October 2017

12 APAC / October 2017 , 1710AP03 Sharp Minds Saving the Environment Operating successfully for almost ten years, Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX) is the first global electronic exchange for the voluntary carbonmarket, where manymillions verified tonnes of CO2 via Carbon Credits have been securely transacted by hundreds of corporates, project developers, brokers and NGOs worldwide. We spoke to founder, Wayne Sharpe and we were able to explore the secrets behind the firm’s success. Climate Finance is a complex global business, involving billions of dollars annually. Most of this money is ‘moved’ via the buying and selling of Carbon Credits, where projects reducing emissions are approved to sell their credits to those emitting too much, or wishing to benefit from have gone ‘Carbon Neutral’ . CTX offers a fully-inclusive, transparent and secure electronic marketplace for buyers and sellers of multiple Carbon Credits, the latest being what they consider the best, issued by the prestigious United Nations UNFCCC. The UN Climate Change Climate Action (UNFCCC) and CTX recently announced a collaboration as the next ‘generation’ of the UN’s Climate Neutral Now initiative (which targets retail offset buyers), to promote businesses to measure and also reduce their individual climate footprint. Whilst this UN initiative gained global recognition, its ‘technology’ is not designed for the wholesale global voluntary carbon markets, or even markets for businesses and larger corporations. CTX has been operating in the global voluntary carbon market since 2009. Designed and built originally with the intention of becoming the world’s best choice for businesses, providing them with secure, fast, efficient and cost-effective access to the global carbon markets. Being a pioneer in the digital age, Founder, Wayne Sharpe utilises the internet’s global reach which links people with products through electronic exchange platforms. As arguably the ‘Grandfather of Crypto”, Wayne designed and developed an exchange based electronic ‘alternative currency’ prior to the Internet in 1991, called Bartercard. When the internet was commercialized in 1994, he re-engineered its exchange technology onto the internet - before the creation of other internet sensations such as eBay and Amazon and others. Mr. Sharpe led the global phenomenon, Bartercard as Chairman and CEO for 21 years, which has traded over $50 billion in 20 Countries and had 136 offices worldwide at its peak. Bartercard was then the first and still is a truly global ‘digital alternative currency’. The Father of Crypto currencies . Bartercard is a unique ‘that when combined with the internet unlocks unrealised economic value and creates new markets and a new ‘economy’. In 2007, after agreeing on a deal to sell Bartercard (to management which took five years to complete), Mr. Sharpe attended the UN climate change conference in Bali, resulting in him shifting his technological and entrepreneurial skills towards making a difference and helping towards fighting the challenge of climate change. Bridging the gap between financial markets and the environment, Sharpe’s passion towards generating marketplaces and the CTX platform is enabling people and companies to offset and reduce their carbon footprint and provide Climate Finance in the process. However, there had to be ONE MORE new thing? After the CTX platform went live 2008/9 then in 2009/10 the world of Cloud Technology emerged and once again, Wayne led the techy innovation. The same year Microsoft Azure was launched (2010), he converted the CTX infrastructure technology and became one its first users globally. The CTX Exchange is the first global spot exchange for voluntary carbon offsets. CTX hosts Carbon Credits from a variety of different projects around the world, all of which are registered with the highest certification bodies such as the UNCDM and Gold Standard to ensure certified authenticity. Fast, efficient, secure, credible, cost effective – this endorses Mr. Sharpe’s belief that for businesses CEO’s and CFO’s, if you make it easier to do, have ZERO paperwork, make it ‘cheaper’ and faster to do (large volumes of Carbon Credits are listed for sale for as little and 50 cents (per ton of CO2) then surely, they run out of excuses not to take action? With a diverse range of current listings, the endless choice allows marketing to ‘tailor’ a portfolio and the corporate ‘message’. From renewable energy to forestry, & from hydro to cook stoves or biomass they have access to projects worldwide to satisfy anyone. With Mr. Sharpe at the helm, the partnership/collaboration between the UNFCCC and CTX will prove to be very successful, as they join forces to reduce carbon footprints and emissions and drive Climate Finance globally which will help to save the environment – maybe the Planet. Company: Carbon Trade eXchange Contact: Wayne Sharpe Contact Email: [email protected] London and Australia Phone: +44 203 598 5890 or +61 7 3102 3045 Website: www.ctxglobal.com