30 May 2024 • 1 minute read

Carbon credits: Where is the market headed, and how can it fulfill its potential?

Energy Transition Dinner series

Thursday, May 30, 2024

DLA Piper’s Energy Sector hosted the first dinner event in our Energy Transition Dinner series.

Andrew Westgate, DLA Piper partner, joined Uti Agarwal, Americas Carbon Originator at BP, to facilitate a discussion around the challenges facing the current carbon market. We explored such issues as credit quality, lack of supply, and uncertainty created by claims of greenwashing; the various efforts in the marketplace to address these issues; and how carbon credits can fulfill their potential as an efficient method of achieving cost reduction and removal of greenhouse gases.

For more information
Please contact Tamar Tsemach with questions.

Speakers

Andrew Westgate

Partner, DLA Piper

Andrew Westgate has deep experience in regulatory issues and contractual structures for carbon credits and other environmental attributes. He advises on the structuring, regulatory compliance, credit stacking, negotiation, and drafting of contracts for carbon credits, as well as carbon capture and sequestration, including corporate structuring for such projects. Andrew has advised on carbon credit programs, including multiparty negotiations regarding extension of California’s cap-and-trade program and the creation of several first-in-the-market transactions for carbon credits and carbon offtake.

Speaker bio

Utkarsh (Uti) Agarwal

Americas Carbon Originator at BP

Utkarsh (Uti) Agarwal invests in carbon projects and project developers in the Americas and Africa with the goal of bringing high-quality supply of credits to the compliance and voluntary carbon markets. Previously, Uti was the Vice President and Head of Transactions at Emergent, a nonprofit that launched the $1.5 billion LEAF Coalition. He additionally spent a decade working in climate finance and renewable energy, including at Encourage Capital in New York, where he made investments in forestry carbon projects and emerging climate tech opportunities.