Carbon-Market Treasury-Risk Board Adviser

The mandate

The group’s carbon obligations were historically managed as an annual sustainability and compliance exercise, but tighter baselines and larger operating exposure have turned units into a material treasury position. Site forecasts, abatement projects, purchased offsets and forward contracts use different probability conventions. Registry balances are not reconciled with the trading view, some forward deliveries depend on project issuance, and collateral terms could create cash calls before compliance surrender. Directors need a financial-risk lens that does not reduce environmental integrity to a trading variable.

The adviser will challenge an obligation-to-settlement map covering facility baselines, production cases, emissions measurement, free or issued units, offsets, forward purchases, option rights, registry custody, counterparty delivery, collateral and surrender dates. The board needs explicit separation of measured liability, forecast requirement, contracted volume, eligible inventory and contingent project supply. Advice must illuminate price, basis, vintage, methodology, reversal, invalidation, concentration and liquidity risk without determining environmental eligibility or carbon-accounting treatment.

The working rhythm includes a fortnightly review with treasury and sustainability, monthly committee attendance in Melbourne, quarterly site and registry evidence sessions and structured counterparty challenge before material contracting windows. The adviser will test selected positions back to source evidence, review proposed limits and present one reverse-stress question each quarter. Any reliance on external assurance, legal interpretation, registry confirmation or methodology specialist must remain visible in the board paper.

The adviser has no line authority and assumes no executive responsibility for emissions reporting, abatement, procurement, trading, treasury, registry operation, compliance surrender or disclosure. The role cannot transact units, approve counterparties, direct site forecasts, certify eligibility, set accounting, sign registry instructions or represent the company to regulators. Executives retain implementation, specialist assurance stays with appointed experts and the board owns risk appetite and reserved decisions.

The appointment runs for a fixed twelve months with no automatic renewal; continuation would require a new committee mandate tied to a changed compliance or market exposure. The adviser must disclose interests involving carbon project developers, brokers, exchanges, registries, assurance providers, financial institutions, competing emitters and advocacy bodies. Affected agenda items require recusal, and no brokerage, introduction, project-placement or transaction-based value may be received.

Why the board wants this voice

Sustainability teams focus on compliance and integrity, sites on production reality, traders on market access and treasury on cash and counterparty exposure. Their measures cannot yet explain the same tonne from forecast creation through surrender. An independent adviser with carbon-market and financial-risk depth can challenge that chain without selling credits, arranging hedges or taking ownership of environmental claims.

What you will own

• Challenge compliance demand from facility baselines, production, measurement uncertainty, abatement timing and approved specialist assumptions.
• Reconcile forecast need, contracted units, eligible inventory, registry custody, project-linked supply and surrender status.
• Test price, basis, vintage, methodology, invalidation, reversal, delivery, concentration and collateral risk across positions.
• Review counterparty and project exposure for enforceability dependencies, issuance evidence, replacement rights and wrong-way risk.
• Advise on limits, reserve logic, procurement windows, escalation thresholds and board decisions before commitments become irreversible.
• Maintain an independent record of assumptions, specialist reliance, conflicts, recusals, management responses and unresolved risk.
• Deliver a closing carbon-treasury charter, committee indicators, calendar, evidence expectations and residual-exposure opinion.

Candidate qualifications

• Has governed material carbon compliance or environmental-market exposure for an emitter, utility, financial institution or market operator.
• Understands compliance units, offsets, vintages, registries, forwards, options, collateral, delivery and counterparty credit.
• Can connect operational emissions forecasts to treasury exposure while preserving specialist ownership of measurement and eligibility.
• Has challenged project-linked supply for issuance, methodology, reversal, invalidation, concentration and replacement-right risk.
• Brings board-level financial-risk judgement across sustainability integrity, accounting dependency, liquidity and market execution.
• Is independent of carbon brokerage, project placement, registry services, assurance referral and transaction-linked compensation.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend monthly Melbourne sessions and quarterly site, registry and counterparty reviews for the full year.
• Brings direct carbon-market financial-risk experience; sustainability reporting or commodity trading alone is insufficient.
• Will not transact, certify eligibility, direct emissions reporting or imply that financial hedging resolves environmental integrity.
• Will disclose ties to project developers, brokers, exchanges, registries, banks, assurance firms and competing emitters.

1. 49 words maximum. Which distinction prevents a registry balance from being mistaken for available compliance cover?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you stress a forward purchase whose delivery depends on future project issuance?
3. 49 words maximum. What carbon exposure should reach the board before a price limit is breached?