Klima Foundation drives innovation in carbon markets by developing open-source technologies and supporting projects that enhance transparency, efficiency, and impact.
Through funding, incubation, and sharing technical expertise, we enable the development of decentralized solutions that strengthen carbon market infrastructure.
What We Do
By catalyzing research, development, and innovation into technical solutions that can address various market pain points, Klima Foundation aims to demonstrate how novel technologies can support the growth of these critically important markets.
While technology itself is not a silver bullet for addressing market failures in any market, decentralized, open-source technologies can help in specific use cases associated with low transparency, high transaction costs, and disconnected market infrastructure.
Borne from the KlimaDAO project, at the core of Klima Foundation's work is a global network of passionate contributors—experts, developers, community members, and professionals—committed to building a more accessible and impactful carbon market for the future.
Innovate
Four Pillars of Impact
Klima Foundation supports a diverse range of projects aimed at accelerating decarbonization.
Our initiatives include research, funding, and the development of decentralized solutions that drive impactful climate action.
1
Allocating Funds to Support Carbon Removal and Avoidance Projects
We directly fund carbon projects to support them in their early stages of development.
2
Interoperable Carbon Market Infrastructure
We support the development of blockchain based carbon market infrastructure that is interoperable with third-party technologies.
3
Open-Source Technologies
The technology developed is open-sourced to facilitate further innovation and enhance the composability of our ecosystem.
4
Decentralized Solutions
We prioritize the development of decentralised solutions that can increase participation in carbon markets.
Carbon markets are crucial in addressing global emissions, but their growth is hindered by many challenges.
22 gigatonnes of CO₂e
emission reduction policy gap to align with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target
According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2023, current plans are projected to result in net emissions of 55 GtCO₂e emissions by 2030, while limiting warming to below 1.5°C requires reducing net emissions to 33 GtCO₂e. There is a gap of 22 GtCO₂e, highlighting the urgent need for stronger commitments and effective carbon market strategies to meet global climate goals.
$250 billion by 2050
For the carbon markets to play their role in closing the gap, they need to innovate
Despite UNEP's projections, the voluntary carbon market (VCM) faces major challenges that hinder its growth. Fragmentation across registries and inconsistent standards drive up transaction costs and limit market scalability. Businesses struggle with varying carbon credit definitions, pricing methods, and market access. A lack of transparency further fuels concerns around real impact, deterring investment in high-impact carbon-reduction projects.
Empowering Climate Action Through Research, Funding, and Building Decentralized Solutions
Market Infrastructure for Trading Carbon Credits
Carbonmark’s mission is to provide a platform that serves as a gateway to environmental markets, facilitating the flow of value and information across them for the benefit of our planet, people, and economy.
Carbonmark’s platform ensures real-time fair pricing, fast and cost-efficient transactions, and additional benefits such as reduced risks, integrations with DeFi (decentralized finance) tools, enhanced tracking of asset origins, and greater operational flexibility. These features build trust, save time, and improve market efficiency.
Eco-Conscious Community
KlimaDAO was an organic decentralized autonomous organization that was launched in 2021. It was originally a fork of Olympus, and it was designed to bootstrap liquidity for carbon credits on the blockchain.
DAO was founded by a group of individuals and entrepreneurs who were active in the fields of DeFi and carbon markets. It rapidly scaled to become an open-source project developing technologies for the carbon markets, with over 100 individual contributors participating in the project’s development.
Carbon Project Funding
Whilst Foundation's technical solutions steward the development of aims to increase the overall velocity of carbon markets, there is no substitute for direct funding to project developers to have a direct, tangible climate impact.
The ecosystem has, therefore, allocated tranches of funding to a diverse set of carbon credit projects from geographies worldwide. Klima Foundation acts as the counterparty in these agreements for the ecosystem.
Liquidity Hub for Better Price Discovery
Critiques of the carbon markets note them as opaque, flawed, and ineffective. Yet they exhibit tremendous potential for impact and unprecedented levels of finance.
Klima Protocol takes forward much of what has been learned from the emergence of decentralized technologies from carbon markets through its carbon classification system, staking mechanisms, and algorithms.
kUSD
kUSD represents a decentralized piece of market infrastructure that is symbiotic with the broader ecosystem stewarded forward by the Foundation. The Foundation was an angel investor in kUSD, and is a primary user of kUSD.
The yield from treasury bills strengthens kUSD’s reserves, ensuring long-term stability, security, and liquidity expansion. At the same time, capital flows into high-quality carbon investments, creating positive environmental outcomes while delivering returns for holders.
KlimaDAO Japan
KlimaDAO JAPAN is a start-up grant funded by the Klima Foundation that is active within the Japanese market, and works with the J-Credit standard.
Its mission is to further Klima Foundation’s mission within Japan by working to commercialize key parts of the ecosystem’s stack by forging partnerships with local businesses, institutions and governmental agencies.
Foundation Council
Thomas Contin
President
Thomas is a seasoned legal expert and blockchain advisor with over 15 years of experience in IT, Intellectual Property, and FinTech law. At Klima Foundation, he provides strategic legal guidance to ensure compliance, support blockchain integration, and strengthen the foundation’s role in the evolving carbon markets.
Giorgio Alessandro Dona Danioni
TBD
Giorgio is a lawyer and entrepreneur committed to sustainability, combining his expertise in law and innovation to drive positive climate impact. At Klima Foundation, he focuses on transforming the carbon market through blockchain technology and legal strategies, fostering transparency and efficiency in environmental finance.
Alex Taylor
Council Member
Alex is an expert in renewable energy and sustainable development, with advanced degrees in environmental science and renewable energy engineering. As a former consultant for both public and private sectors, he brings strategic insights to Klima Foundation, where he focuses on integrating new solutions into carbon markets and advancing sustainability initiatives.
Executives
Scott brings a financial perspective–having worked in equities at a leading global financial institution, he understands market dynamics and how capital flows can be harnessed to drive climate impact.
Scott Michael Kilduff JR.
Chief Economist
Lead Contributors
Andrew Bonneau
CEO
Andrew is a seasoned leader in climate finance and digital technologies. At Klima Foundation, he enhances the trading of environmental commodities by leveraging his hands-on consultancy expertise in the carbon market.
Brendan McGill
CTO
Brendan leads a team in developing user-centric applications for verified carbon credits, bringing his expertise as a seasoned software developer and entrepreneur focused on carbon markets and sustainability.
Marcus Levine
System Architect
Marcus develops robust environmental market models at Klima Foundation, leveraging his scientific background (PhD in physics).
Daniel Hwang
Operations Lead
As an advisor at Klima Foundation, Daniel brings expertise in Web3 infrastructure and ecosystem building. He also founded the Web3 Climate Working Group, co-founded Blockchain x Climate at the 2023 World Economic Forum, and leads Kintusgi Technologies, advancing blockchain solutions for climate action.
Daria Frangopoulos
Head of Marketing
With over 10 years of expertise in marketing, Daria has driven blockchain product growth across global markets. At Klima Foundation, she is leading Marketing Strategy and PR.
Chaz Schmidt
Operations Lead
Chaz contributes his near decade of DeFi experience and expertise to the Klima Foundation. At Klima Foundation, he develops software solutions and explores what the cutting edge has to offer carbon.
Our Team
Meet the passionate individuals driving our mission forward.
Driving positive impact
As a not-for-profit organization, all proceeds from our initiatives are reinvested into the carbon market ecosystem—ensuring that every transaction contributes to accelerating global climate action.
By taking on market risks and testing cutting-edge solutions, we strive to unlock greater funding, stronger accountability, and better outcomes for the planet.
Milestones
Our Journey:
Key Milestones and Achievements
Genesis
Number of standalone projects began experimenting with blockchain solutions for carbon.
2021 Launch
Deployment of the Klima Protocol, and the genesis of its DAO.
2022 Project Funding Initiatives
A portion of the Klima Protocol's profits were allocated to carbon project developers to directly fund pro-environmental projects globally.
2023 Carbonmark Launch
Launched Carbonmark, a pioneering blockchain-enabled automated carbon trading platform designed to enhance transparency, trust, and interoperability in the carbon market.
2024 Foundation
Klima Foundation created to steward the further development of the Klima Ecosystem.
2025 Plans
Introducing cutting-edge technologies to further streamline carbon markets and empower climate action.