Climate Dividends
Decarbonising equity portfolios on a global scale with
To decrease global GHG emissions, we need both
⚡️
Energy, service & material sufficiency
💰
Massive investments in climate solutions*
*e.g: renewable energy, recycling solutions, active mobility…
Right now, we’re far from the mark in terms of investments 👎
but why? 🤔
Investors lack simple tools to know that they’re channeling the money in the right direction and to quantify their investments’ impact
Climate solutions struggle to value their positive climate contribution - main focus is on their carbon footprint
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Let’s look at a climate solution example
💨 Induced GHG emissions�GHG emissions of the solution through its lifecycle - it’s polluting to renovate a building (energy, materials, transportation…) ➡️ must be reduced/optimized
📉 Avoided*/removed emissions
GHG emissions that won’t be emitted by the users thanks to the Solution - renovating a building enables the user to consume drastically less energy, and avoid the associated CO2e ➡️ must be maximized
🏚️👷
Thermal renovation
Climate Solution
* check out the difference avoided emissions VS emissions reduction right here
💡 That’s what’s called the “climate positive contribution”
💨 Induced GHG emissions
📉 Avoided/removed emissions
🏚️👷
For solution providers, if we only look at induced emissions, we’re kind of missing the point and ignore a massive positive impact 🤷
We need to take both into account!
🙅
There’s a critical need for a standardized and simple measure of solutions’ climate positive contribution
That’s why we created
Climate Dividends are extra financial information corresponding to the positive climate
contribution of a company that can be claimed
by its equity shareholders.
1
ton of CO2 eq
avoided or removed
Climate
Dividend
=
1
💡 It’s a yearly procedure: each year, any company that sells a product/service avoiding or removing CO2eq emissions can distribute Climate Dividends to its shareholders.
The mirror of financial dividend for climate
Climate Dividends are a measure and proof of a climate value, mirroring financial dividends for economic value. �Until now, there was no way to make a traceable link between the positive climate contribution enabled by a company through its activity and the investment made in this company (like what’s permitted by financial dividends).
The double value of Climate Dividends
Standardization
�👉 A standardised/reliable indicator of companies climate positive contribution�
Climate Dividends provide a standardised indicator to help measure and value the positive contribution side of companies’ activities, in addition (and never to offset) negative impact assessments.
Traceability to investments
�👉 A traceable link between impact measurement and equity investments�
Climate Dividends contribute to building the financial use case for avoided emissions, going beyond a mere communication claim. They can be integrated into the financial valuation of companies.
⚖️
🔀
*if demonstration of its permanence > 100 years
NBS excluded for the moment
Company Level
Science- Based and Externally Validated Transition Plan
(at min. carbon footprint disclosed)
Solution Level
Compatible with 1.5° objective (eligible to the EU taxonomy / ban on fossil fuels)
Solution Level
Avoiding or Removing* emissions
Solution Level
No significant harm to other impact dimensions (declarative disclosure)
Who can distribute Climate Dividends?
Not everyone can distribute CDs - you need to respect the following eligibility criteria (at entity level and at solution level).
A simple 4 steps process
Ex: claim = 10 000 tons of CO2eq avoided or removed
An independent 3rd-party comes in to:
Once the 3rd-party has given a positive opinion, the verified emissions are converted into Climate Dividends: 1 tCO2e avoided/removed = 1 Climate Dividend (CD).
Ex : 10 000 Climate Dividends.
The Climate Dividends are distributed to the shareholders according to their % of capital ownership through the Climate Dividends platform.
Ex: Investor with 40% → 4000 CDs.
Evaluation
Verification
Issuance
Distribution
Benefits of Climate Dividends
🙆 For companies…
… and for investors 💰
Concrete indicator of how much investments contribute to global decarbonization, sustainability claims, standing out from other investors and attract LPs
Concrete proof tracking your impact on a yearly basis, which can be used to make strategic decisions and maximize impact
Concrete, standardized and robust impact measurement
Value your impact, improve your brand image (for customers and collaborators), anticipate regulation
Improve brand image, add value to extra financial reporting, anticipate regulation
Contribution to global carbon neutrality communication
Climate dividends are useful for investors for impact and financial ROI
Quantification portcos’ climate goodwill to make it easier to include it in the valuation
Enhanced financial performance
not usable to compensate or offset emissions
extra-financial information on �an equity investment’s impact
a measure of the “climate value” created
❌
not a financial asset that you can monetize, sell or transfer
✔
Climate Dividends are…
✔
❌
Important disclaimer: Issuing Climate Dividends must come in addition to an ambitious and credible climate strategy from the company - it can never replace/substitute an emissions reductions effort (see next slide).
Make Climate Dividends one of the main indicators used by international institutions and regulatory standards to help regulate and incentivize carbon reduction finance.
Our ambition
Roadmap
2024
Public Consultation of Protocol
2023
1st cohort: 13 companies
Communication Campaign
2nd cohort: ~35 companies
Climate Dividends Distribution
Climate Dividends Distribution
Communication Campaign
Protocol V2 release
Nov.
Dec.
May
June
Q1
Jan
Jan
Climate Dividends - Financial use case working Group
Q4
2025
Q2
2025 cohort onboarding - kickoff & resources
Q1/2
Climate Dividends Distribution
Communication Campaign
The 1st Pioneers
35+ companies with many investors behind, participating in the 2024 cohort.
The Association behind this initiative
Accelerate the ecological transition’s funding by facilitating the measure of ecological impacts and enabling them to be understood, used and valued by financial systems and tools.
Long term mission
Foster investment in climate solutions contributing to global carbon neutrality, through Climate Dividends.
First Focus
Define and promote Climate Dividends, validate impact methodologies and manage the Climate Dividends’ distribution platform with transparency and traceability.
Practical role
The Climate Dividends Association - Association loi 1901 (d’intérêt général).
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Ready to Issue
Climate Dividends?
Why join now?
🧘
Prepare early-on
The bulk of the work is to define the right methodology and collect the relevant data.
Starting now on is the best way to do it in peace, not in a rush.
🤝
Ensure alignment
Onboard all the relevant stakeholders on your end (e.g investors, employees…) to maximize engagement.
You can also aim to align CD distribution with another internal project (e.g annual impact report).
🫡
Be a pioneer
By joining now, you can publicly share that you’ve engaged in a process to assess and value your climate positive contribution in the most robust way.
✅
The journey to become a CD user
🙋 Presentation
A first exchange to introduce Climate Dividends, the methodology and the added value
🧐 Project blueprint for CD Issuance
We look at what the existing methodologies/analysis (carbon footprint, LCA) and define what’s left to do to measure your impact
🗣️ Q&A
We check the overall fit/relevance of working together and we answer all the questions you may have
🗓️ Definition of the Issuance timeline
Depending on the work to do and your company calendar (e.g other audit) we define the best issuance timing and the relevant retro-planning
✍️ LOI signature
Before we give you access to the resources and support to in your project to issue CD, we ask you to sign a non-binding Letter Of Intent
In progress
What we provide
📚
Resources & Support
📣
Visibility
Preview of the Climate Dividends onboarding guide
1 to 1.5 months
1 week
1 month
1 to 3 months
1 month
1️⃣��Scoping the claim and onboarding stakeholders
🧑⚖️
Verification Opinion
How long does it take?
Timing can vary greatly depending on where you start your journey from. If you’ve already modeled your impact with a methodology compliant with the Protocol, collected all the data and done the calculations, then the “efforts” to issue CD are basically marginal. The typical timeline looks like this ⬇️
2️⃣��Modeling the impact and filling the SDD
3️⃣��Independent 3rd-party intervention
4️⃣��CD �issuance
5️⃣��CD distribution and communication
*CD = Climate Dividends
💡The indicative durations above are representative of the overall project duration, not representative of the actual time spent on calculations/modeling.
What you need to know before joining
💰
How much does it cost?
You will need to pay 2 things:
You will also need to account for internal man-days to conduct the project and/or for the price of a consulting firm if you chose to use one.
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Is there a deadline to join?
No, we’ll integrate you as long as there are open spots on the cohort (limited), so you can join anytime you see fit. However:
That being said, the sooner - the smoother!
🧐
Methodological stuff
In a transparency and standardization effort, your claim and the methodology you use will be made publicly available in our registry (we will of course black confidential activity data out)
If you want to check the existing methodologies, you can check:
Join us to massify Climate Dividends adoption and accelerate the ecological transition.
climate-dividends.com - hello@climate dividends.com
Appendixes
For companies above a certain size* : disclose a clear and robust transition plan. ➡️ This means that companies cannot issue Climate Dividends if they have not yet structured and committed to an emissions reduction plan, covering all relevant emissions (Scopes 1, 2 and 3). The plan must present medium and long-term targets with the means to achieve them. The Climate Dividends Association’s role, however is not to determine on an a per-case basis if each user’s transition plan is robust enough, and therefore will use the targets defined by frameworks like the SBTi or the ACT. The complete list of credible/science-based frameworks is listed in p24 of the WBCSD guidance.
How does it fit in a corporate climate strategy?
To prevent the risk of entities using Climate Dividends for greenwashing, the first eligibility criteria is to have a science-based and externally communicated transition plan clear and robust corporate climate strategy. This means:
For all companies : disclose the carbon footprint of the entity
Important disclaimer: the exact threshold triggering the obligation to have a transition plan in addition to disclosing the carbon footprint will be specified and validated during the Public Consultation of the Protocol.
Reductions are computed on an historical basis, they concern your own emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3).
Emission reduction vs Climate Dividends
Increasing your avoided emissions and reducing your own induced emissions might seem contradictory. It’s also not the same thing
Reductions are regulated by several frameworks (SBTi, ACT, etc.) and must be a priority.
Avoided emissions are computed on a counterfactual basis, they concern emissions outside your organisation.
Avoided emissions are rarely included in voluntary objectives although framework start to form.
To combine both elements, Climate Dividends require a pre-existing reduction strategy and contribute to frameworks on avoided emissions
Gap analysis to issue CD
💨 Carbon/GHG impact assessments
👀 Other aspects
Internal project owner designated
Communication on participation/avoided emissions
Existing audits of extra-financial claims (e.g DPEF in France)
Investors & relevant stakeholders onboarded
Carbon footprint at entity level
Carbon footprint at solution level
High-level comparative GHG assessment (solution level)
Cradle-to-grave comparative LCA
Below is a checklist that can help you assess where you stand in terms of “overall maturity” to issue/distribute Climate Dividends.
Climate Dividends are not a financial asset, they can only be claimed by equity shareholders and cannot be used in a compensation logic. They don’t serve to generate additional income but to value the positive contribution of a company towards its investors and enable it to increase a financial valuation.
CDs, complementary to carbon credits
| Type of Project | Value | Where to value it? | Transfer | Legal nature | Use |
Carbon �credits | Project that can justify of their additionality | Financial value: 1 carbon credit = 1 t of CO₂ eq. = €X depending on the purchase price of the carbon credit. | In the balance sheet and income statement (shown on the assets side of the balance sheet while the expense is shown in the P&L of the income statement). | Carbon credits can be transferred at any time. | Carbon credits are fungible personal property. | Can be used to offset / compensate a carbon footprint. |
Climate �Dividends | Any project that avoids or captures CO2 emissions. | Extra-financial value: annual disclosure of the amount of tons of captured or reduced CO₂ as a result of my investment. | • In a new section, following the carbon footprint calculation, which could be titled “contribution to neutrality”. • In CSR reports and documents related to extra-financial performance ratings. | CO₂ dividends cannot be sold: once distributed to a shareholder, they can only be valued by that shareholder and cannot be passed on. | CO₂ dividends are a shareholder right which are connected to holding shares of a corporation. | Cannot be used for compensation. They only show the contribution to carbon neutrality. |
Carbon credits vs Climate Dividends