Building Bridges between carbon and the capital markets

On September 30, 2025 the Building Bridges Summit (6th annual edition) kicked off three days of dialogues in Geneva, Switzerland, centred on sustainable finance, and bringing together 2000 leaders from finance, government, business, and civil society to address urgent challenges through bold financial solutions.

With notable speakers such as John Kerry - Former U.S. Secretary of State, Martin Pfister - Swiss Federal Councillor & Francine Lacqua - Bloomberg TV Anchor, climate finance and carbon markets took center stage almost every day. With discussions on opportunities and challenges faced by the sector and how they could be used to finance our global transition to a more sustainable world, carbon market discussions included more than 10 sessions and a private, closed-door roundtable.

“Sustainable finance is no longer about why, but about how. We have moved from ideology to business case.” Building Bridges 2025

Most speakers and contributors agreed that carbon markets were becoming a serious investment class, especially through the new UNFCCC Paris Agreement Article 6, which makes carbon globally compliant with and through 195 countries. Moreover, Article 6 addresses the challenges identified during the summit including: scalability, integrity, governments' clarity on climate plans & strategies (i.e. Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs), robust frameworks (i.e. the Paris Agreement), and local communities obtaining direct benefits (i.e. Use of Proceeds or UoP).

Further discussions centred on making carbon more inclusive and moving beyond offsets to proper asset classes that can channel billions into systemic transitional finance solutions for energy, agriculture, nature, and biodiversity. Once again, Article 6 was suggested as it encompasses most of these inclusivity parameters, such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), biodiversity, and Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples.

“Integrity has to flow all throughout the value chain of carbon markets — from national projects to registries and trading, right through to the claims.” Building Bridges 2025

Article 6 carbon could be used and leveraged as a proxy for more nature finance, debt-for-nature swaps, and de-risking biodiversity risks. In other words, truly integrating and valuing ecosystems and treating them as assets. But unfortunately, the main issue was moving from pilot projects to mainstream pipelines and embedding nature into sovereign finance, infrastructure, and corporate balance sheets. Liquidity is almost non-existent as this new Article 6 market is being kick-started at COP30.

Emerging Markets & Developing Economies (EMDEs) were also largely part of the discussions, as it would allow institutional climate finance to flow from the North to the South through the UNFCCC Article 6. Risk perceptions remain high, but the impact on the ground showcased was transformative. Speakers targeting EMDEs showed how blended finance, guarantees, and impact-linked instruments with Article 6 carbon can unlock private investment in places and projects that would otherwise be overlooked.

“Building Bridges 2025 showed that the pieces are coming together: carbon markets with integrity, nature as an asset class, courageous investors, enabling regulation, and unprecedented collaboration.”

The Summit was concluded by a private roundtable with 20 participants spanning associations, finance, standard setters, corporates, and policy makers aiming to address the evolution and scaling of carbon markets, particularly:

1. Progress made: While voluntary and regulated carbon markets have made significant strides in addressing integrity issues (traceability, double counting, permanence), new challenges are emerging around "buy side" integrity and regulatory frameworks but can be addressed through Article 6.

2. Current challenges: With 6 of 9 planetary boundaries breached, there's urgency to scale investment-grade Article 6 carbon markets despite ongoing pain points in liquidity and capital flows.

3. Geneva's role: Switzerland/Geneva hosts a unique ecosystem of commodity traders, financial institutions, IOs, NGOs, and verification bodies well-positioned for systems change and be a financial center for Article 6 carbon markets.

Discussion themes around the table that were explored:

• Main barriers to scaling capital flows toward carbon markets and Article 6

• Gaps in existing frameworks and initiatives to make them more robust

• How Building Bridges can leverage its neutral platform to foster collaboration between private sector, public sector, and regulators

“The new global Article 6 Carbon Market compliant with the UN Paris Agreement is alive and kicking. What we now need is liquidity to kickstart this market” Building Bridges 2025

Some of the Outcomes:

• Identify hurdles to scaling carbon markets with Article 6

• Outline structural gaps in current initiatives including Article 6

• Determine how Building Bridges can support through convening finance, policy makers, and regulators

Hopefully, Building Bridges will allow this new Article 6 carbon market to build a bridge with trillions in the Capital Markets so that all investors can truly scale sustainable finance for:

1. Global capital shift - Channeling capital at scale into climate, nature, and societal impact

2. Net-zero transitions - Asset owners as game changers in mobilizing long-term investment

3. Private markets - Scaling solutions through decisive capital in private market opportunities

4. Adaptation & resilience - Public-private partnerships for emerging markets

5. Investment stewardship - Redefining the value chain for long-term impact

6. Hard-to-abate sectors - Corporate governance and business model transformation

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