Interview with Robert Ralph from Patch
Patch was founded in 2020 and offers a platform that connects buyers and sellers of climate contributions. Its aim is to lower the barriers to entry for the voluntarycarbon market through simple transactions and transparency, making climate change solutions accessible. In this way, companies of all sizes and budgets have the opportunity to financially support climate protection projects.
Our climate protection projects can now also be found on Patch. Companies now have the opportunity to invest in Pina Earth's regional forest adaptation projects and make a contribution to the global climate.
In the following interview, we asked Robert Ralph, responsible for partnerships at Patch, about the importance of the partnership between Pina Earth and Patch. He also gives us an insight into how Patch selects climate protection projects and what role they play in the fight against climate change.
What is Patch's vision? How does Patch contribute to the fight against climate change?
At Patch, we channel much-needed capital into climate change solutions. Our platform reduces the complexity of thecarbon certificate transaction process, lowers barriers to entry into the market and increases transparency so that buyers can have more confidence in their purchases. Our goal is to expand the voluntarycarbon market so that it makes an effective contribution to climate protection.
This is how we contribute to the fight against climate change: by developing a variety of climate protection solutions as quickly as possible. While reducing CO₂ emissions should always be the first step, we see carbon credits as complementary to measures to decarbonize businesses and transition away from fossil fuels. There is no pathway to achieving 1.5°C that does not involve significant CO₂ reductions - both natural and technological. We will need many approaches and Patch is helping to accelerate them all.
How do you assess the impact of the climate protection projects? What criteria do you use to select climate protection projects?
At the end of the day, every carbon offset project represents realCO2 avoided or removed from the atmosphere. Every tenth of a degree counts, and every ton ofCO2 makes a difference in the fight for those tenths. So we measure our impact on the climate in the tons we move on our platform. And the dollars flowing in the other direction are not a damper on that - that money is reinvested by project developers in scaling their approaches, so the dollar value of that ton is also a leading indicator of an even greater future impact.
All projects on our platform go through a rigorous initial review that examines mechanism, methodology, MRV, durability, additionality, displacement, co-benefits and more. We aim to provide as much data as possible on each project on the marketplace so that buyers have confidence in each certificate. Transparency is a key factor here.
Patch has now been active on the voluntary CO2 market for three years. Looking back, what have been the most important developments in the market? How has the role of partnerships changed over time?
The most significant change was the exponential increase in demand and investment in the voluntary carbon market (VCM). From 2020 to 2021, the VCM grew fourfold and reached a value of 2 billion dollars.
By 2030, the value could rise further to between 10 and 40 billion dollars. The US government has made climate investments worth 500 billion dollars through legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act, which seemed very unlikely when Patch was founded. This company was founded with the optimistic vision that we can make a livable future possible if even a relatively small number of like-minded people pull together with a common goal. Now there is even more reason for optimism, despite some setbacks over the past year in relation to the global economy and the latest IPCC synthesis report.
In terms of partnerships, what hasn't changed is how closely we work with our partners - especially on the supply side. We're constantly having conversations about how we can help them solve problems like scaling and access. Here's a good example: as a direct result of these conversations, we've developed (and just released) the first operating system for project developers to manage certificates and increase revenue.
I read on your website that educating customers is an important part of climate protection measures. Can you tell us a little more about your education initiatives? What topics do you think need the most explanation? And how can we all work together to pass on this knowledge?
The most important thing that each individual can do in the fight against climate change is to spread awareness. Developing awareness starts with education. I think each of us can think back to a moment when we first felt the will to take action for the continued existence of our planet; it was probably a book, an article, a program - some kind of educational content. So in a sense, education is one of the most important things we can do. That's why we're constantly publishing new blogs, hosting webinars and speaking at events like SXSW. The voluntary carbon credit market can be incredibly complex and multi-layered, even for experts. A good example is the publication of the latest IPCC report or the new ICVCM Core Carbon Principles. These can be comprehensive scientific reports that can be highly relevant to the strategic direction of climate change decision makers. Our climate experts were able to publish helpful conclusions on the same day.
"I am delighted that the partnership with Pina Earth complements our project portfolio with European projects. The team's expertise in developing solutions for local ecosystems convinced us to enter into this partnership."
Robert Ralph, Partnerships @ Patch
As a service-oriented partner trained by world-renowned institutions, Robert has helped both the most successful Fortune 500 companies and early-stage start-ups extract value from their assets and utilize software to develop market entry and growth strategies. In his role at Patch, Robert is fully dedicated to helping carbon offset developers and partners realize their goals to promote a low-carbon economy and rebalance our planet.