Course 01 of 20 · Emissions and Carbon Desk Academy

Carbon Markets & Instruments

Stage A, Market foundations. Level 1 of 10.

The instrument taxonomy that separates allowances from credits, and the market roles and venues each one trades through.

114 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: nothing: this is the entry point

Enrol or enquire See the 114 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 114 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 What a Carbon Unit Is Ch 1-10
  1. A Tonne as a Tradable Object
  2. Carbon Dioxide Equivalent as the Unit of Account
  3. Why a Tonne of Gas Can Be Owned
  4. The Unit Is a Record, Not a Substance
  5. Every Unit Carries an Identity
  6. The Words Used Daily on a Carbon Desk
  7. Vintage Is Part of the Unit's Name
  8. Why Two Tonnes Are Not Always Interchangeable
  9. Issue, Hold, Transfer, Extinguish
  10. Carbon Against the Physical Commodities
M1 The Allowance Ch 11-20
  1. An Allowance Is Permission, Not Property in a Tonne
  2. Where Allowances Come From
  3. The Allowance and the Obligation It Answers
  4. Given Away or Sold: Two Routes Into the Market
  5. Why an Allowance Has a Deadline
  6. Carrying Allowances Forward, and Why Borrowing Is Rarer
  7. The Regulator as the Source of Value
  8. Scarcity by Decision Rather Than by Geology
  9. What Surrender Does to an Allowance
  10. Reading an Allowance's Label
M2 The Credit Ch 21-30
  1. A Credit Is a Claim About What Would Have Happened
  2. The Crediting Programme as a Private Rule-Maker
  3. Avoided Emissions and Removed Carbon Are Different Promises
  4. No Baseline, No Credit
  5. The Developer Selling Something Not Yet Made
  6. Why the Buyer Does Not Do the Checking
  7. Vintage Year Against Issuance Year
  8. Co-Benefit Labels Sit on Top of the Tonne
  9. Authorisation and the Adjustment Label a Credit May Carry
  10. Why Credits Do Not Trade at One Price
M3 The Taxonomy That Separates Them Ch 31-40
  1. Permission Against Performance
  2. Who Creates the Unit and Who Stands Behind It
  3. Capped Supply Against Open-Ended Supply
  4. Demand You Must Meet Against Demand You Choose
  5. Interchangeable Inside a Scheme, Unique in a Catalogue
  6. When a Credit Is Admitted Into a Compliance Scheme
  7. Limits on Credit Use, and Why They Exist
  8. Two Different Roots of Price
  9. A Decision Route for Classifying Any Carbon Unit
  10. Where the Taxonomy Stops Being Clean
M4 Instruments That Are Not Carbon Units Ch 41-51
  1. Energy Attribute Certificates Are Not Carbon Credits
  2. Subsidies and Tax Credits That Resemble Carbon Revenue
  3. A Carbon Tax Creates a Cost, Not an Instrument
  4. Border Charges and the Instrument They Reference
  5. Compliance Units Inside Fuel Standards
  6. Buying Units Before They Exist
  7. Wrappers That Sit Around a Unit
  8. Baskets, Indices and the Attempt to Standardise
  9. A Retirement Receipt Is Evidence, Not an Asset
  10. Internal Carbon Prices and Shadow Instruments
  11. Placing an Unfamiliar Instrument
M5 The Roles Around the Unit Ch 52-63
  1. The Cast Around a Carbon Unit
  2. The Regulated Installation as an Unwilling Participant
  3. The Voluntary Corporate Buyer and Its Mandate
  4. The Project Developer's Seat
  5. Methodology Owners and Programme Secretariats
  6. Validation and Verification Bodies
  7. The Host Government as Gatekeeper and Claimant
  8. Why Carbon Still Needs Brokers
  9. Who Holds Inventory, and Why
  10. Aggregators and Resellers of Small Volumes
  11. Raters, Data Providers and Price Reporters
  12. Registries, Exchanges and Clearing Houses as Roles
M6 Venues for Allowances Ch 64-73
  1. Where an Allowance Changes Hands
  2. The Primary Auction as a Venue
  3. The Exchange Order Book for Allowances
  4. Clearing and What It Replaces
  5. The Bilateral Allowance Trade
  6. Why Large Size Leaves the Screen
  7. The Registry Transfer as the Settlement Venue
  8. Lending Allowances and Borrowing Against Them
  9. Choosing a Venue Is a Cost and Visibility Decision
  10. A Worked Allowance Purchase
M7 Venues for Credits Ch 74-83
  1. Why Credits Mostly Trade One to One
  2. The Broker-Intermediated Credit Trade
  3. Standardised Credit Contracts on an Exchange
  4. Platforms, Marketplaces and Online Catalogues
  5. Buying Straight From the Project
  6. Secondary Supply and the Inventory Holder
  7. Retirement Ends the Chain
  8. Tenders and Auctions for Credits
  9. Why Credits Resist Clearing
  10. A Worked Credit Purchase
M8 How a Unit Moves and Who Pays Ch 84-94
  1. The Life of an Allowance
  2. The Life of a Credit
  3. Title, Possession and the Account
  4. Price, Fee and Spread
  5. Who Carries the Risk Between Agreement and Delivery
  6. Payment Against Transfer
  7. The Documents Behind One Transaction
  8. Why Carbon Markets Attracted Fraud
  9. A Trade That Fails After It Settles
  10. What a Carbon Trade Obliges You to Report
  11. Reading a Trade Confirmation
M9 The Markets as They Actually Exist Ch 95-105
  1. A Patchwork of Schemes, Not One Market
  2. The European Union Scheme as a Reference Design
  3. Two Schemes That Joined: California and Quebec
  4. An Intensity-Based Design: China's National Market
  5. Crediting Under International Agreement
  6. The Independent Crediting Programmes
  7. Why the Voluntary Market Has No Single Rulebook
  8. Linking and Why Most Schemes Stay Apart
  9. One Tonne Under Two Rules
  10. Double Counting as a Classification Failure
  11. What the Phrase The Carbon Price Hides
M10 Putting the Taxonomy to Work Ch 106-114
  1. A Mixed Mandate, Part One: What the Buyer Actually Needs
  2. A Mixed Mandate, Part Two: Instruments and Venues Chosen
  3. A Mixed Mandate, Part Three: Where It Could Still Fail
  4. Two Sellers Offering the Same Tonne
  5. The Market Integrity Argument and Its Assumptions
  6. Where This Taxonomy Is Deliberately Simplified
  7. What Classification Alone Cannot Decide
  8. Judging Whether You Are Ready to Continue
  9. Which Course Answers Which Carbon Question

The brochure gives each of these 114 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 1 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Emissions and Carbon Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway