Frequently asked questions

Company Overview

Learn more about Rubicon Carbon in our press releases and white papers.

What is Rubicon Carbon?

Rubicon Carbon is a carbon credit management firm that partners with the world’s largest enterprises to help them achieve their sustainability goals while driving global decarbonization. Backed by TPG Rise Climate and led by top executives from across finance, technology, and climate science, Rubicon Carbon delivers innovative carbon credit solutions to global businesses while unlocking decarbonization projects at scale, all backed by rigorous in-house scientific diligence. 

Our mission statement is to help end the climate crisis through market-driven solutions.

We bring proven financial tools to the Voluntary Carbon Market, helping to de-risk and scale investment. Rubicon Carbon accelerates the global transition to a low-carbon future by bringing trusted, enterprise-grade solutions to carbon markets:

• Scale: We have built an ecosystem of customers, investors, project developers, and technology partners that bring new capabilities and leadership to carbon markets. With an initial capital commitment of $300M, Rubicon Carbon provides at-scale liquidity and capital for high-integrity carbon reduction and removal projects.
 
• Confidence: We have created standardized products and innovative risk management approaches to simplify a complex market. Science-based quality evaluation, project-level engagement, and continuous monitoring underpin our proprietary approach to curating portfolios of carbon credits. An experienced management team leads Rubicon Carbon, leveraging cross-industry expertise and track records of scaling new markets.
 
• Innovation: Beginning with the “Rubicon Carbon Tonne” and “Rubicon Carbon Capital,” we are committed to continuously developing an innovative suite of products and solutions that move carbon markets forward. Our resources, our scale, and our diversified portfolio approach allow us to support the development of next-generation carbon projects, such as tech-based carbon removal.

The Rubicon Carbon Tonne™ (RCT®) is a diversified portfolio of carbon credits designed to reduce risk and increase optionality for ambitious corporate buyers. By employing the tools, logic, and lessons of finance along with first-rate carbon science, the Rubicon Carbon Tonne™ enables organizations to invest more confidently in carbon credits while driving catalytic financing to scalable climate solutions.

Available as a curated, off-the-shelf, diversified and actively managed portfolio or as a customized portfolio tailored to your needs, the Rubicon Carbon Tonne[™] allows buyers to own the option to retire credits from a portfolio immediately or at any time until maturity.

Currently, Rubicon Carbon offers three curated portfolios, including carbon removals, nature-based avoidance, and industrial avoidance.

As an alternative to the curated RCT®, our build-your-own portfolios allow clients to tailor RCT®s to their specific needs and goals by selecting projects from our existing inventory.

Rubicon Carbon is funded by numerous strategic investors, including TPG Rise Climate, which is the dedicated climate investing strategy of TPG’s global impact investing platform. Rubicon Carbon benefits from TPG Rise Climate’s extensive portfolio, strategic relationships, global network, and broad expertise.

Leading Rubicon are veteran executives Tom Montag (Rubicon CEO, former COO and Head of Global Banking & Markets at Bank of America,  former Global Co-Head of the Securities Division, Member of the Management Committee, and Partner at Goldman Sachs), Anne Finucane (Rubicon Chair of the Board, former Vice Chair at Bank of America), and Dr. Jennifer Jenkins (Rubicon Chief Science Officer, co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize, along with other IPCC scientists). 

Our reach and resources have allowed us to mobilize a broad ecosystem of product partners and blue-chip corporate launch customers.

We are focused on helping corporate customers purchase carbon credits to meet their climate commitments. 

Our diligence process is comprised of three stages:

Stage 1 – RCT® Standard Assessment: For all projects, whether in the spot market (ie already issued on a registry) or being considered for a longer-term investment, we execute an in-depth desk review of all project materials, relying on registry documents and information gathering from project developers and other market participants.  This stage ensures that all projects we purchase adhere to The Rubicon Carbon Tonne™ Standard.

Stage 2 – Detailed Due Diligence: For early-stage projects with mature methodologies whose credits have been evaluated but not yet formally issued by the registry, we progress to a deeper evaluation of the project risks.  Before agreeing to an offtake from such a project, we evaluate a myriad of signals, including the developer’s reputation, project’s registry/methodology election, critical commercial or operational risks, community engagement, and benefit-sharing strategy.  Further, when merited, we undertake site visits to meet with key project stakeholders to monitor on-the-ground implementation risks.   In some instances, we advocate for project changes to increase project rigor and recommend adjustments to key assumptions, for example, such as selecting certain carbon pools, tree mortality rates, or LCA system boundaries.

Stage 3 – Commercial and Long-term Review: Before making a capital investment in project development at the earliest stages of a planned project, we engage directly and exhaustively with the project developer to apply our technical and commercial expertise to guide and evaluate the project development process.  We review a project’s carbon model assumptions for its suitability to the project area and activities, compare the model to academic literature to evaluate the appropriateness of selected default values and ensure the monitoring plan for the life of the project meets criteria aimed at reducing the risk of undetected reversal (where relevant).  We often recommend additional project changes to increase quality, rigor, and enhanced transparency in ongoing reporting.

Carbon credits are critical to help companies & society reach net zero. There is no current plan to reach our planetary 2050 net zero goal that doesn’t include some corporate use of the carbon market. This is for three reasons:

• Cost-effective solutions for hard-to-abate industries. The marginal abatement curve—especially for industries like concrete, steel, aviation, and shipping—is intimidating. In many cases, the technology doesn’t yet exist for internal decarbonization to be cost-effective and not value-destroying. Credits offer a flexible way for companies to contribute to the net zero challenge while waiting for decarbonization tech to come down the cost curve. The atmosphere doesn’t care where the reductions come from; the effect – on climate – of a ton of internal decarbonization or one carbon credit (as long as that credit equals a full ton) is the same.
 
• The need to protect nature. We need a sustainable and scalable solution to protect nature. Almost 15% of global emissions today come from forest conversion, primarily forest loss in tropical nations. We won’t get to net zero without reducing those emissions. High-integrity carbon credits are a solution to protect and strengthen the systems that support life on Earth. 
 
• Carbon removal tech. Once we get close to net zero, we will need carbon removals. “Net zero” will only be reached when residual emission and permanent removal tonnes are balanced, thus causing no net addition of GHG to the atmosphere. The only place those removals can be found today is on the carbon market.
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