Special Topic: 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference & the Second Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo. On October 22, a financial frontline report stated that the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference was held from October 20 to 22 at the Shanghai Huangpu Expo Park. Ji Qin (Flora Ji), Head of Asia and Head of Asset Management at Rubicon Carbon, attended the "Dual Carbon Action and Shared Responsibility" sub-forum and delivered remarks.
Ji Qin stated that a major difficulty commonly faced by enterprises is how to transform carbon neutrality goals into investable, implementable, and sustainable projects. She introduced that Rubicon Carbon was established with funding from a climate fund under the private equity firm TPG with a scale of 8 billion US dollars, and is a platform specifically engaged in international carbon market trading, investment, and risk management, covering project development, project investment, and product delivery end to end, while also managing carbon assets for clients, carrying out risk regulation, and drafting and executing contracts.
She also stated that in May this year, Rubicon Carbon, together with the Singapore government, launched the "Action for a Resilient Climate Coalition." At present, carbon market demand is relatively fragmented, and most enterprises are accustomed to spot procurement, which makes it difficult for high-quality projects to land and obtain early-stage investment. The coalition aims to integrate fragmented market demand and promote a shift in trading models from spot to long-term contracts. On this basis, Rubicon Carbon established a blended finance fund with a scale of 500 million US dollars, combining concessional funds from multilateral development banks with commercial capital to lower the cost of capital and invest in a targeted manner in carbon projects, with project outputs able to match the actual needs of end customers.
She believes that the development of the carbon market ecosystem requires systematic arrangements and professional efforts to connect the demand side, financing side, and supply side. Speaking of COP31, Ji Qin stated that the climate field needs to find a balance between idealism and pragmatism. In the past, many discussions in the international carbon market adopted exclusionary thinking, distinguishing among technology-based, nature-based, avoidance-based, and removal-based projects. She hopes that COP31 can respond to climate challenges with a pragmatic and inclusive approach, distinguish short-term solutions, medium- and long-term solutions, and long-term goals, and implement replicable business models.
On the topic of high-quality carbon credits, Ji Qin said that since 2022 the international voluntary carbon market has entered a long winter. Some projects have problems such as inflated carbon sequestration claims, insufficient coordination with local communities, and enterprises failing to follow the priority order of emission reductions, and buyer confidence in carbon credits has declined. Carbon credits themselves possess self-verification attributes, and the cognitive threshold for buyers and the market is higher. At the technical level, high-quality carbon credits need to satisfy scientific rigor, additionality, conservatism, and enforceability; project cycles often last for decades, and the delivery stage requires an entity to provide continuous stewardship. Policies, methodologies, and natural risks also require supporting risk management tools, such as carbon sequestration insurance and permanence trust mechanisms; at the same time, the use of carbon credits has boundaries and must be used within a compliance framework, with priority given to implementing emission reduction and removal actions to avoid abuse.
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