From fringe to forefront: exploring superpollutants at New York Climate Week

Superpollutants took center stage at this year’s New York Climate Week, reflecting a growing recognition of the opportunity to tackle these high-impact emissions through the carbon market. What was previously a niche conversation has evolved into a broader discussion around finance, implementation, and how market participants can work together to turn that opportunity into action. 

Across summits, happy hours, roundtables, and more, we had conversations with buyers, developers, investors, and other market participants about the role superpollutants can play in the carbon market and what it will take to turn that opportunity into action. 

In this next episode of our Superpollutant Season 2 series, we are highlighting some of the key takeaways and themes that emerged from those conversations. 

1. The challenge is no longer proving that superpollutant solutions exist - it’s scaling them. 

Many superpollutant solutions are already technically mature and can deliver impact quickly. The bigger challenge is creating the conditions that allow them to be deployed at scale. 

Our take: The opportunity in superpollutants is compelling due to the near-term climate impact. What’s missing right now is the market and policy signals that make implementation economically viable. 

2. There’s enough capital, but not enough demand.

Project developers and investors have the capital to allocate toward climate solutions, but they need confidence there will be demand for superpollutant credits.  

Our take: If we want more capital flowing toward superpollutant solutions, buyers need to create a clear market signal to generate an attractive investment proposition. 

3. Superpollutants span multiple aspects of corporate climate action. 

There are many ways companies can integrate superpollutants into their climate strategies. They can reduce superpollutant emissions in their own operations, engage in carbon markets to support “beyond value chain” opportunities, and advocate for policies that support the reduction of superpollutants. 

Our take: For companies, superpollutant action is more than reducing their own footprint. A deeper understanding of the superpollutant challenge, including the science, the availability of cost-effective, high-impact projects (including outside one’s one value chain) and the role corporates can play in advocacy with governments can increase corporate impact.

4. Superpollutants aren’t just about tonnes, they’re about people, too.  

Superpollutants can generate tangible benefits for communities, health, agriculture, livelihoods, and waste management. These are the “hidden assets” that are often overlooked when we focus only on tonnes, but they can help make the real-world value and urgency of action more tangible

Our take: Superpollutants offer powerful stories. We heard about communities breathing clearing air, farmers improving productivity, and an orphan well being plugged on land where a family lives and children play. These human stories, paired with credible data and analysis, can help stakeholders better understand what is at stake — and why action on superpollutants matters. 

5. There is no “i” in superpollutants; we need to connect the whole ecosystem. 

The next phase of superpollutant action isn’t just about buyers or carbon markets. It will require coordination across governments, companies, investors, project developers, landowners, and other key market participants. 

Our take: No one can scale superpollutant action alone. The next phase is connecting these pieces into an ecosystem that can move capital and action toward the highest-impact opportunities. If this year was about putting superpollutants firmly on the climate agenda, the year ahead should be about proving what happens when the ecosystem starts moving together.