The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem will enable carbon credit transactions from issuance to retirement.
Financial services company Northern Trust has launched an institutional carbon credit ecosystem on its Northern Trust Matrix Zenith digital assets platform. Northern Trust will act as the custodian and record, transfer and settle digital carbon credit trades against “emission footprints” on the voluntary carbon market.
Legal agreements are generated by smart contracts on the permissioned blockchain, and those agreements serve as the basis for trading digital carbon credits for fiat currency and thus “retiring” them.
The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem reached the minimum viable product stage in September 2023 with two project developers and three purchasers, including Northern Trust. The full version was launched with a similar number of participants.