This expert-led session analyzed critical events and movements that impacted the market throughout the year, offering a clear view of what's driving change in both compliance and voluntary markets.
Karolien brings 20 years of experience in climate finance, development finance, and carbon markets. She tracks policy developments across compliance and voluntary markets to steer South Pole's go-to-market strategy. Covering topics ranging from Article 6, CORSIA, and jurisdictional REDD+ to domestic markets and voluntary governance frameworks like SBTi, she oversees policy analysis, market intelligence, government affairs, and commercial strategy. Before joining South Pole, she held positions with the Belgian Foreign Ministry, the United Nations, and Global Green Growth Institute, advising governments across Africa and Asia on climate finance and green investments.
With his deep understanding of South Pole's extensive portfolio of projects and credit issuance, Ricky supports APAC clients with structuring a high quality portfolio offer of credits to meet their requirements and preferences. Ricky brings a wealth of expertise in the industry with prior roles as a Senior Analyst at FGE specialising in Gas/LNG & Carbon-Neutral LNG and as Manager of Risk and Compliance at Dow Jones, Ricky possesses a comprehensive understanding of the field.
Lauren has over a decade of experience in the voluntary carbon market. She started her career working in carbon project development, long-term monitoring and management for a portfolio of projects spanning the globe including technologies such as renewable energy, clean water filtration, and methane digesters. Upon joining South Pole in 2021 she took on managing procurement and trading activities for the Americas region before becoming the regional lead for the carbon portfolio team.
Judit is a Senior Managing Consultant with extensive expertise in mobilising finance for climate project development within the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). She is also experienced in compliance carbon markets, assessing and tracking demand for ITMOs across different countries and sectors, understanding how regulations influence their demand, particularly those relating to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, monitoring buyers that are actively seeking ITMOs, and tracking price and volume expectations.
Her work also involves managing and overseeing every aspect of compliance, strategy, and execution related to the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) include ensuring that clients meet the mandatory reporting and offsetting requirements under CORSIA, advising on strategy, engaging with airlines, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders to navigate the scheme, tracking updates and developments and assessing demand and supply for CORSIA Phase I and Phase II.
Ritika leads the global Article 6 team at South Pole, overseeing policy, government engagement, sovereign ITMO transactions, and market strategy across 30+ country offices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has nearly 15 years of experience advising host country governments, international organizations, and the private sector on carbon markets and climate policy. She has led the development of national Article 6 frameworks, operating manuals, and flagship pilot projects, and serves on the Article 6.4 Roster of Experts for Methodology and Policy in her independent capacity.
