In this episode, GRIP’s commissioning editor Jean Hurley spoke with Lukas May, Head of Expansion and Policy at Isometric. His previous roles include leading senior positions in the UK Government, UK fintech Wise, and at the UK Financial Services Regulator and Conduct Authority – the FCA – where he led the creation of the Innovation Hub.

We discussed:

• how financial services firms can reach net zero by 2050 through offsetting and voluntary carbon markets;
• the commercial motivations for offsetting;
• the difference between removal-based credits and avoidance-based credits;
• the inconsistency and lack of quality standards for carbon credits and how Isometric is hoping to improve on this;
• definition of terms: standards, protocols and methodology;
• role of registries and how Isometric developed its protocols;
• how can firms be incentivized to do the right thing in absence of government setting regulation?
• the role of governments in standard setting;
• new regulation and proposed developments in EU, UK, and US;
• greenwashing and misleading advertisements; and
• the future of carbon markets and registries.

A transcript for this podcast is available here.