Asian Gateway Becomes First Japanese Company to Join Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) Committee

Asian Gateway Corporation (HQ: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Founder & CEO: Tomonori Kimura; "AG") announces that it has become the first Japanese company to be appointed as a committee member of the Carbon Data Open Protocol ("CDOP"), an international multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at establishing data standardization and interoperability in the carbon market.

AG will participate in both of CDOP's two working groups—the Principles & Policies Working Group (PPWG) and the Technical Working Group (TWG)—contributing to both the design of data principles and governance, and the technical development of a common data schema. In conjunction with this announcement, AG is launching "Carbon Gateway," a digital infrastructure business for the carbon market.

About CDOP CDOP is an initiative to standardize the data describing carbon credits and credit-generating projects across registries, regions, and activity types. It aims to develop (1) data principles, (2) a common data schema, and (3) a governance framework through open and diverse stakeholder participation. It seeks to establish a practical data protocol covering the entire lifecycle of carbon credits, aligning and collaborating with existing initiatives such as the World Bank's Carbon Markets Infrastructure (CMI) WG, ICVCM, CAD Trust, ISO, and UNFCCC (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement). Over 50 organizations are part of CDOP, co-chaired by GCMU, RMI, S&P Global, and Sylvera.

The official list of participants includes major global players like Asian Gateway Corporation, AirCarbon Exchange, CAD Trust, CIX, ENGIE, IETA, Verra, and South Pole as Committee Members and Observers. As of this release, based on our review of the official CDOP participant list and public information from each entity, no other companies headquartered in Japan or clearly identifiable as Japanese have been confirmed. AG's participation marks the first time a Japanese company has joined the CDOP committee.

Challenges in the Current Carbon Credit Market Several challenges hinder the development of the carbon market into a mature, "investable asset class": - Data Fragmentation and Non-Standardization: Data items are inconsistent across registries, requiring individual "translation" work to compare projects from different registries. - Lack of Interoperability: Credits issued in one registry cannot be tracked in another, undermining traceability and transparency. - Difficulty in Ensuring Integrity: Verification of Additionality and Permanence, and prevention of double counting through Corresponding Adjustments for ITMOs (Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes) are not always functioning adequately. - Lack of Transparency: Existing data models focus on post-issuance public data, lacking protocols that cover pre-issuance, digital MRV (dMRV), and private data in detail. - Constraints on Liquidity and Fungibility: As a result of the above, the comparability of credits is low, hampering the full-scale entry of institutional investors and market scaling.

AG's Initiative 1: Creating and Selling High-Integrity Credits Leveraging over a decade of expertise in the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), AG will promote the creation and sale of the following credits: - Compliance Credits: ITMOs subject to host country approval, first transfer, and corresponding adjustment under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement (including credits issued and approved under the JCM). - Voluntary Credits: Credits eligible for the CCP label, issued from CCP-approved credit categories and methodologies/versions under a credit program deemed CCP-eligible by the ICVCM.

AG will align data for these credits with the CDOP common data schema and the CAD Trust data model, managing information such as additionality, the basis for calculating emission reductions/removals, permanence (where applicable), third-party verification, host country approval, transfer, and retirement in a verifiable and traceable manner. By managing host country approvals, first transfers, and corresponding adjustments for ITMOs, and tracking the issuance, ownership, transfer, and retirement of voluntary credits, AG will work to prevent double issuance, double use, and double claiming.

AG promotes both emission reduction and carbon removal projects: - Emission Reduction Projects: Solar, wind, biomass power generation, renewable energy co-located storage batteries for curtailment recovery, Compressed BioGas (CBG), Waste-to-Energy (WtE), Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) in rice paddies, etc. - Carbon Removal Projects: Biochar, and permanent sequestration/storage of CO₂ from atmospheric or biogenic sources, etc.

AG's Initiative 2: Solving Challenges in GX-ETS/VCM Focusing on JCM/J-Credits, AG will operate in both Japan's "GX-ETS" emissions trading scheme, set to fully launch in FY2026, and the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). As a CDOP committee member, AG will reflect the practical knowledge of the Japanese market in international discussions on data standardization and interoperability, and will work to solve the aforementioned market challenges by promoting alignment and connection between domestic and international credits.

AG's Initiative 3: CFP Visualization and In-house Platform "GIPP" In addition to data alignment with CDOP and CAD Trust, AG will also work on visualizing product carbon footprints (CFP), considering the evolving trends of the GHG Protocol.