How is forward carbon trade being used as a financing mechanism to support early-stage climate-positive innovation, focusing on high-cost technologies like Engineered Carbon Dioxide Removal (ECDR). In her PhD project, Mia Blatancic draws from three empirical articles to explain how buyers and suppliers co-create financing structures that address gaps in nascent carbon markets.
In Mia Blatancic's PhD thesis "Carbon as a currency: Strategic use of carbon trade to spur Innovation in nascent markets", she investigates how forward carbon trade is being used as a financing mechanism to support early-stage climate-positive innovation, focusing on high-cost technologies like Engineered Carbon Dioxide Removal (ECDR). She draws from three empirical articles to explain how buyers and suppliers co-create financing structures that address gaps in nascent carbon markets.
Ahead of her upcoming PhD defence she shares insights from her research and how she believes they could benefit society.
While carbon markets are typically framed as tools for emissions accountability, Mia's work explores their underexamined role in financing climate-positive innovation that face high costs and uncertain demand. It addresses the challenge of how to fund and scale early-stage technologies in the absence of traditional market incentives or ready customer bases.
Forward contracts are not merely procurement tools - they act as non-equity investment instruments that allow early buyers to support and shape emerging markets. Mia's research has identified two strategic plays:
- the Deficiency Play, where corporate buyers match their capabilities to fill market gaps and de-risk supplier ventures, and
- the Generativity Play, where they deliberately create conditions for market expansion and participation.
Practical value
Further, Mia's research offers practical value across sectors:
- For scholars, it offers a conceptual bridge between real options reasoning and open innovation, reframing forward trade as an actionable investment logic.
- For managers and entrepreneurs, it highlights design principles for structuring impactful carbon trade agreements.
- For policymakers, it informs strategies to accelerate climate innovation by leveraging public–private complementarities in financing climate- positive ventures.
Future impact: New pathways to fund climate solutions
By rethinking carbon trade as a catalyst for innovation - not just emissions accounting - Mia Blatancic's research opens new pathways to fund climate solutions. It encourages firms and institutions to design financing mechanisms that foster trust, signal demand, and support the emergence of robust, high-integrity carbon markets.
PhD defence
Mia Blatancic will defend her PhD project on 26 November 2025.
See location, summary and other details of Mia's defence here
Reach out to Mia on LinkedIn
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