OUR TAKE – White Papers

Michael Saylor of Strategy Inc (formerly Micro Strategy) is many things: a visionary, a provocateur, and, depending on whom you ask, either a reckless gambler or a financial genius. But regardless of where one stands on his bold bet, there’s no denying this: Saylor has fundamentally changed how the market thinks about corporate balance sheets, debt instruments, and the intersection of capital markets with unconventional assets.

At Gordian Knot Strategies, we talk a lot about carbon market and credits. But every so often, our work brings us into conversations and collaborations around another climate finance mechanism – biodiversity credits.

These credits aren’t just a carbon credit knockoff. They represent something fundamentally different, which is the measurable improvement of ecosystems such as wetlands restored, species protected, and habitats reconnected. And while still not as mature as carbon credits, biodiversity credits are gaining momentum.

As we pass the halfway point of 2025, carbon markets are deep into a transition that confirms many of our early-year forecasts. Across the IMPACT pillars – Integrity, Momentum, Prices, Achievement, Collaboration, and Targets – Q2 delivered meaningful developments and clear signals for what lies ahead in Q3, particularly as the world prepares for COP30 in Brazil.

I was sitting on the patio after a day out with my wife, hunting down the perfect Xmas gift for her parents. I saw an alert for a post to our corporate Slack channel covering news relating to climate finance and markets. The headline flashed, “Phantom rice projects expose voluntary carbon market failings.” It was a critical article published by Dialogue Earth on December 19, 2024.

Last week, while on a train from Madrid to Guadalajara for a quick day trip, I tuned into one of my favorite climate podcasts – Zero: The Climate Race, produced by Bloomberg. The episode, titled These ‘Beautiful’ Banks are Expected to Save Climate Finance, featured a compelling conversation between host Akshat Rathi and Avinash Persaud, the special advisor on climate risks to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank.