News
30/06/2025
CAD Trust is pleased to open applications for membership to the User Forum.
About the User Forum
The purpose of the User Forum (the “Forum”) is to act as a market sounding board for the Council and the Technical Committee on business, policy and technical matters. The Forum is a diverse group of public and private stakeholders interested in furthering the development of digital public infrastructure to track carbon credit issuances around the world, support transparent accounting of their impact, improve access to trusted information about carbon markets, and ultimately help scale high integrity climate finance.
The Forum is organised around the Policy and Technical streams.
- Under the Policy stream, Forum members are expected to engage with and identify potential data use cases, including partnership opportunities. This will include, but will not be limited to, existing Council-scoped use cases in Article 6 tracking and reporting, double counting identification, tracking credit eligibility for policy or other schemes (e.g., ICVCM’s CCPs), and other policy-related use cases.
- Under the Technical stream, Forum members are expected to provide feedback on product suitability, occasionally through structured UI/UX exercises or joint engagements with the Technical Committee. This will include, but not be limited to, reviewing and commenting on the data model resulting from the work with the Technical Committee, and identifying desired updates for data access solutions (Dashboard and API).
There may also be opportunities to participate in other governance body meetings (e.g., Technical Committee) or ad hoc task groups (e.g., the Double Counting Taskforce) uniting members from across the governance bodies. The Forum is currently led by co-chairs Anton Root (Head of Research, AlliedOffsets) and Svenja Telle (CEO, Denominator).
Membership in the Forum functions on a two-year overlapping term basis to ensure continuity of institutional governance while introducing new perspectives. The term for newly elected Forum Members will last until 30 June 2027. Current Members will serve until 30 June 2026. An additional call is planned for May/June 2026.
Member Appointment and Composition
The Forum Members will be appointed by the CAD Trust Council, taking into consideration the balance between expertise, representativeness, and efficiency for the identified responsibilities.
Each Member shall serve as a representative of their employer or nominating entity (e.g., government, company, agency, or other entity). Each entity may designate up to 2 representatives as part of their application to join the User Forum, considering the Stream engagements described above. The Secretariat suggests that each organisation proposes representatives able to balance higher level strategic engagements and technical work.
Forum Members can also opt to serve the mission of the Climate Action Data Trust in their personal capacity as individuals. In such cases, Members will be expected to carry out their role reflecting the interests of the stakeholder type and region of the entity that they are associated with when conducting work for the Climate Action Data Trust.
Each Member shall:
- act to further the interests, mission and vision of the Climate Action Data Trust and not for personal or professional gain
- not collude or engage in anti-competitive behaviour (e.g., sharing confidential business data)
- treat other Members, Secretariat, and governance bodies with respect at all times
- respect the roles of the Chair and other staff in managing and steering the meetings
Selection Criteria
- Active use of the CAD Trust infrastructure in their organisation or with partners, or commitment to exploring a use case during the User Forum term
- Minimum of 5 years of continuous professional experience in carbon markets. We are looking for a variety of stakeholders across the carbon market value chain, from both the public and private sectors.
- In depth expertise in at least one of the following fields:
- Business activity within carbon markets (both compliance and voluntary)
- Technical matters related to carbon accounting, carbon project structuring, monitoring and evaluation processes and/or climate policy.
- Policy making experience related to carbon markets and climate policy negotiations.
- Academic experience related to carbon markets, climate finance, and climate policy.
- Communication and public affairs activities within carbon markets.
- Technology-related carbon market activities such as data collection and management, development of new data models, development of blockchain-based systems, development and maintenance of complex data infrastructure.
- Availability to join the User Forum online meetings at least four times a year.
- One reference from a current / past employer or a business partner operating in carbon markets.
Application
All applicants are required to submit a completed online form providing:
- A short bio of 200 words maximum
- Statement of interest in the User Forum
- Why are you interested in joining the CAD Trust User Forum, and what use cases are you most interested in (300 words maximum).
- What specific skills will you contribute to the CAD Trust (300 words maximum).
- 1 reference confirming the applicant’s expertise and set of skills and contact details of the referee.
Interested applicants may apply using this form: https://bit.ly/CADTrust-UF
Applications for the User Forum closes on 18th July 2025.
About the CAD Trust
The Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) is an NGO supporting global public data infrastructure for carbon markets. The Singapore-based organisation was founded in 2022 following concept development under the Climate Warehouse Program at the World Bank and an incubation period led by the World Bank, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the Government of Singapore. Through a multi-stakeholder governance model, it supports a decentralised meta data platform that links, aggregates and harmonises all major carbon registry data and a common data model to enable this process. The CAD Trust open-source metadata system uses distributed ledger technology to create a decentralised record of carbon market activity serving as a source of truth across diverse systems.
The organisation aims to mobilise climate action and build confidence in carbon markets by enhancing the transparency and environmental integrity of carbon credit transactions, supporting transparent accounting aligned with global policy objectives (e.g., Article 6 of the Paris Agreement), and helping avoid double counting. To these aims, also CAD Trust aims to promote and increase interoperability between registry systems – e.g., through infrastructure-focused forums at the World Bank or industry bodies like IETA or the ICVCM. The CAD Trust data model has also informed national registry infrastructure in multiple countries.
Since launch, CAD Trust has connected 10 carbon credit registries to its platform, representing close to 90% of all credits issued to date. The Secretariat works with key capacity building partners and governments to support information access and management in developing countries and accelerate the operationalization of carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. CAD Trust is also building on its pioneering work on a common data model to contribute and coordinate greater data harmonisation in the industry, including the development of international standards.