Swedish company EKEN has signed a ten-year agreement with US-based Anew Climate. The partnership gives Swedish forest owners access to the rapidly growing international market for high-quality carbon credits – creating an entirely new revenue stream alongside timber.
EKEN Financing Value Added Forestry AB (EKEN) and Anew Climate have entered into a ten-year agreement to commercialize carbon credits from Swedish forests to corporate buyers in international markets.
Anew Climate is a leading player in the North American climate market and has delivered more than USD 5 billion in climate impact since its founding in 2005. In improved forest management, Anew Climate has a project portfolio covering more than six million hectares of forestland. Through the partnership, EKEN gains direct access to Anew Climate’s customers, while Anew Climate expands its European offering with high-quality carbon credits from Swedish forests.
“Verified, high-quality carbon credits give forest owners the opportunity to be paid for the carbon their forests store, not just for the timber they produce. Together with Anew Climate, we are opening up a multi-billion-dollar market to Swedish forest owners. Our ambition is to contribute to a stronger Swedish forest economy, where a greater share of the raw material is processed into long-lived, high-value wood products,” says Erik Ottosson, CEO of EKEN.
“Corporate buyers are not short of forest carbon credits. What our corporate buyers often lack – and are looking for – are credits whose climate impact can be verified using up-to-date, real-world data. This is what EKEN now offers from Sweden,” adds Joshua Strauss, President of Environmental Products at Anew Climate.
A significant new revenue stream alongside timber
EKEN develops high-quality climate projects that provide forest owners with financial compensation for the additional carbon storage created when harvesting is deferred and forests are allowed to grow for longer.
This does not mean taking forests out of production. The value of the timber continues to grow and can be realized at a later stage, while a greater share of the raw material can also be used in long-lived wood products. Carbon credits create a complementary revenue stream for forest owners – in addition to, rather than instead of, traditional timber revenues.
Dynamic baselines provide high integrity and reliability
The climate impact of EKEN’s projects is verified under Verra’s VM0045 methodology for Improved Forest Management. The methodology uses dynamic baselines. This means that carbon storage on contracted forestland is compared with carbon storage on statistically comparable forestland using data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory.
Only the difference measured and verified after the fact can become an approved, registered carbon credit. This differs significantly from approaches where climate impact is calculated based on hypothetical assumptions about how a forest owner would have acted in the absence of a climate project.
“Sweden’s more than century-long forest inventory provides exactly the kind of data this methodology requires,” says Joshua Strauss, President of Environmental Products at Anew Climate.
First carbon credits to be delivered in 2027
The first verified credits are expected to be delivered to Anew Climate’s European customers in the fourth quarter of 2027. Volumes will then increase rapidly as EKEN contracts additional forestland. EKEN is currently evaluating carbon credit projects covering more than three million hectares of forestland.
“Sweden has the forests, the data quality and the expertise. EKEN is building the commercial infrastructure needed to create a new export product from Swedish forests – a verified climate service that delivers real climate impact and a significant new source of income for forest owners,” concludes Erik Ottosson, CEO of EKEN.
About EKEN
EKEN Financing Value Added Forestry AB is a Swedish company developing high-quality forest climate projects in the Nordic region and providing forest owners with a significant new revenue stream alongside timber revenues. EKEN combines Swedish forestry expertise and climate science with forest data and AI technology.
EKEN is owned by its two founders, Erik Ottosson and Kasper Bengtsson, together with the Global Challenges Foundation and a small group of Swedish private investors and industry leaders.
About Anew Climate
Anew Climate, LLC is a global leader in climate solutions and environmental commodities, built on transparency and accountability. Anew Climate provides technology-based and nature-based solutions that help companies and public-sector organizations reduce or compensate for their carbon footprints.
Anew Climate is majority-owned by TPG Rise, one of the world’s largest impact investing platforms. The company has offices in the United States, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Singapore, with an environmental commodities portfolio spanning five continents.
About Verra
Verra is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., that develops standards for climate action and sustainable development. Verra manages the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the world’s largest voluntary carbon market program. Verra Verra VM0045 is part of the VCS Program and is the most advanced and reliable methodology globally for verifying carbon credits from improved forest management.
For more information about EKEN
Erik Ottosson, Founder and CEO
Tel: +46 70 260 36 82
Email: erik.ottosson@ekenfinancing.com
Tomas Wulkan, Chairman of the Board
Tel: +46 72 011 19 61
Email: tomas.wulkan@ekenfinancing.com
