Untangling Climate Finance

Season 4, Episode 9: Building Soil Carbon Projects at Scale with Elliot FormalIn this episode, Jay sits down with Elliot Formal, CEO of Agoro Carbon Alliance, to look at how a soil carbon developer turns regenerative practices on farms and ranches across 34 states into verified carbon removal credits.Elliot explains how Agoro measures carbon in the ground with more than 110,000 soil samples under Verra’s VM0042, and what keeps producers committed through 10-year contracts, with grower retention above 95 percent. He also walks through the due diligence behind Agoro’s 12-year agreement with Microsoft and the first credits delivered under it.He also gets into the tougher questions buyers are asking about soil carbon, and how his path through finance and Yara led him to the CEO seat.If you develop, finance, or buy agricultural carbon credits, this conversation shows what a well-built program looks like from the inside.Resources:LinkedIn - Elliot Formal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-formal/ Agoro Carbon Alliance: https://agorocarbonalliance.com/--About:Untangling Climate Finance⁠ explores the dynamic field of climate change finance through conversations with industry experts about topics including climate solutions, global carbon markets, carbon projects, and much more.If you have any questions, comments, a future guest recommendation, or are interested in joining Jay for an episode, please shoot him a message at: ⁠[email protected]⁠Credits:The podcast is produced by ⁠⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠⁠.It is written and narrated by Jay Tipton. It is edited by ⁠⁠Alfredo Rodriguez Allen.Music is by ⁠⁠Diamond_Tunes⁠. 

Season 4, Episode 8: Anton Root on the State of the Voluntary Carbon MarketIn this episode, Jay sits down with Anton Root, Co-Founder & Head of Research at AlliedOffsets, to read the state of the voluntary carbon market straight from the data, tracking projects across nearly 40 registries.Anton digs into why the weighted-average price of credits has quietly doubled in the last couple of years, why the integrity push is starting to show up in the numbers with CCP-tagged issuances in the first half of 2026 nearly matching all of 2024, and how the CDR market is consolidating now that sellers outnumber buyers. He also gets into the oversupply problem the market largely isn’t talking about and explains that Asia just overtook Europe as the biggest source of new credit demand.Anton and his team see the entire market. If there's a number moving in this market, they're the ones counting it. Give this ep a listen!Resources:LinkedIn - Anton Root: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/anton-rootAlliedOffsets: https://alliedoffsets.com/--About:Untangling Climate Finance⁠ explores the dynamic field of climate change finance through conversations with industry experts about topics including climate solutions, global carbon markets, carbon projects, novel technologies, and much more.If you have any questions, comments, a future guest recommendation, or are interested in joining Jay for an episode, please shoot him a message at: ⁠[email protected]⁠Credits:The podcast is produced by ⁠⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠⁠.It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠⁠Jay Tipton⁠⁠.Music is by ⁠⁠Diamond_Tunes⁠. 

Mighty Measure - Stories and strategies of meaningful impacts in business and beyond…Sean Penrith, CEO of Gordian Knot Strategies, a climate finance consultancy aiming to mobilize $1B per year by 2030 (and having mobilized $1.67B to date) joins Kim Allchurch Flick. Penrith shares his path from entrepreneurship in Argentina to founding a sustainable glass company, then moving into climate policy, carbon markets, and impact investing in Portland before launching GKS to “translate” between capital providers and climate projects. He argues climate capital isn’t flowing due to a nature-negative economy, lack of standardization, unclear risk/return profiles, and failure to price ecosystem services viewed as public goods. GKS focuses on nature-based solutions while also evaluating energy and tech options. He urges consumers to choose responsible banks, support climate-forward policymakers, and pressure companies, and defends carbon markets as a conduit moving capital to Global South “carbon sink baskets,” despite corporate fear of reputational risk.Time Stamps00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro01:36 Sean’s Entrepreneurial Journey04:52 GKS Mission and Funding Gap06:03 Why Climate Capital Stalls08:11 Nature-Based Solutions Focus10:28 What Consumers Can Do19:31 B Corps and Better Standards23:34 Carbon Markets and Reputation Risk28:56 Nature’s Fast Comebacks32:44 Trillions Needed and Leadership35:09 How to Reach Sean35:28 Dinner Guests and Wrap-Up

Season 4, Episode 7: Jimena Caballero Steps Out From Behind the Scenes at Gordian Knot StrategiesIn this episode, Jay chats down with Jimena Caballero, Senior Associate at Gordian Knot Strategies, to explore her path from lab bench to climate finance, and what it's like building the tools GKS uses to screen climate projects.Jimena breaks down how TRARO, GKS's seven-element investment screening tool, works. She also touches on her work with City Forest Credits and due diligence for a major U.S. airline's carbon credit portfolio. She then turns the lens inward on leading GKS's first-ever sustainability report, including the why GKS elected to offset the firm's footprint twice over.Jimena's spent nearly 3 years helping build the tools behind a lot of what GKS does, and she's rarely been the one telling the story. This time, she is. Give it a listen!Resources:LinkedIn - Jimena Caballero: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimena-caballero-191160a1/ TRARO: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/impact-screening-traro/ 2025 GKS Sustainability Report: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/GKS-Annual-Sustainability-Report-2025.pdf --About:Untangling Climate Finance⁠ explores the dynamic field of climate change finance through conversations with industry experts about topics including climate solutions, global carbon markets, carbon projects, novel technologies, and much more.If you have any questions, comments, a future guest recommendation, or are interested in joining Jay for an episode, please shoot him a message at: ⁠[email protected]⁠The podcast is produced by ⁠⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠⁠.It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠⁠Jay Tipton⁠⁠.Music is by ⁠⁠Diamond_Tunes⁠. 

Tuesday, July 14, 2026Sliced 69: IFNF Insights Brief No. 5 - Overcoming Structural Barriers: How Federal Bridge Capital WorksIn this edition of SLICED, we close out our five-part IFNF Insights Brief Series with Brief No. 5, examining how catalytic bridge capital systematically absorbed the non-recoverable transaction costs - legal structuring, data validation, governance formation - that prevent investment-worthy conservation finance projects from becoming investment-ready ones. If you missed any of the previous briefs, visit gordianknotstrategies.com to catch up on the full series.--Sliced is a weekly short-form dispatch released every Tuesday that features original thought pieces from our team members with the goal of slicing apart the various complex aspects of climate finance. If you want to check out the written version of Sliced, click here: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/weekly-newsletter/Sliced is produced by ⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠. It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠Jay Tipton⁠. Visit us at www.gordianknotstrategies.com. Music is by ⁠Coma-Media.

Tuesday, July 7, 2026Sliced 68: Gordian Knot Strategies and Terraformation Collaborate to Unlock Climate Finance and Carbon Market Opportunities at ScaleIn this edition of SLICED, we announce our new strategic partnership with Terraformation, one of the world's leading vertically-integrated forest restoration developers. This collaboration aims to help translate Terraformation's growing project portfolio into bankable commercial and financing structures at a moment when demand for high-integrity carbon removal is accelerating.--Sliced is a weekly short-form dispatch released every Tuesday that features original thought pieces from our team members with the goal of slicing apart the various complex aspects of climate finance.If you want to check out the written version of Sliced, click here: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/weekly-newsletter/Sliced is produced by ⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠. It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠Jay Tipton⁠. Visit us at www.gordianknotstrategies.com. Music is by ⁠Coma-Media.

Tuesday, June 23, 2026Sliced 67: What Our Price Discovery Work with TransEnergy Global RevealedIn this edition of SLICED, we share the headline findings from our price discovery work with TransEnergy Global. This work was one of the first structured market intelligence analyses ever conducted for energy transition credits (ETCs). We cover what ETCs are, why the market's structural shift toward quality creates a potential opening for a new high-integrity instrument, and what it will take to price one credibly before a single credit has traded.--Sliced is a weekly short-form dispatch released every Tuesday that features original thought pieces from our team members with the goal of slicing apart the various complex aspects of climate finance. If you want to check out the written version of Sliced, click here: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/weekly-newsletter/Sliced is produced by ⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠. It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠Jay Tipton⁠. Visit us at www.gordianknotstrategies.com. Music is by ⁠Coma-Media.

Season 4, Episode 6: Saif Bhatti on the Facts on the Ground in Carbon MarketsIn this episode, Jay chats with Saif Bhatti, Founder & CEO of Renoster, to explore what a decade of rating nature-based carbon projects teaches you, and what happens when you use that knowledge to build one yourself.Saif unpacks why only 15% of the 240 projects Renoster rated met the one ton for one credit threshold, how satellite data and remote sensing cut through the craftsmanship of project documentation to find the real facts on the ground, and why the auditor conflict of interest remains one of the market's most stubborn structural problems. He also walks us through Apollo, Renoster's forest carbon program bringing small landowners in Maine into the carbon market for the first time.Saif has rated over 200 carbon projects. He knows exactly what a bad one looks like. Now he's building one. Give it a listen.Resources:LinkedIn - Saif Bhatti: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saifbhatti/Renoster: https://www.renoster.co/Apollo Program: https://apollo.renoster.co/ --About:Untangling Climate Finance⁠ explores the dynamic field of climate change finance through conversations with industry experts about topics including climate solutions, global carbon markets, carbon projects, novel technologies, and much more.If you have any questions, comments, a future guest recommendation, or are interested in joining Jay for an episode, please shoot him a message at: ⁠[email protected]⁠Credits:The podcast is produced by ⁠⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠⁠.It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠⁠Jay Tipton⁠⁠.Music is by ⁠⁠Diamond_Tunes⁠. 

Tuesday, June 9, 2026Sliced 66: IFNF Insights Brief No. 4 - From Experimentation to Scale: How IFNF Evolved Across Five CohortsIn this edition of SLICED, we continue our five-part IFNF Insights Brief Series with Brief No. 4, tracing how a portfolio of 38 conservation finance projects shifted over five cohorts from broad R&D to a tighter set of replicable, investment-ready models, and what separated the projects that scaled from those that stalled. A new IFNF brief drops every month, so keep an eye out next month for No. 5.--Sliced is a weekly short-form dispatch released every Tuesday that features original thought pieces from our team members with the goal of slicing apart the various complex aspects of climate finance. If you want to check out the written version of Sliced, click here: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/weekly-newsletter/Sliced is produced by ⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠. It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠Jay Tipton⁠. Visit us at www.gordianknotstrategies.com. Music is by ⁠Coma-Media.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026Sliced 65: The Payors Problem – Why Verified Buyers Matter More Than Good IdeasIn this edition of SLICED, we continue our five-part IFNF Insights Brief Series with Brief No. 3, breaking down the single most discriminating factor in GKS's TRARO readiness framework - the Payors element - and what verified buyer readiness actually looks like across $108 million in blended finance mobilized through the Innovative Finance for National Forests program. A new IFNF brief drops every month, so keep an eye out next month for No. 4.--Sliced is a weekly short-form dispatch released every Tuesday that features original thought pieces from our team members with the goal of slicing apart the various complex aspects of climate finance. If you want to check out the written version of Sliced, click here: https://gordianknotstrategies.com/weekly-newsletter/Sliced is produced by ⁠Gordian Knot Strategies⁠. It is written, narrated, and edited by ⁠Jay Tipton⁠. Visit us at www.gordianknotstrategies.com. Music is by ⁠Coma-Media.