Transparent and fair benefits
Who Benefits from Climate Finance?
A governance and traceability framework that brings fairness to the heart of carbon projects.
The Carbon Transparency Gap
Carbon projects often promise community benefits. Few can prove how funds are used or who decides how they are distributed.
Challenges
Lack of Transparency
Projects typically fail to report how community funds are actually used.
Broken Trust
Communities often don’t see or control the benefits promised to them.
Limited Accountability
There’s little clarity on who makes decisions about fund distribution.
Cui Bono’s Solution
Transparent Tracking
Cui Bono provides clear visibility into how funds are allocated and spent across projects.
Shared Accountability
It ensures that both project developers and communities are responsible for managing and reporting benefits.
Inclusive Participation
Local communities are actively involved in decisions about how resources are shared and used.
Cui Bono: Who Benefits?
Cui Bono is a framework to ensure carbon finance reaches the communities it’s meant to support.
Participatory Governance
Cui Bono empowers communities to shape how climate finance is governed and monitored. Decisions are made collectively, ensuring local priorities guide project outcomes.
Digitally Verifiable Financial Architecture
Every dollar is tracked through a transparent system of digital wallets and auditable records. This structure makes financial flows visible to all stakeholders, from source to impact.
Real-World Benefit-Sharing
Revenues translate into tangible improvements in livelihoods, infrastructure, and resilience. Communities see, manage, and verify the benefits that climate finance was meant to deliver.
CUI BONO Principles
Essential tools for project developers, auditors, and communities to ensure transparency, accountability, and efficiency in carbon project management.
Inclusivity
Communities co-design and co-manage decisions.
Neutrality
No single actor dominates; all voices matter.
Transparency
Every decision and payment is traceable.
Flexibility
Adapts to diverse contexts and tech realities.
Replicability
Scalable across regions and project types.
Verifiability
Every claim can be audited with real data.
Tracking Every Dollar
Cui Bono structures all carbon revenues into transparent digital wallets, each with clear governance rules and audit-ready records. Communities, developers, and investors can trace every dollar from source to impact.
Capex Wallet
For capital expenditures such as infrastructure, equipment, and project startup costs. Managed early in the project cycle under implementer and oversight protocols.
Carbon Wallet
Holds revenues from carbon credit sales. Serves as the central treasury for allocations to the other wallets, including investor, operator, and community funds.
Community Wallet
Receives a predefined percentage of carbon revenues (e.g., 20%) and is managed through community governance structures. Finances local priorities through transparent processes.
Open Wallet
Covers operational costs like logistics, field staff, verification, and project management. Supports predictability in daily execution.
Reserve Wallet
Maintains contingency funds to address risks such as credit issuance delays, price fluctuations, or climate-related impacts.
Governance is the Foundation of Trust
Cui Bono’s three-layer model ensures every decision reflects community priorities, technical rigour, and shared oversight.
- Community Governance Committees (CGCs)
- Technical Oversight Group (TOG)
- Project Steering Committee (PSC)
Case Study
The following case study outline a tentative implementation scenario based on current planning, community consultations, and expected project evolution. Carbon revenues back micro-loans for families in a former conflict area in Colombia.
🌱 Ready to make carbon projects fair and transparent?
Download the Cui Bono White Paper and learn how we are bringing fairness to the heart of climate finance.
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