Singapore-based carbon exchange Climate Impact X and London’s Carbonplace plan to merge, the companies said in a statement on 26 August, seeking to build a larger trading platform as the carbon market struggles with fragmented systems, uncertain demand and concerns about the quality of some credits.
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The transaction would combine CIX’s carbon-credit procurement, exchange and price-discovery services with Carbonplace’s settlement, custody and portfolio-management infrastructure, giving customers access to multiple carbon registries through one platform.
The deal is subject to final regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The combined company will be led by CIX Chief Executive Oi-Yee Choo, with Carbonplace CEO Scott Eaton serving as president. Both businesses will continue under their existing brands while the integration is underway.
A carbon credit typically represents one metric tonne of greenhouse gas emissions that has been avoided or removed from the atmosphere through projects such as forest protection, renewable energy development or methane capture.
Companies can buy and “retire” credits – removing them permanently from circulation – to compensate for some of their emissions. Credits are recorded in registries that track their issuance, ownership, transfer and retirement, helping prevent the same emissions reduction from being claimed more than once.
Unlike government-regulated emissions trading systems, much of the voluntary carbon market allows companies to purchase credits without a legal obligation to do so, often as part of their climate commitments. The market has faced persistent questions over whether some projects deliver the emissions reductions they claim and whether corporate buyers use credits in place of reducing their own emissions.
Those concerns have weakened trading activity. Transaction volumes in the voluntary carbon market fell 25 per cent in 2024 to 84.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to a 2025 report by Ecosystem Marketplace. Average prices declined 5.5 per cent, although the number of credits retired remained relatively steady.
The market had already contracted sharply in 2023, when its reported transaction value fell to US$723 million, down from nearly US$2 billion at its 2021 peak.
Efforts are now under way to steer buyers towards credits that meet stricter standards. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has developed its Core Carbon Principles to assess whether crediting programmes and project methodologies meet requirements covering governance, transparency and emissions impact.
CIX and Carbonplace said better-integrated infrastructure could make transactions easier to trace, while reducing the operational complexity of dealing with different registries, products and standards.
“Scaling access and liquidity to meet the growing needs of global carbon markets requires robust, trusted infrastructure,” CIX’s Choo said.
She said the platform would need to operate across both voluntary and government-backed schemes as mechanisms including the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 and the global aviation offsetting programme Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) bring previously separate parts of the market closer together.
Article 6 allows countries to cooperate in meeting their national climate targets, including by transferring verified emissions reductions between them. Such transfers require accounting adjustments intended to prevent both the country selling a credit and the country buying it from claiming the same reduction.
Carbonplace’s Eaton said reliable settlement and ownership records would be essential for attracting more banks and institutional investors.
“A trade is only as good as the infrastructure that completes it – knowing a credit has genuinely changed hands, can be held securely and retired with a clear audit trail,” he said.
A view of London. The merger would connect London’s institutional financial market with Singapore’s growing carbon services sector, strengthening the city-state’s effort to establish itself as Asia’s centre for carbon trading and finance.Image: Benjamin Davies on Unsplash
Singapore’s carbon market ambitions
The merger would connect London’s institutional financial market with Singapore’s growing carbon services sector, strengthening the city-state’s effort to establish itself as Asia’s centre for carbon trading and finance.
Established in 2021 by DBS Bank, Singapore Exchange, Standard Chartered and Temasek, CIX was created as a marketplace and exchange for carbon credits. GenZero, a decarbonisation investment platform founded by Temasek, later became one of its institutional backers.
Singapore’s carbon tax rose to S$45 (US$35) per tonne in 2026. Taxable facilities can use eligible international credits to offset up to 5 per cent of their taxable emissions, giving credits a limited role within the country’s regulated carbon-pricing system, according to Singapore’s National Environment Agency.
The city-state has also signed agreements with countries including Bhutan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to develop government-authorised carbon-credit transfers under Article 6.
Under those agreements, host countries can attract funding for emissions-reduction projects, while Singapore can use some of the resulting credits towards its climate targets or allow companies to use them against carbon-tax liabilities.
The system remains at an early stage. Singapore’s official Article 6 project register listed no authorised projects as of 14 August, highlighting the gap between signing government agreements and producing credits that companies can purchase and use.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said carbon market activity is increasing across Asia and the Pacific as countries pursue climate targets and look for lower-cost emissions reductions. But it said governments would need appropriate policy, legal and regulatory frameworks to participate effectively.
Worldwide, carbon credit issuances increased 8 per cent in 2025, although average prices declined slightly, the World Bank said in its 2026 carbon-pricing report. The broader carbon pricing system, including carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes, now covers nearly 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
CIX and Carbonplace first worked together in 2022 on pilot transactions that tested the full process of buying and selling credits through CIX and settling the trades through Carbonplace.
The merged company would be backed by 12 banks, investors and market operators, including Singapore’s DBS, SGX Group and GenZero, as well as Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Other shareholders include BBVA, BNP Paribas, CIBC, National Australia Bank, NatWest Group, Standard Chartered and UBS.
DBS CEO Tan Su Shan said greater scale could improve the efficiency and liquidity of the voluntary market and help mobilise capital for low-carbon technologies.
Singapore and Britain also co-chair the Coalition to Grow Carbon Markets with Kenya, an initiative seeking to strengthen government support and demand for higher-quality credits.
