Show me the carbon credits

opinion

by Oscar Henderson

September 11, 2026

Being a sports agent is a challenging role. Players demanding long and lucrative contracts and tough negotiations with senior management at sports clubs can be exhausting.

The relationship between Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr) sums this up with them both shouting “Show me the money!” over the phone in the film Jerry Maguire.

This symbolises the relationship between a project developer and investors. Investors need strong revenue guarantees to commit large amounts of capital. The good news for project developers is there are many ways to do this.

The fast-developing industry norm in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects is for long term offtake agreements with airlines or fuel suppliers that cover the full maturity of their debt. Another way to show revenue is through mature credit markets.

Canadian credit market

Project developer Cielo Waste Solutions is structuring the company’s first SAF facility in British Columbia, Canada, Nahoonai to generate revenue through Canada’s credit market.

“Our profit comes from the carbon credit market and that market is continuing to grow,” Ryan Jackson, CEO, Cielo Waste Solutions tells SAF Investor.

The Nahoonai project is currently in pre-FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) and the company plans for the project to be operational by 2030. Nahoonai will be using biomass waste as feedstock and planning to use de-risked technology at technology readiness level (TRL) 8 or higher.

The company is planning to sell the SAF produced at parity with Jet A1 fuel, Jackson estimates this will generate about 25% of the company’s revenue. The rest will come from selling carbon credits into the Canadian carbon credit market.

Cielo is banking on the ability to stack the federal clean fuels regulations (CFR) credits with the regional credits. With the project being in British Columbia, the project can benefit form the province’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) and the carbon capture, utlilisation and storage (CCUS) investment tax credits.

The Canadian CFR market is maturing with credit prices exceeding $400 per credit for the first time in March 2026. Jackson is confident that these credits are a continually maturing market and have the stability on which the project’s revenue can be structured.

“When Prime Minister Carney came into power, what he did was provide stability and the ability for us to count on that policy remaining and the regulatory environment to evolve,” says Jackson. “Before then we had a policy that was under a certain amount of scrutiny from the opposition.”

This sets a strong foundation for a legal compliance market within Canada which is also supported by a growing voluntary market, led by corporate customers.

Cielo’s project is eligible for all these credits through its project’s carbon capture and storage capabilities.

Indigenous relationships

Strong indigenous relationships are integral to Nahoonai. The project is being developed closely with the Lheidi T’enneh First Nation through a strategic project framework agreement (SPFA) with Tano T’enneh Enterprises, the nation’s economic development arm. The partnership will bring together Cielo’s project development expertise and project framework alongside indigenous ownership and local knowledge to support both the project and the wider community.

Long term economic collaboration on indigenous land can have additional benefits, including favourable investment conditions through Canadian crown corporations. These are government entities that support government initiatives, including developing indigenous and renewable projects.

“Cielo’s project with the nation fits squarely inside of their mandate and that is an example of the Crown Corporation essentially allowing us to finance this through low interest debt, through certain equity wedges before we even get to FID. That allows this project to have an opportunity to be successful.”

The combination of strong carbon markets and the availability of favourable financing terms for FOAK projects are the foundations on which a strong renewable market is developing in Canada.

This is what Jackson is calling “Industrialisation through decarbonisation.” Time will tell if this turn of phrase ends up with similar cult status to Jerry Maguire.