BancTrust & Co. Investment Bank, Suriname starts trading sovereign carbon credits

Today, Suriname announced its first offering of sovereign carbon credits, together with London-based investment bank BancTrust and ITMO Ltd, a private company that structures and trades in these instruments.

The plan relies on a system for global carbon accounting created in the UNs 2015 Paris Agreement. Under that system, countries can trade sovereign units of emissions, called internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs), and count these towards their carbon cutting goals, so-called nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

With this initial issuance, Suriname is offering 1.5mn ITMOs, each corresponding to one tonne of carbon dioxide (or equivalent emissions of other greenhouse gases) reduced beyond a business-as-usual trajectory. The ITMOs issuance is backward looking this vintage refers to emissions reduced in the year 2021. The reduction was achieved mainly through improved performance in tackling deforestation and forest degradation.