Jules Kortenhorst and Andreas Merkl
Four Bridge Carbon projects—representing high-integrity, community-based climate action—were published live on the Centigrade platform. On the surface, this may seem like just another carbon project listing. But it’s much more than that: it’s a glimpse into what the future of carbon markets must become—if they’re going to play a meaningful role in fighting climate change.
The Voluntary carbon markets (VCM) is in trouble.
Despite its potential, the VCM has been plagued by complexity, outdated systems, and a lack of trust. Project developers are forced to navigate fragmented registries, slow validation processes, and rigid methodologies that often fail to reflect the realities on the ground. Meanwhile, buyers are left wondering whether the credits they purchase are real, additional, and truly impactful—for both the climate and communities.
This broken system has led to frustration on all sides. Trust has eroded. Investment has stalled. And many of the world’s most promising climate solutions remain underfunded and overlooked. All the while emissions continue to rise.
If the voluntary market is going to play a meaningful role in achieving net zero, it needs to scale rapidly—and credibly. That evolution must be driven by transparency, science, and integrity.
That’s why this milestone matters.
At Bridge Carbon, we started with a simple but urgent belief: carbon credits must be built from the ground up—not as speculative financial assets, but as real, measurable commitments to restoring ecosystems, supporting communities, and strengthening climate resilience.
Each Bridge Carbon project starts with on the ground action: restoring degraded land, empowering local communities, and strengthening climate resilience. From there, we apply best-in-class measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), ensuring that each project is rigorously monitored—across carbon, biodiversity, and community impact. And just as importantly, we make all of that data open and accessible.
Centigrade exists to make that data both trustworthy and actionable. As a neutral, public-facing data utility, Centigrade is developing the complete digital data standard that allows project developers to digitize their methodologies, centralize their datasets, and connect to a wide array of market actors—buyers, auditors, insurers, raters, and more—through a common API.
The result? Carbon credits that are no longer opaque or confusing—but clear, verifiable, and grounded in real-world impact.
By publishing Bridge Carbon’s projects on the Centigrade platform, we are not just showcasing a new tool. We are helping build a new architecture of trust for the carbon market—one based on transparency, not marketing claims; on collaboration, not proprietary “walled gardens”.
We envision a carbon market where price discovery and due diligence is efficient, fair and based on comprehensive, high integrity data sets. A market in which the transfer of carbon liability—from emitter to offset—is grounded in traceable, scientifically verifiable claims.
This is what a “Carbon 2.0” market looks like—and this is what the voluntary market must evolve into if it is going to survive, let alone scale.
In a Carbon 2.0 world, project data is open by default. Buyers can evaluate credits with confidence. Market actors can conduct due diligence efficiently and fairly. And every credit sold comes with a clear, traceable chain of scientific evidence behind it.
There is still a long road ahead. There is too little project capital, the market infrastructure needs work, and transaction costs remain unconscionably high. But the shift to “Carbon 2.0” is inevitable – data integrity and interoperability are emerging as the most important driver of demand.
The Bridge Carbon – Centigrade collaboration is an early but important step on that path. It’s not just a tool or a feature—it’s a shared commitment to reshaping how the carbon market works, who it serves, and what it values.
In the coming months, more projects like these will go live on Centigrade. More project developers will choose data transparency as a differentiator. And you’ll see market participants start to reward that transparency with confidence, capital, and scale.
The voluntary carbon market was meant to be a bridge to a more sustainable future. But for that bridge to hold, it must be built on data integrity. Today’s milestone is one early but important step in that direction.
