest Credits Under Next-Gen Standard – December 12, 2025, in Carbon Herald

How CEOs Can Build Confidence In Carbon Credit Strategies – December 19, 2025, in Forbes

ACR offers our sincere gratitude to the organizations that retired ACR-issued credits in 2025.

Click on the image below to expand it.

On August 13th, ACR’s Improved Forest Management on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands (IFM) methodology Earned Core Carbon Principle (CCP) Approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). Credits issued to projects listed under Version 2.1 of the methodology are now eligible for the CCP-Approved label.

In late September, ACR issued nearly 190,000 CCP-labeled credits to The Conservation Fund for its Hodag Forest Project (ACR709), marking both the first issuance under IFM version 2.1 and the first CCP-labeled IFM credits in the market. We expect additional issuances in the months ahead, as there are 23 projects listed under IFM 2.1 covering 680,000 acres of forestland. Earlier versions of ACR’s Improved Forest Management methodology are still under assessment by ICVCM.

In July, ACR’s Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands (ARR) methodology also earned CCP approval. For the ARR methodology, the CCP label is applied to credits issued to projects verified for conformance that plant native species on degraded lands to sequester carbon and contribute to an ecosystem with broad environmental benefits and avoid potential negative impacts. All credits issued to date under the ARR methodology meet the criteria and requirements for CCP-approval and are labeled as such. This is a total of 7,792,791 credits, including those that were retired prior to the CCP Approval Decision. These also currently represent the first and only CCP-eligible ARR credits in the market.

Four ACR methodologies have now earned CCP Approval:

• Destruction of Ozone Depleting Substances from International Sources (as of 06/06/2024)
• Landfill Gas Destruction and Beneficial Use Projects (as of 06/06/2024)
• Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands (as of 07/17/2025)
• Improved Forest Management (IFM) on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands (as of 08/13/25)

While ACR views these approvals as important steps forward, we will continue to engage with ICVCM throughout their assessment process with the intent of securing CCP-Approved labels across our portfolio of active methodologies, which includes emission reductions and removals from nature-based and industrial solutions.

New York Climate Week 2025 was as vibrant and busy as ever, with hundreds of events around town in late September. Held annually alongside the United Nations General Assembly, Climate Week offers an important opportunity for ACR to meet in-person with many different stakeholders in one location, while also introducing our approach to high-quality carbon crediting to new audiences at various events.

This year, ACR partnered with the Nature4Climate Coalition, which hosted the Nature Hub. As part of this partnership, ACR’s communications director, Brad Kahn, moderated a panel on “Today’s Business Case for Nature-Based Solutions: Delivering Returns for Nature, Climate, and Investors.” Including leaders from Nuveen Natural Capital, TotalEnergies, Lloyds Banking Group, and Nuveen, the session focused on the growth of nature and climate-focused investment, including where trends are headed.

ACR also co-hosted a “Forests for Climate” happy hour with the Forest Stewardship Council U.S. and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. As an informal networking event, we were heartened to see more than 100 people attend, given the plethora of events at the same time. Participants appreciated the opportunity to gather with other forest-focused professionals amidst the “creative chaos” of New York Climate Week.

While we attended many events, we want to highlight one that stood out: Yale University’s session on “Leveraging Carbon Markets to Fight Super Pollutants,” which included Tim Brown from Tradewater and Ben Apple from Environmental Commodities Corporation. With a focus on potent greenhouse gases, such as methane and ozone-depleting substances, the packed session was an important reminder of the need to tackle emissions of other gases alongside CO2.

The events above are just a tiny fraction of the activities at Climate Week. IETA held its North American Climate Summit, Anew hosted a lunch on improved forest management, Weyerhaeuser gathered people to discuss natural climate solutions, the Business Alliance for Climate Action convened a roundtable on measurement, reporting and verification, and much more.

Despite concerns that this year’s New York Climate Week would be under-attended, the reality proved to be a uniquely energizing opportunity to get a feel for just how much is happening to address climate change.

If you’d like to partner with ACR at a future New York Climate Week, please get in touch with Brad Kahn (brad.kahn@winrock.org).

“Momentum” is the one-word takeaway from London Climate Action Week 2025.

The event itself doubled in size from the previous year, with hundreds of events and by one estimate, 45,000 local and international participants gathering across the city. Given London’s role as a global center of commerce and finance, and the fact that the UK Government had an open consultation on voluntary carbon and nature markets, it is perhaps not surprising that there were many events focused on carbon markets. And whereas past large gatherings centered around integrity, London events emphasized the need for pragmatic action.

The week kicked off with an excellent gathering at the Nature Hub, which was organized by Nature4Climate. The N4C team gathered a strong group of global market leaders to discuss the need for private-sector investment.

Other events ACR participated in included the Natural Climate Solutions Alliance’s session on carbon crediting standards, IETA’s carbon accounting roundtable, meetings with ICVCM, and a dinner focused on remote sensing frameworks, hosted by Chloris Geospatial.

ACR’s goal for participation was to connect with stakeholders – project developers, credit buyers, market-supporting NGOs, and government leaders – and to reinforce awareness of ACR as a high-quality carbon crediting program. London Climate Action Week offered us an excellent opportunity to advance this goal.

If you are considering whether to invest in London Climate Action Week 2026, please let Brad Kahn (brad.kahn@winrock.org) know. ACR is very likely to participate again, based on our positive experience this year.

 

Climate Scientist Carlos Nobre, Arbor Day Foundation, Duke University, and Grupo Perú and the Ministry of Environment of Perú recognized for enduring and innovative commitment to climate action.

LOS ANGELES – March 26, 2025 – ACR recognized trailblazing individuals and organizations for their commitments to climate action at its 2025 ACR Climate Impact Awards, which has been held annually for more than 15 years. The 2025 ACR Climate Leadership Award was presented to Carlos Nobre, a world-renowned Brazilian scientist whose pioneering research on the Amazon has shaped global climate policy and created practical solutions to harness economic opportunities for forest conservation. ACR also recognized the Arbor Day Foundation, Duke University, and Peruvian Indigenous organizations and the Ministry of Environment with awards.

“From the conservation of the Amazon rainforest to reforestation in the Mississippi Delta and the destruction of potent greenhouse gases, the carbon market is incentivizing impactful climate action during this critical decade,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “The 2025 ACR Climate Impact Award winners show that we all have important roles to play – scientists, governments, nonprofits, Indigenous Peoples, academia and companies – to advance climate solutions. We thank each of the award winners for their tireless dedication.”

Earth System scientist Dr. Carlos Nobre received the 2025 Climate Leadership Award for his lifetime of pioneering scientific research on the critical role of preserving the Amazon rainforest to combat climate change and avoid the tipping point of ecological collapse. As a Nobel Laureate for his contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth Assessment Report, and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and the World Academy of Sciences, Dr. Nobre has effectively translated his groundbreaking science into climate policy. Nobre has provided data-driven evidence to the global scientific community, as well as national and international policymakers and citizens, of the inextricable links among forests, biodiversity and climate change. As the founder of Amazônia 4.0, he has highlighted practical solutions to bring wealth and development to the Amazon and its peoples while protecting and restoring forests, and he has inspired collective, global action towards this goal.

Nobre thanked ACR for the recognition of his work and stated “If we exceed the tipping point, we will lose 50 to 70 percent of the Amazon rainforest, and we may reach the tipping point by 2050 if we continue current rates of deforestation and global warming. My research on the savannization of the Amazon showed the risks to the global ecosystems from exceeding planetary boundaries. I have worked to mentor a new generation of leaders, scientists and ecopreneurs to help us create a sustainable planet based on the socio-bioeconomy. Now that we have proven the vast worth of the Amazon rainforest, we must preserve indigenous knowledge and increase the value of the Amazon’s resources and its main ecosystem services, and that includes using innovative financing such as high integrity carbon markets to help save the Amazon.”

The Arbor Day Foundation received the 2025 Commitment to Quality Award for using carbon markets to help accelerate climate goals by financing reforestation projects. The Arbor Day Foundation has planted more than half a billion trees in more than 60 countries since 1972. The nonprofit’s wholly owned subsidiary, Arbor Day Carbon, collaborates  with landowners, project developers, and credit buyers to access carbon credits to plant and grow new trees, including in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley with the GreenTrees project. To date, the organization has retired more than 1.6 million credits issued by ACR, planting millions of trees as a result.

“A thriving voluntary carbon market can have a planet-shaping impact,” said Chris Tointon, President of Arbor Day Carbon. “Every carbon credit we retire is a win for the present and future of our planet and a record of real, measurable impact.”

Duke University received the 2025 Organizational Excellence Award for achieving its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2024, including a 31% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 2007 despite a 24% growth in campus population and the addition of 3 million square feet of new building space. In addition to investing hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements and efficiencies, Duke also took responsibility for its remaining emissions by using 232,000 carbon credits in 2024 to achieve its goal, over 75% of which were ACR-issued credits sourced from high-quality projects to collect and destroy potent ozone-depleting refrigerant gases.

“Achieving carbon neutrality on campus is a triple winner – we reduce our carbon footprint, we save money in the long term, and we demonstrate how universities can be part of the climate solution,” said Toddi Steelman, Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability at Duke University. “Our Duke Climate Commitment extends to every facet of our university, including operations, research, education, community partnerships and external engagement. We are now setting even more ambitious goals at Duke, not only to reduce carbon emissions but also to develop sustainable operation goals and strategies.”

The Ministry of Environment of Perú (MINAM) and Indigenous organizations of Grupo Perú received the 2025 Innovation Award for partnering to develop the world’s first Indigenous Jurisdictional REDD+ Program under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART). The collaboration between MINAM and the Indigenous organizations known as Grupo Perú – ANECAP, AIDESEP, and CONAP – not only recognizes Indigenous rights and the crucial role that Indigenous knowledge and governance play in forest conservation but also sets a global example of what can be achieved when governments work hand in hand with communities to address climate change. By uniting the strengths of national governments and Indigenous Peoples, the partnership is demonstrating that it is possible to protect the forests, honor Indigenous rights, and create lasting, sustainable benefits for all involved.

“The Government of Peru is proud to be partnering with Indigenous organizations to create a new model for the world,” said Minister of Environment of Peru Juan Carlos Castro Vargas. “Built on a foundation of mutual respect, this collaboration highlights the essential connection between forest conservation, Indigenous rights, and climate action.”

“Indigenous jurisdictional REDD+ is an opportunity to recognize Indigenous Peoples as partners and not only as beneficiaries in nature-based solutions to climate change,” said Fermín Chimatani of ANECAP. “As guardians of some of the world’s most biodiverse and carbon-rich forests, this partnership is a step forward for the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and for rewarding our efforts in the fight against deforestation” said Jorge Pérez of AIDESEP. “This initiative shows how jurisdictional REDD+ can be developed in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, recognizing our leadership in preserving highly valuable ecosystems and delivering climate action at scale” said Oseas Barbarán of CONAP.

Issued annually, previous winners of the ACR Climate Leadership Award include John Kerry (Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the time), Christiana Figueres (Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change at the time); Mary Nichols (Chair of the California Air Resources Board at the time); Tom Vilsack (former  U.S. Secretary of Agriculture); Todd Stern (U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change at the time); Paul Hawken (author and founder of Project Drawdown); Jonathan Pershing (Environment Program Director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation) and Frances Seymour (then Senior Scientist at the World Resources Institute and one of the world’s foremost authorities on the relationships between tropical forests and climate change).

ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program that operates in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. A nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, ACR was founded in 1996 as the first private greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the world with the mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment. 

ICE Plans Mid-2026 Launch of Environmental Registry Services to Bring State-of-the-Art Infrastructure to Carbon Markets

ATLANTA — Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, and the world’s largest operator of environmental derivatives markets, today announced plans to launch an environmental registry technology service to bring best in class infrastructure to registries and registry users and support the adoption of carbon credits as an asset class. ICE’s service, called ICE GreenTrace™, is expected to launch in the late spring of 2026 and is designed to support registries and registry users across the life cycle of a carbon credit.

Launch partner, Winrock International’s Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), will use ICE’s registry technology service for its world-leading crediting programs: ACR, the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) and the new sectoral crediting standard in development for the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA).

ERT launched ACR, formerly the American Carbon Registry, in 1996 as the world’s first private greenhouse gas registry. ART was established in 2018 as the first market-based initiative to incentivize the protection and restoration of tropical forests at scale, also known as jurisdictional REDD+. ERT was selected in 2023 by the ETA Founding Partners to develop and pilot the carbon crediting standard for the ETA to accelerate a clean power transition in emerging and developing economies.

“The ICE registry platform is a leap forward for the technology infrastructure underpinning global carbon markets, providing powerful next-generation digital functionality to all registry users to enhance efficiency and market integration,” said Mary Grady, CEO of Environmental Resources Trust. “Bringing nearly 30 years of carbon market experience to our role as ICE’s launch partner, we are excited to join forces with an industry leader to deliver a transformational platform that supports the market growth required to achieve global climate goals.”

“Building on more than two decades of expertise in analogue to digital transformations across multiple asset classes, ICE now plans to deliver mission-critical infrastructure to the carbon credit market. We selected ERT as our launch partner based on their reputation for excellence, longstanding support of carbon markets, and commitment to a market infrastructure transformation,” said Gordon Bennett, Global Head of Environmental Markets at ICE. “ICE’s technology will bring unparalleled financial market infrastructure to allow customers to more confidently invest in and manage carbon assets at a time when transparency and trust are vital for scaling carbon credit markets.”

Since its inception, ICE has built a global digital network connecting energy and environmental market participants to the tools needed to mitigate risk, achieve compliance, and invest, all within a secure, highly regulated, and transparent operational framework. Today, ICE is home to the most liquid venues in the world to trade energy and environmental derivatives. In 2024, a record 20.4 million environmental contracts traded on ICE, equivalent to over $1 trillion in notional value for the fourth consecutive year with more than $50 billion physically delivered to multiple registries.

To find out more information about ICE’s environmental registry services or to be kept updated on progress, please contact GreenTrace@ICE.com.

About Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) is a Fortune 500 company that designs, builds and operates digital networks that connect people to opportunity. We provide financial technology and data services across major asset classes helping our customers access mission-critical workflow tools that increase transparency and efficiency. ICE’s futures, equity, and options exchanges – including the New York Stock Exchange – and clearing houses help people invest, raise capital and manage risk. We offer some of the world’s largest markets to trade and clear energy and environmental products. Our fixed income, data services and execution capabilities provide information, analytics and platforms that help our customers streamline processes and capitalize on opportunities. At ICE Mortgage Technology, we are transforming U.S. housing finance, from initial consumer engagement through loan production, closing, registration and the long-term servicing relationship. Together, ICE transforms, streamlines and automates industries to connect our customers to opportunity.

Trademarks of ICE and/or its affiliates include Intercontinental Exchange, ICE, ICE block design, NYSE and New York Stock Exchange. Information regarding additional trademarks and intellectual property rights of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. and/or its affiliates is located here. Key Information Documents for certain products covered by the EU Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation can be accessed on the relevant exchange website under the heading “Key Information Documents (KIDS).”

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 – Statements in this press release regarding ICE’s business that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, as filed with the SEC on February 8, 2024.

About Environmental Resources Trust

Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, offers trusted solutions to environmental markets to catalyze transformational climate impacts. With the mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment, ERT operates internationally recognized carbon crediting programs, ACR and the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART). Founded in 1996 as the world’s first private carbon registry, ACR has extensive operational experience in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets, having issued over 300 million high-quality, verified CO2 emission reduction and removals credits. ART is the leading global carbon market initiative for jurisdictional REDD+, ensuring the social and environmental integrity of climate results from protecting and restoring forests at scale. ART’s growing pipeline of participating jurisdictions currently includes over two dozen governments on five continents covering 400 million hectares of tropical forests. ERT is also developing the sectoral carbon crediting standard for the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), with the goal of incentivizing steeper and more rapid decarbonization of the electric power sector in emerging and developing economies. The ETA is an innovative carbon finance platform launched in 2023 by the U.S. Department of State, Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation.