Redefining Global Trade in the Era of Carbon Accountability | 2026 Global Decarbonization Forum

Redefining Global Trade in the Era of Carbon Accountability | 2026 Global Decarbonization Forum

At the Global Decarbonization Forum 2026, Lars Karlsson, Global Head of Trade and Customs Consulting at Maersk, delivers a keynote that reframes one of the most underestimated competitive variables in global trade: the border. Not as a cost to manage or a compliance hurdle to clear, but as the place where carbon accountability, supply chain resilience, and competitive advantage are about to converge in a way most organizations are not yet ready for.

In this keynote, Lars traces the journey from a world where trade compliance was a back-office function to one where it is the strategic differentiator that determines which companies can access new markets, protect their margins, and stay ahead of a regulatory cascade that is moving faster than most leadership teams realize. From the 7,000 new non-tariff barriers added in the last three years, to the live passport-for-goods pilots already operational with US Customs and Border Protection and running in Rotterdam, he shows what it looks like when carbon data, customs data, and goods movement data are brought together into a single, shareable product passport that reaches border agencies weeks before the shipment does.

He also makes the business case that cuts through the ESG noise: 40 percent lower border costs, 60 percent faster clearance, 50 percent fewer carbon emissions from trade alone. Not projections. Numbers from a published government report. And a model that will be operational before the end of this year.

Watch now to find out why owning your data, earning your compliance trust, and selecting the right partners are the three things that will separate the winners in global trade from everyone else, and why the companies treating carbon accountability as a burden are about to discover it was an opportunity they missed.