Post-Event Recap: CIBC Carbon Summit

Overview

CIBC’s inaugural Carbon Summit was held in Toronto on October 26, 2023. The in-person day of panels and networking brought together experts in carbon market structure, project development and policy to provide insights and practical examples on how to navigate the emerging carbon markets. The Summit was well-attended by Canadian and international delegates, including companies who are either on, or starting, a net-zero journey, carbon project developers, technologists, policy makers, capital providers, and carbon registries and rating agencies, among many others.

Conference Highlights

• The event’s program included two distinguished keynote addresses delivered by Dr. Gabrielle Walker, Co-Founder, CUR8 and Rethinking Removals, and Dr. Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist, Carbon Direct.
• The event was hosted by Ryan Fan, Managing Director and Vice Chair, Global Markets, and ten panel sessions were moderated by leaders across the CIBC Capital Markets franchise.
• Key discussion topics included supply-side issues in what is needed to develop a high integrity voluntary carbon market, financing and scaling carbon reduction and removal solutions, including Direct Air Capture, finding the ‘u’ in Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), the complexities of carbon project development and capital allocation. Demand-side issues were also explored in the growing role of carbon markets on the path to net zero, and considerations for carbon credit buyers.

The Bottom Line

• Carbon markets are at an inflection point where high quality and transparency initiatives will support market growth
• Huge opportunity for catalytic offtakers and funders to support carbon price resiliency
• We are seeing the dedication of policy-makers. While the US Inflation Reduction Act is a tailwind for carbon reduction and removal projects, further clarity on policy incentives in Canada is needed to encourage price certainty for developers, such as Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCFDs)
• Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is an imperative – there is no getting to net-zero without it
• Energy transition is about technology risk; you need to bring along your investors to make a bankable deal
• We need faster CDR deployment to lead the move down the technology cost curve