On Tuesday, global physical commodities trading giant Trafigura announced that it will partner with Palantir, the publicly listed enterprise data analytics firm founded by controversial venture capitalist Peter Thiel to develop a technology services platform for carbon emissions calculation, reporting and collaboration across commodity supply chains.
The platform will enable participants across global energy and commodities supply chains to model lifecycle carbon intensities and allows industry participants to work together for enhanced visibility and reporting. The tool is being designed to increase transparency of emissions from the production, transformation and transportation of commodities across the supply chain.
Ultimately, the company says, users will be better equipped to understand lifecycle emissions related to their indirect operations, to benchmark against other participants and to identify opportunities for lower carbon pathways.
This project marks the first time Palantir will go to market with a partner on carbon emissions tracking. Using Trafigura’s expertise in global commodity supply chains, Palantir’s Foundry operating system will be configured to provide consortium partners with an accurate calculation of carbon intensity across supply chains, beginning with crude oil and refined products, and concentrates and refined metals.
The announcement builds on the work already done over the past year by Palantir and Trafigura, with the initial pilot already having built scenarios across ten million carbon pathways using actualized commodity shipments by integrating Trafigura data and metrics supplemented by third-party data.
“Our customers are increasingly asking us for visibility into the lifecycle emissions of the commodities we move as they prepare for regulated Scope 3 emissions reporting and more generally for Net Zero,” Trafigura Executive Chairman and CEO Jeremy Weir said. “The complexity involved in commodity supply chains requires robust cooperation across the industry and a technological solution that can enable meaningful decisions and change. We are delighted to jointly deliver a solution to market with Palantir, whose technology can manage the complexity and data security required to provide additional services to our customers and the market.”
“The collective action required to address many of our most pressing global challenges requires more than resolve or a shift in political priorities,” Palantir Co-Founder and CEO Alex Karp said. “It requires a shared understanding of the facts based on data. We have built software platforms that deliver that shared understanding by enabling institutions across entire industries and sectors to collaborate and model the world in which they operate.”
Earlier this month, Trafigura struck an agreement with lithium processing company Green Lithium to develop one of the first centralized commercial lithium refineries in Europe. The new refinery will supply European electric vehicle and battery manufacturers with battery-grade lithium chemicals. Under the newly-established relationship, Trafigura plans to supply lithium feedstock required for the planned UK-based refinery and will invest equity in Green Lithium’s development phase funding round.
