Merel van Sommeren

Business developer
Acorn B.V

Merel van Sommeren works at the intersection of climate finance, development and impact for smallholder farmers. As Lead Sales at Acorn, she works on bringing agroforestry projects to the carbon market, connecting smallholder farmers on the frontlines of climate change with new sources of income and resilience.

Acorn currently runs 20 projects across more than 15 countries, working with hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America. With a background in banking, credit scoring and sustainable finance, Merel brings a commercial perspective to the practical challenges of developing and scaling these projects.

For Merel, carbon markets are ultimately a means to an end: creating lasting value for smallholder farmers who are among those most exposed to climate change. Her work focuses on how to make that ambition work in practice, from developing projects and working with local partners to connecting them with carbon buyers and creating meaningful, long term impact for the farmers at the heart of these projects.

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