The COP28 TechSprint, launched by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE), COP28 Presidency, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Emirates Institute of Finance (EIF) recognises solutions that address challenges in sustainable finance and focus on scaling up climate action through advancing innovative technology solutions. The awards are based on problem statements developed in three categories: AI, Blockchain and IoT and Sensor Technologies. ZERO13 was selected as the winner in the blockchain category, delivering ‘innovative blockchain solutions in sustainable finance to scale up climate action’.

ZERO13 is a pioneering UK-led solution that fosters connectivity and collaboration across the global climate markets, providing an ecosystem that addresses fragmentation, greenwashing, double counting and price transparency in the carbon credit markets and beyond. These activities can positively influence water, food and energy security globally, which in turn aids economic growth, amplifies investments in sustainable initiatives, and enhances community development.

Since its launch, ZERO13 has expanded its interoperable ‘network of networks’ and grown its partnerships, bridging climate tech and climate fintech firms. Universal Carbon Registry, Decarb.earth, Koat Intelligence Solutions and Plato Data Intelligence now join 50+ end-to-end data, issuance, trading, clearing and settlement lifecycle participants collaborating with the platform.

ZERO13 is a cloud-native platform designed to be infrastructure-agnostic, ensuring flexibility in deployment. It features various dApps for managing security policies and digital assets, executing cross-ledger functions as an Asset Settlement Network (ASN) for atomic settlements. The ZERO13 Ecosystem functions as a decentralised hub, orchestrating workflows among multiple exchanges, participants, custodians, and registries. It seamlessly integrates digital monitoring and verification providers for real-time asset checks on carbon offset supplies and project provenance analysis.

Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group and ZERO13 said, “We are excited and grateful to be recognised as the winner of such a preeminent award at COP28. We are at a critical juncture in carbon markets, where innovation is essential if we are to make a meaningful impact to tackle climate change.” He added, “It is great to see a broad spectrum of players from across the carbon value chain increasingly embrace the collaborative approach that ZERO13 advocates, interconnecting climate tech and climate fintech more closely together.”

His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan, Oliver Christian said: “I’m delighted that GMEX Group is leading the way in providing solutions for climate tech and climate fintech. The expansion of ZERO13 announced at COP28 is testament to UK innovation in digital sustainable finance."

Atul Kumar Mishra, Managing Director at Universal Carbon Registry (UCR) added: “We are delighted to be digitally integrated into ZERO13 allowing our suppliers of high-quality carbon credits to access trading, clearing and settlement capabilities with ease.”

Marco Funk, CEO of Decarb.earth commented: “Our partnership with ZERO13 enables a fully end-to-end carbon credits solution. We generate offsets through our IoT-enabled projects and get them third-party audited and registered, and in turn can sell them seamlessly as spot or forward contracts through the marketplace access ZERO13 provides.”

Dallas Toth, CEO of Koat Intelligence Solutions added: “Koat is a powerful AI intelligence solution providing smart data and insight into conversations with whole web, real time, narrative analysis. Its integration with ZERO13 enables users to see sentiment driven ESG ratings for companies and measure the impact of their sustainability actions.”

Bryan Feinberg, CEO of Plato Data Intelligence commented: “The ZERO13 integration of Plato AI ESG as an open intelligence repository and platform that unlocks the power of vertical search in a highly scalable and engaging way enables ZERO13 ecosystem participants to consume and synthesise real-time ESG data intelligence.”