Consultation takeaways

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SPECTRA Open Consultation

Summary and Response

Introduction

SPECTRA is happy to share the following excerpts from public comments, our response, and general summary of topics addressed during the open public consultation between December 2, 2025 and January 31, 2026. Many thanks to the dozens of respondents who wrote in.

Questions asked were:

• What are your goals in mitigating super pollutants? How does super pollutant action fit into your operational or sustainability plans?

• What is your current state of super pollutant mitigating activity? If possible, feel free to describe your operational budget.

• How could SPECTRA structure its services or organization to best serve your super pollutant needs?

• Anything else you would like us to know that we may have missed?

• Please share any comments or suggestions regarding the formation and operation of SPECTRA.

In general, responses were positive and supportive. Respondents are enthusiastic about SPECTRA and interested in being involved, even when noting limitations on their abilities to help. Many express appreciation for the initiative and optimism about collaboration.

Respondents see SPECTRA as a promising, much-needed initiative. The clearest expectations are that it remain independent, transparent, practitioner-driven, and practically useful, while fostering broad collaboration across sectors and project types.

Below please find quotes which highlight key themes, and SPECTRA’s written reply.

Names of individuals and their organizations have been redacted to preserve anonymity.

Key Comments and Themes

1. Independence & Credibility

Comments

• Multiple respondents emphasize that SPECTRA should be strong, independent, and credible, especially to gain trust across diverse stakeholders.

• Transparency and verification are repeatedly highlighted as critical.

“I think [the] key to success will be in eliminating conflicts of interest - i.e. not having project developers or solutions providers favored in any specific way or driving SPECTRAs agenda. The challenge is buyer[s] need deep, objective and independent technical expertise and that is somewhat limited in this space outside of methane abatement.”

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“SPECTRA has the opportunity to become a catalytic market‑builder by focusing its services on activating demand and translating it into deployable capital. In particular: Convene advisory forums that shape investor‑ready project standards and contracting frameworks, while maintaining neutral governance.”

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“SPECTRA should find a business model which balances neutrality, quality/ integrity and financial sustainability to avoid any conflict of interest between members (e.g. no tie between transactions and commission).”

SPECTRA reply:

Trust and clarity are key to SPECTRA’s mission as a neutral disinterested resource enabling super pollutant markets to develop. SPECTRA anticipates service offerings that help corporate operations and sustainability leaders achieve credible claims for super pollutant activity. We do not see ourselves as a commision-generating marketplace, nor as a standards body. Relationships with registries and other standard setters would be crucial to ensure high quality information resources for our corporate members.

2. Practical, Market-Facing Support

Comments

• Desire for practical guidance, particularly around:

  • Claims and credibility for buyers

  • Structuring and validating super pollutant credits

• SPECTRA is seen as a potential bridge between technical implementation and market adoption.

“We see an opportunity for SPECTRA to become a trusted knowledge hub f or the superpollutant mark et. This could include practical due-diligence toolkits that walk stakeholders through how to assess project quality (e.g. additionality , permanence, baseline setting, monitoring and verification approaches, leakage risks, governance structures) , together with case studies, guidance on common project red flags. A compelling storytelling is also key to make this project type more attractive to buyers (e.g. project spotlights, developer interviews, impact stories back ed with data from the field ).”

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“Spectra can be most impactful if it positions itself as both:

- A credible demand signal for high-integrity super pollutant credits; and

- A market-shaping bod y that raises quality expectations.

Concretely , this could mean:

- Defining minimum quality thresholds for credits eligible f or coalition procurement (MR V , additionality , baseline robustness, durability , governance).

- Acting as a coordination layer between buyers, registries, and technical experts to accelerate the maturation of methodologies.

- Aggregating demand to reduce transaction costs and enable larger, more bankable project pipelines.

- Publishing anonymized mark et insights (pricing ranges, bottlenecks, performance data) to improve transparency”

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“SPECTRA could play an important convening role –facilitating collaboration among PDs [Project Developers] , buyers, policy makers, technical experts – to accelerate learning, reduce transaction costs, and help scale mitigation activities. Based on our research, most super pollutant credit types across the VCM experience a range of structural barriers – namely inconsistent or competing definitions, opaque methodologies, and a lack of reliable interconnected data infrastructure - that lead market actors to perceive under value their climate value. SPECTRA could be immediately impactful b y working to systematically tackle these structural barriers, perhaps by focusing on specific crediting pathways, in a manner that reinforces greater collaboration and inter-connectivity among market actors.”

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“I am interested in 1 ) education - specifically around how to complete rigorous due diligence and exposure to new/unfamiliar protocols/methodologies/ pathways, 2 ) buyers club to accelerate and collaborate on due diligence, and 3 ) communications guidance on how to explain the importance of super pollutant mitigation to the general public and sustainability professionals. ”

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“Clear messaging for companies as to how to incorporate super pollutants into their GHG strategy . Stressing the near-term climate impacts of super pollutants and their important role the ecosystem of types of emissions reductions/removals projects. Buyers of credits would benefit from normalizing the conversation around these pollutants. ”

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“The largest pain points f or [Redacted ] are 1 ) understanding the quality/integrity of super pollutant credits generated from unfamiliar pathways (e.g., plugging wells) and 2 ) securing preferable pricing and contract terms. ”

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“Practical claims guidance f or potential purchasers, advocacy f or credit priority , creation of demand signals for project developers”

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“We need clear EU-level guidance on acceptable certification and tracing, consistency across Member States, and focused technical work to support credible compliance in complex supply chains”

SPECTRA Reply:

To maximize impact, SPECTRA aims to provide clarity, trust, and readiness to enable corporate action in super pollutant markets. This includes:

• Creating narrative and framing for corporate stakeholders to feel more safe in their super pollutant supporting activities.

• Imparting better understanding of how to create super pollutant mitigating claims.

• Educating how support for super pollutant projects through credits or other financial methods may achieve corporate goals.

While we are not methodology developers ourselves, we can engage with these organizations to advance super pollutants to meet the needs of our corporate buyer members. SPECTRA is committed to advancing super pollutant markets, rather than setting standards. We will be a technology neutral platform rather than offer specific recommendations. We aim to build buyer engagement in super pollutant projects but not as sellers of credits. Our content would address the general opportunities for the super pollutant sector broadly. Additionally SPECTRA is looking at data gaps in the current super pollutant market, and is keen to collaborate with industry partners who can address those issues to create a centralized space for super pollutant intelligence.

3. Broad Representation & Inclusivity

Comments

• Stakeholders want SPECTRA to champion a wide variety of project types, technologies, and applications.

• Calls to involve real-world practitioners, developers, and operators, not just policy or theory.

“Champion a wide variety of projects and applications. Focus on what is available now and where the mark et has opportunity to scale. Bring in practitioners and developers that are based in the Global South.”

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“I would suggest careful creation of a space that facilitates knowledge-sharing from project developers while making sure that prospective buyers and other institutions are not driven away for f ear of being "sold to."There is a lot of important education to be done around super pollutants, and project developers are often on the frontlines of the challenges facing the space, but I want to acknowledge the sensitivity that exists around buyers not wanting to be overwhelmed with sales pitches!”

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“There’s a lot of interesting nuance to be unpack ed around the idea of credit stacking / portfolio approaches for combining super pollutant mitigation with carbon removals. This is a very hot topic in the market right now , and one that seems to be resonating with a lot of the most influential buyers that we work with. ”

SPECTRA Reply:

SPECTRA' s vision is to be a global organization that works with members and the general community of super pollutant elimination stakeholders across all geographies. We see a broad opportunity to grow project activity and corporate claims across all non-CO2 greenhouse gases. Short Lived Climate Pollutants as well as non-CO2 greenhouse gases which have longer atmospheric residence times are in our purview.

4. Alignment with Near-Term Climate Impact

Comments

• Comments reflect a shared focus on near-term climate benefits, especially methane and other super pollutant mitigation.

• SPECTRA is viewed as a mechanism to accelerate real, measurable impact.

“We sincerely believe that super pollutant mitigation is necessary to "bend the curve " on runaway climate change. Carbon removals are absolutely critical , but we need a dual approach - one that stops potent super pollutant emissions NOW , while setting the stage for longer-term committed investment in removals to draw down stocks of atmospheric CO2. W e see tremendous potential f or SPECTRA to help elevate the narrative around super pollutants and organize demand for these project types, while also continuing to facilitate discussion around how to overcome limitations of existing accounting frameworks to allow folks taking action against these important pollutants to still " get credit" for their commitments.”

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“I've had several folks reach out wanting to better understand what SLCP mitigation is, how it works, and the complexities that arise in the accounting. SPECTRA could be the central hub that serves those questions.”

SPECTRA Reply:

We aim to be a neutral ecosystem platform for education and market facilitation without conflict of interest. We are targeting all non-CO2 greenhouse gases - not only Short Lived Climate Pollutants - and view all industry sectors to be of interest with some emphasis on the food and beverage sector. We are open to industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, or small/mid sized businesses with super pollutant exposure through HVAC systems or data centers, and also oil and gas.

Conclusions

Based on the responses received, SPECTRA aims to go forward as a non-profit organization serving the general needs of companies who wish to participate in working with super pollutant projects. The mission is to address market flaws surrounding the super pollutant sector, such as lack of general knowledge of the super pollutants, how super pollutant elimination activities best apply to an organization, or misunderstanding surrounding risks involved with participating in the market.

With this in mind, SPECTRA looks forward to engaging with operations and sustainability leaders whose actions in super pollutants can foster economic development, manage regulatory compliance, and mitigate risks to our climate.

For follow-up contact Jason Grillo at jason@spectraclimate.com