Xavier Laguarta Soler

Voluntary buying by companies got these markets started, but it will never be big enough on its own. Singapore and Japan are great case studies. Both now put a price on carbon for their largest emitters and let them cover part of the bill with credits from projects abroad. Singapore alone has signed carbon agreements with a dozen countries. More governments should follow, both by pricing carbon at home and by authorizing projects that can sell to these buyers.

What is a climate solution that isn't getting the attention or funding it deserves?

In India, more than half the nitrogen farmers spread on their fields is never taken up by the crop. Some washes into groundwater. Some escapes into the air as nitrous oxide, a gas about 270 times more potent than carbon dioxide that has driven roughly a tenth of global warming so far.

Fixing this doesn't require new science. Farmers need to know how much nitrogen their crop actually needs, and when. Something as simple as a color chart held up against a rice leaf can tell them. In China, a decade-long program helped nearly 21 million smallholders cut nitrogen use by roughly 15 percent and still raise yields by about 11 percent.

I believe the key reason nitrous oxide gets so little attention or money is that it's hard to measure. It comes off a field in short bursts after rain or fertilizing, and buyers won't pay for what they can't verify. Fix the measurement, and the money will follow.

When the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed earlier this year, global urea prices doubled within weeks. Every government that imports fertilizer should be asking how much of that fertilizer its farmers truly need. If I were allocating climate capital today, I would put it into helping farmers use less nitrogen.

What gives you hope about the future of the planet?

Politics runs on four-year cycles but companies that plan to be around for another century can't think that way. That's why, despite the backlash, most large companies haven't walked away from climate action, they've just stopped talking about it as much.

Look at what they're building into their businesses. Mars and PepsiCo are working with farmers globally toward their goals for regenerative farmland by 2030. Global investment in the energy transition reached an all-time high of $2.3 trillion last year. In carbon markets, Google has pledged at least $50 million through 2030 to eliminate superpollutants like methane, and this year it joined other companies in doubling the Frontier coalition's commitment to buy future carbon removal to $1.8 billion. Microsoft has contracted tens of millions of tons on its own.

Critics are right that there is much more to be done. But by working directly with sustainability and supply chain teams, I see large contracts being signed and real action happening at global scale.