AirCarbon Exchange (ACX), the world’s first carbon negative exchange, has partnered with C-Quest Capital LLC (CQC), the world-leading carbon project developer, for the first-ever auction of carbon credits generated from LED light bulb projects.
The auction will take place on November 1 and 2, 2022, and will see 300,000 carbon credits available for purchase. With ACX recently being named as Environmental Finance’s Best Carbon Exchange for 2022 and with CQC winning Best Project Developer for Energy Efficiency, the partnership marks a significant step forward in the role of auctions in the voluntary carbon market.
The credits will be generated from CQC’s Efficient Lighting projects in India, which has seen 14.5 million inefficient incandescent bulbs switched for efficient and long-life LEDs in nearly 3 million households.
The project targets some of the most rural and poorest parts of India, benefiting the local people not only through cheaper lighting but with higher quality, energy efficient, cooler lighting that makes working and studying at home far easier. The credits will be issued under Verra’s methodology AMS-II.C. (Efficient Lighting Technologies) and qualifies for seven of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
CQC conducts robust audits and spot checks to ensure best practice and quality. Each household is issued a unique ID to prevent double counting with cloud data management to track utilization. CQC also provides a three-year warranty compared to the standard one-year offered by retail markets.
The benefits of this project are two-fold – Indians living in rural areas benefit from meaningful savings from reduced electricity bills and access to quality lighting, which reduces strain on their eyes. The nation as a whole benefits from the significant drop in energy consumption driven by this mass switchover. The transition to energy-efficient lighting will reduce the energy load on a grid system still heavily reliant on coal, significantly reducing carbon emissions and helping India reduce its reliance on coal in the interim period while it continues to invest in cleaner energy sources.
The upcoming auction represents the latest step in ACX’s strategy to broaden awareness of different carbon projects in the market. This latest auction follows on from ACX’s successful hosting of the first ever auction of micro-mobility credits, generated from Rio de Janeiro’s bike sharing scheme, in partnership with Brazilian companies, including Tembici.
To find out more information about the work C-Quest Capital is doing, go to https://www.cquestcapital.com/. To register to take part in the upcoming auction, email the ACX team on [email protected].