Bolivia anticipates it will in Q1 2026 “obtain” sovereign carbon credits and is open to harnessing other market-based nature and climate finance instruments, an official said this week, cementing a dramatic policy shift carried forward since a high court legalised carbon markets last summer.

Kenyan REDD+ Nesting Guidelines launched Monday in Nairobi have been crafted to ensure that both site-scale and subnational jurisdictional REDD+ initiatives retain direct access to the market, as per the text shared this week with Carbon Pulse.

"Kiss my ass" - Washington state has banned and fined Climate Care Innovations (CCI) $425,000 for falsely claiming to own nearly $200 mln worth of carbon allowances. According to The Seattle Times, the Arizona-based company, led by John Jensen, was never authorised to hold such allowances under Washington’s carbon market rules and is accused of misleading potential buyers. The newspaper reported that CCI was registered as an offset project operator with Washington in summer 2023 and twice attempted to register as a “covered entity” that would allow it to trade allowances, though the applications were denied both times. Despite repeated outreach, CCI stopped responding to regulators after initially contacting the state to inquire about selling allowances. Its website claimed ownership of over 3.3 mln WCAs and a “significant number” of EUAs, possibly to inflate the company’s value and attract investors. The website was taken down late last month. Washington’s Department of Ecology has now revoked CCI’s registration and barred it from future participation, marking the first ban issued under the state’s Cap-and-Invest programme. The incident prompted the agency to tighten vetting and clarify rules. Meanwhile, CCI and its parent entity, the Prolific Fund, are said to be under investigation in Arizona for securities fraud. Prolific's holdings also include Kompo Green Inc., Botanlytics Inc., and FOD (Family Office Development) LLC. The Arizona Corporation Commission also alleges Jensen and his associates sold unregistered carbon-related investments and misrepresented their holdings, including claims of 2 bln verified credits. Jensen is contesting Arizona’s charges. SEC filings show that as of Oct. 2024, one of Jensen’s companies claimed to have sold $266,000 in securities to at least 104 investors. In Washington, Jensen denies wrongdoing, attributing the situation to miscommunication and health-related absences. He claims Ecology gave his company the allowances, a point the agency disputes. Jensen told the Seattle Times that he plans to sue Ecology, and when asked if he will pay the fine, he said the department can “kiss my ass”. California state officials also confirmed to the paper that CCI was previously denied entry to their carbon market for failing to complete registration requirements.

A growing number of companies is expected to participate in carbon markets, although accounting gaps risk undermining the sector's credibility, according to a study released on Wednesday by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School.

Keep going – In Brazil, the government of Pará state is conducting its seventh round of free, prior, and informed consultation (FPIC) for its jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) system. This week, the State Secretariat for Environment, Climate, and Sustainability (SEMAS) is holding workshops and gathering contributions from quilombola communities – descendants of Africans who escaped slavery – in the Lower Amazon Integration Region. Brazil's Federal Public Prosecutors' Office (MPF) is pressuring Para to suspend its $180 mln J-REDD+ programme, and has pointed concerns with the FPIC process led by SEMAS.

A global trade body for carbon market auditors has rejected claims from an academic report that casts doubt on the credibility of third-party verification in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), warning that a mischaracterisation risks undermining trust in a critical assurance function.

Restoring degraded ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, and wetlands could remove up to 97 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2100, amounting to just 4-12% of projected emissions in the same time period, claims a study, which recommended focusing on deep emissions cuts instead.

Malaysia will introduce a National Carbon Market Policy and launch an emissions trading scheme (ETS) as part of its 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed this week, in a move towards formalising the country’s carbon market infrastructure.

Thailand’s Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO) this week launched a month-long public consultation on three draft methodologies under its Premium T-VER programme, covering protocols for carbon capture in concrete, biochar production, and refrigerant reclamation.

A US oil and gas producer used a carbon credit portfolio weighted toward landfill methane capture and predominantly domestic offsets to maintain Scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality in one of its major operational regions in 2024, according to its latest sustainability report released Wednesday.

The African Union Development Agency (AUDA‑NEPAD) has launched a continent-wide initiative to enhance carbon market governance, introducing new integrity and equity principles, a regional coordination mechanism, and a digital platform to support readiness under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

New platform - Indian sustainability company Compliance Kart has launched a blockchain-powered trading platform named ENVR, to enable the trading of carbon credits and international renewable energy certificates (I-REC), it announced. The platform will support projects ranging from renewable energy to forestry, connect verified buyers and sellers, as well as foster transparent and secure transactions, the company said.

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has in the first six months of this year seen on average higher retirements, more unique buyers, and bigger offtake volumes than in 2024, according to a report published Thursday by a carbon market analytics platform.

Three's a crowd - Colombia-based international voluntary carbon standard Cercarbono on Wednesday signed an MoU with Ecuador's Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE) to build out the country's national GHG compensation scheme. The agreement follows similar announcements from BioCarbon and Gold Standard this month, in which they separately agreed to provide technical support to the Ecuador Zero Carbon Programme (PECC). PECC is a voluntary corporate emissions accounting, reduction, and offsetting scheme. It has three tiers of climate action – quantification, reduction, and carbon neutrality with offsets – but no corporates have achieved carbon neutrality status under the programme to date. In total, around 612 businesses and institutions are voluntarily associated with PECC, according to a May MAATE press release.