Untangling Climate Finance

Tuesday, July 7, 2026 Sliced 68: Gordian Knot Strategies and Terraformation Collaborate to Unlock Climate Finance and Carbon Market Opportunities at Scale In 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...

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 Sliced 67: What Our Price Discovery Work with TransEnergy Global Revealed In 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 towa...

Season 4, Episode 6: Saif Bhatti on the Facts on the Ground in Carbon Markets In 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 thresho...

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Sliced 66: IFNF Insights Brief No. 4 - From Experimentation to Scale: How IFNF Evolved Across Five Cohorts In 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 se...

Tuesday, May 26, 2026 Sliced 65: The Payors Problem – Why Verified Buyers Matter More Than Good Ideas In 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 f...

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 Sliced 64: Pittsburgh Penguins Purchase Over 12,500 City Forest Credits Across Four Regional Projects In this edition of SLICED, we break down the Pittsburgh Penguins' recent purchase of over 12,500 City Forest Credits across four regional forest preservation projects - what drove the deal, why it's a replicable template for corporates and sports franchises alike, and which t...

Season 4, Episode 5: Sean Penrith & Kerry Morrison Break Down the Santa Marta Conference In this episode, Jay is joined by Gordian Knot Strategies CEO Sean Penrith and Director of Strategic Engagement Kerry Morrison to unpack the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, held in Santa Marta, Colombia in late April, and what it means for the future of climate and n...

Season 4, Episode 4: Campbell Moore on Turning Carbon Projects into Investable Businesses In this episode, Jay chats with Campbell Moore , Managing Director of Carbon Markets at The Nature Conservancy , to explore what it actually takes to turn a nature-based carbon project into an investable business, and why getting that right could unlock billions for communities, forests, and the climate. Cam...

Tuesday, April 14, 2026 Sliced 63: IFNF Insights Brief No. 2 of 5: The TRARO Framework – Seven Elements That Predict Capital Mobilization In this edition of SLICED, we continue our five-part IFNF Insights Brief Series. Brief No. 2 introduces the TRARO Framework — seven elements that predict whether a conservation finance project will actually mobilize capital — and what separates high scorers from...

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 Sliced 62: IFNF Insights Brief No. 1 of 5: From Concept to Capital – Bridging the Readiness Gap In this edition of SLICED, we launch a five-part IFNF Insights Brief Series produced by Gordian Knot Strategies, with support from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. Brief No. 1 explores the gap between projects that are investment worthy...

Season 4, Episode 3: Building a Culture of Doing Good with Ignacio Barriendos Hoppichler In this episode, Jay connects with Ignacio Barriendos Hoppichler , CEO and Founder of DoGood People , to explore why employee engagement is one of the most underleveraged tools in the climate transition, and how activating people inside companies can turn sustainability strategies into real, daily action. Igna...

Tuesday, March 10, 2026 Sliced 61: Turning Urban Forests Into Climate Assets: City Forest Carbon+ Credits For Sale In this edition of SLICED, we announce Gordian Knot Strategies' partnership with City Forest Credits and their Project Operators to officially launch the commercialization of City Forest Carbon+ Credits - a premium class of urban forest carbon assets backed by ICROA endorsement, t...

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 Sliced 60: TransEnergy Global Partners with Gordian Knot Strategies for Energy Transition Credit Price Discovery In this edition of SLICED, we announce TransEnergy Global’s collaboration with Gordian Knot Strategies to launch a market price discovery effort for Energy Transition Credits - an emerging and underdeveloped class of avoided-emissions assets. Their joint work...

Season 4, Episode 2: Mark McPherson on City Forest Credits and Human Impact In this episode, Jay connects with Mark McPherson , Founder and Executive Director of City Forest Credits , to explore why urban forests are one of the most undervalued forms of climate infrastructure, and how carbon finance can help protect them before they’re lost. Mark explains how urban forests deliver climate, health,...

Tuesday, February 10, 2026 Sliced 59: Europe is Defining Carbon Removals and International Credits In this edition of SLICED , we look at two EU announcements that could reshape carbon markets - new standards for permanent carbon removals and a consultation on post-2030 Article 6 credit use, and how these are clarifying supply while leaving demand and market integration still to be decided. - - Sl...

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 Sliced 58: GKS Supports Capital Mobilization & Market Readiness for Liberia’s Carbon Markets Authority In this edition of SLICED, Gordian Knot Strategies announces its partnership with the Carbon Markets Authority (CMA) of the Government of Liberia, focusing on raising funds and providing technical support for the CMA, to help stand up Liberia's carbon market infr...

In this episode, Jay speaks with Maggie Monast, Senior Director, Climate-Smart Agriculture, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), about how agriculture finance is moving from awareness to action on climate risk, and what it will take to scale climate-smart practices. Maggie explains why climate risk is now a material business risk for agriculture lenders and how better tools can translate climate scen...

How To Scale A Business Sean Penrith , CEO of Gordian Knot Strategies, shares his journey from running a lucrative but unfulfilling business in South America to becoming a leader in climate finance. After sailing across the Atlantic and around Cape Horn, Sean returned home to pursue his MBA and started a glass recycling business that set him on a path toward purposeful work. Through founding nine...

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 Sliced 57: Offsetting My 2025 Carbon Footprint In this edition of SLICED, Jay reflects on personal carbon accountability in a year defined by global instability, unpacking what drove his 2025 emissions higher and how carbon markets can play a meaningful role where individual action still matters. -- Sliced  is a weekly short-form dispatch released every Tuesday that featu...

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Sliced 56: Empowering Communities Through Private Capital In this edition, we look at how private capital is emerging as a critical force for empowering disadvantaged communities in the wake of COP30. From impact investing and microfinance to blended finance and carbon markets, the landscape of community-focused investment is evolving fast. These mechanisms are becoming...

In this episode, Jay speaks with Madeleine Carnemark , Director, VCM+ Coalition , Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative at the High Tide Foundation , about the shift from a voluntary carbon market to a verified, high-integrity global market. Madeleine explains how the VCM+ Coalition is working across stakeholders to strengthen market rules, improve transparency, unlock corporate demand, and build d...

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 Sliced 55: Brazil’s Climate Finance Momentum In this edition, we look at Brazil’s climate finance surge heading into COP30. From new forest-finance pledges and carbon-market reforms to international coalitions and catalytic funds, Brazil has been in nonstop motion. It’s become a live case study in how carbon markets, finance architecture, and global alliances collide - a...

In this episode, Jay speaks with Valentin Lautier , founder and CEO of Homaio , about how they are helping compliance carbon markets become accessible to everyday investors. Valentin explains how Homaio turns European Union carbon allowances (EUAs) from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) into investable climate assets that blend impact with return. They discuss the global rise of compliance...

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Sliced: Trump Sinks Global Climate Progress, Again In this edition of we look at how the Trump administration once again sank global climate progress. Six months after we wrote about the IMO’s plan to price global shipping emissions, that progress has been blown off course. U.S.-led opposition just delayed the world’s first global carbon levy - another year lost while CO2...

Tuesday, October 14, 2025 Sliced: VCM+ Coalition Launches Vision for the Verified Carbon Market This edition of Sliced celebrates the launch of the VCM+ Coalition — a bold step toward a verified, high-integrity carbon market. By moving from voluntary to verified, VCM+ aims to unlock billions in credible climate finance and restore trust in carbon markets. Will transparency and integrity finally tu...