Governance (Archived)

A brief overview of carbon class governance is as follows:

• Carbon classes do not define the price of a given credit within the protocol; they define the basket of credits that can be influenced by Protocol mechanics.

• kVCM and K2 holders vote across classes to signal:

  • carbon acquisition preferences (portfolio weight)

  • the rate of carbon acquisition and disposal (portfolio capacity)

• These governance signals affect:

  • protocol purchasing behaviour

  • supply diversity

  • long-term portfolio exposure

  • which classes grow or shrink over time

• Overall carbon pricing is influenced by:

  • kVCM and K2 governance allocations

  • kVCM token price

  • supply and demand for each class

  • the protocol’s acquisition and retirement traffic

• Classes should reflect long-term potential for:

  • transaction volume

  • growing liquidity

  • price appreciation

  • relevance to major buyers (e.g. due to compliance market applicability)

• Misallocating purchase power may result in the protocol holding assets with insufficient demand or stagnant pricing.

For more detail on the role of carbon classes within the Protocol, visit Overview of Carbon Classes.

Whitelisting

Whitelisting carbon means defining which carbon credits may enter the ecosystem via a carbon class, as follows:

• Whitelisting or expanding a class allows new carbon types to enter the system.

• Creating a new class may allow a number of new or existing carbon credits to be integrated into Klima.

• Whitelisting of classes is the primary non-economic governance input within Klima.

• Over time, the whitelisting process may evolve to allow token-voting delegations; or a formal advisory council with voting power.

• Initially it is a centralised process undertaken by the Klima Protocol team, through engagement with market stakeholders.

Initial governance approach

• The main engagement route around carbon class curation will be taken bilaterally between the Klima Protocol team and members of its Partnership Programme. This includes:

  • Anaxee

  • Regen

  • ICR

  • Super Biochar

  • UCR

• A quarterly RFP is issued to partners for their feedback on new and existing classes.

• Whitelisting will be “demand led”: new whitelisted classes (or credits) must have justification that there is legitimate demand.

• Partners and the Protocol team will also consider attributes such as:

  • Certification standard, ICROA status, CCP labels.

  • Methodology relevance to compliance schemes (e.g., CORSIA).

  • Vintage criteria.

  • Geography and project type.

  • Publicly available data on liquidity and volume.

• All credits must have permission from the host registry to technically integrate with their system.

Transparency

• Open-source governance principles emphasise inclusivity, clarity, and auditability – whilst the initial process will be centralised, it will be conducted with maximum transparency, ensuring all market stakeholders understand the process, and can react to decisions fairly.

• All RFPs, feedback and decisions will be published publicly on the Klima Protocol forum.

• Submissions may be anonymised at the request of the participant.