We present a special episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from the IETA North America Climate Summit 2026.

SmarterMarkets™ returned to the IETA North America Climate Summit to catch up with market practitioners on the challenges and opportunities in the development of the carbon markets.

This year’s conference focused on the “New Carbon Order: Innovation, Investment, and Interoperability.” In partnership with IETA, we caught up with a cross section of participants about what they and their organizations have been working on, where they see progress, and what we need to be doing next. Some common themes included the ongoing integration of compliance and voluntary markets, the role of AI and digital technology in carbon markets, and the need for standardization and harmonization across the growing network of country and regional emissions schemes.

We’ve compiled a selection of those 7 interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. The full interviews for each guest are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal.

Our guests in order of appearance are:

Guy Turner – Managing Director, MSCI Carbon Markets

Sandeep Roy Choudhury – Co-Founder & Director, VNV

Alex Saer – CEO, Cercarbono

Alexia Kelly – Managing Director of Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative, High Tide Foundation

Mandy Rambharos – CEO, Verra + Candace Vinke – Chief Program Development and Innovation Officer, Verra

Benoît Clément – VCM+ Fellow, Financial Infrastructure for Carbon Markets (FICM), Verified Carbon Market Collaborative (VCM+)

Thomas McMahon – Co-Founder, Abaxx Technologies