The Earthshot Podcast

Many climate, agriculture, and development projects begin with strong science, committed funding, and good intentions.

Yet years later, practices are abandoned, participation fades, and the outcomes that once looked promising begin to unravel.

Why?

In this episode, Troy Carter sits down with Ina Walter and Corné de Louw to explore one of the most overlooked dimensions of permanence: people.

Drawing on decades of experience across carbon markets, regenerative agriculture, rural finance, coffee supply chains, and community development, Ina and Corné argue that lasting change depends on something many projects still underestimate: whether the people expected to sustain a system had any hand in shaping it.

The conversation explores:
Why participation and ownership are not the same thing
What carbon markets can learn from decades of development experience
How household dynamics influence project outcomes
Why trust matters as much as methodology
The tension between speed, scale, and meaningful engagement
How banks, funders, and project developers can build systems that endure

At the heart of the discussion is a simple but challenging question: Did the people expected to sustain the system have any hand in building it?

Whether you work in carbon markets, conservation, agriculture, climate finance, or systems change more broadly, this conversation offers a perspective that is often missing from discussions about scale, permanence, and impact.

🔗 Ina Walter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inawalter/
🔗 Corné de Louw: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cornedelouw/

🎙️ The Earthshot Podcast

What if the biggest barrier to solving climate change isn’t technology — but the way we finance it?
In this conversation, Troy Carter sits down with Dr. Delton Chen, founder of the Global Carbon Reward, to explore a radically different approach to funding climate and ecological action at the scale the problem demands.
Delton’s idea starts with a simple observation: there is a massive global shortfall in climate finance. Projects struggle to get off the ground, and current market structures rely on fragmented standards, voluntary demand, and complex chains of intermediaries.

The Global Carbon Reward proposes something different — a system where:
Climate-positive actions are directly rewarded through a new financial asset (XCR)
Central banks act as guarantors of a long-term price floor
Private capital is mobilised by treating climate action as an investable, low-risk asset
Carbon is no longer traded for offsetting, but accounted for and retired at the point of impact
They go deep into:
Why the world faces a multi-trillion dollar climate finance gap
How current carbon markets compare to a reward-based system
The role central banks could play in stabilising long-term climate investment
Whether this kind of system can realistically emerge — and where it might begin
The deeper challenge: how to price and manage systemic risk to the Earth’s carbon cycle
This is a wide-ranging conversation that steps back from day-to-day project work and asks a more fundamental question:
If we were designing the system from scratch, how would we fund the transition to a stable climate?

🔗 Dr. Delton Chen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deltonchen/🌐 Global Carbon Reward: https://globalcarbonreward.org/
🎙️ Listen on Spotify / Watch on YouTube: The Earthshot Podcast

Greg Adams - CFO of Chestnut carbon (Greg's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-adams-0ba79a5/)
https://chestnutcarbon.com/

What does it actually take to finance nature at scale — not in theory, but in practice?
In this episode, Troy Carter speaks with Greg Adams, about what it took to turn large-scale reforestation in the U.S. into something banks, buyers, and long-term capital could support.

Greg walks through Chestnut’s journey from early land acquisition to signing long-term offtake agreements with Microsoft, and ultimately closing one of the most significant project finance deals the nature-based carbon market has seen to date. The conversation goes deep into why contract structure matters, why land ownership changes the risk profile, and how lessons from energy and infrastructure finance can be applied to forests.

They explore:
Why long-term offtake agreements are foundational for scaling nature projects

What made Chestnut’s reforestation projects bankable to major lenders

How quality, integrity, and cost discipline have to coexist

The role of registries and standards in building buyer confidence

Why carbon markets need fewer “snowflakes” and more common structure

How conservation can be both high-integrity and financially durable

This is a candid, practical conversation for developers, financiers, buyers, and anyone trying to understand what it will take for restoration and reforestation to move from pilot projects to real infrastructure.

In this episode, Troy Carter sits down with Anthony Stevens, who leads innovation across digital assets and financial markets at Northern Trust, to talk about the less-visible work that determines whether carbon markets can really grow up: the systems that make credits trackable, transferable, and trustworthy at institutional scale.
Anthony brings a capital-markets perspective to a practical question: what has to be true for large financial institutions to participate with confidence?
They explore:
What “trust” looks like in practice: custody, controls, auditability, and clean data

Where today’s carbon markets still create friction and risk

How registries, standards, and market participants can better align

What digital rails and tokenization can help with (and what they can’t)

What it would take for carbon markets to become stable enough for long-term capital

If you’re following the evolution of carbon markets, this one gets into the details that shape everything downstream.
🔗 Anthony Stevens: https://linkedin.com/in/anthony-stevens-933147/?skipRedirect=true
🌐 Northern Trust: https://www.northerntrust.com
🎙️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_NxN6lxB9A8

Diego's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-justiniano-aa92a09/
In this episode, Troy Carter speaks with Diego Justiniano, CEO of Exomad Green, about how Bolivia is building one of the most ambitious climate operations on the planet — and what it means for a nation to lead from its forests, not its factories.Exomad Green transforms what was once forest waste into biochar — a stable form of carbon that locks CO₂ away for centuries while restoring soil health. But this conversation isn’t just about biochar. It’s about the rise of a new kind of industry — one that’s circular, restorative, and deeply local.Troy and Diego discuss:- How Exomad Green built one of the world’s largest carbon removal operations- Why Bolivia’s forests can anchor a new era of regenerative industry- The challenges of scaling climate infrastructure in the Global South- What partnership and trust really mean in high-integrity carbon markets- How climate action can create jobs, dignity, and resilience — not just offsetsThis is a story about transformation - where industrial power meets ecological wisdom.From the heart of South America, Diego offers a vision of what a truly regenerative economy could look like when it begins with community, courage, and the forest itself.

🎙️ Listen on Spotify and YouTube: The Earthshot Podcast

Overview of Exomad
Exomad Green specializes in biochar production, transforming sustainable forestry waste—otherwise incinerated by sawmills—into biochar, a valuable resource that supports a circular economy and reduces environmental impact. Our biochar production plays a crucial role in carbon removal by sequestering CO2, aligning with global climate goals. With the support of the CDR market, we are able to donate our biochar production to local farmers and communities, enhancing agricultural yields and driving extensive research to advance sustainable farming practices. Exomad Green is committed to environmental stewardship, fostering local economic growth, and creating lasting benefits for communities and ecosystems.
Website - www.exomadgreen.com