Climate Impact X (CIX), a global marketplace and exchange for quality environmental credits, and Respira International, an impact-driven carbon finance business, have completed a landmark auction for high-quality, nature-based blue carbon credits.

The auction sold 250,000 tonnes of vintage 2021 credits from the Delta Blue Carbon Project in Pakistan, the world’s largest mangrove restoration project, at US$27.80 per tonne. This is US$10.00 per tonne over, or close to a 40% premium on, current spot prices for major REDD+ nature-based solutions of the same credit vintage.

To facilitate price transparency in carbon markets, CIX is publishing the auction demand curve that showcases the range of bid prices submitted. Of the bid volume, 30% was priced at US$35.00 per tonne or more, and 27% above the auction reserve price (US$27.50 per tonne), signalling the premium that some buyers were willing to pay for high-quality and unique credit types.

Drawing many buyers from around the world, but concentrated in Asia, Europe and the United States, the success of the auction, the companies say, demonstrates strong international demand for quality carbon credits, given rising corporate net-zero commitments and in the run up to the 27th UN Climate Change Conference. It also demonstrates, despite a backdrop of high inflation and global macro uncertainty weighing on the whole carbon market, a strong signal of support for premium credits of high integrity.

“Our core priority is to build trust and transparency in the carbon markets to unlock liquidity, and one of the ways we seek to do this is through the discovery of clear demand and price signals,” says Mikkel Larsen, CEO of CIX. “This auction offers reassurance to the market that demand for quality carbon credits remains robust.”