Papua New Guinea has been progressing its Article 6 implementation agreement with Singapore, as it aims to slowly “road test” its newly established carbon markets to ensure they provide value to landholders.

Two blueprints vying to unite Southeast Asian countries under a common carbon market framework on Thursday pitched near-identical endgames while insisting their approach is most ideal to turn nature and tech projects in the region into bankable, high-integrity carbon credits.

Parties are not expected to reopen adopted texts governing the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), despite strong interventions in talks earlier this week at COP30 made by countries raising concerns with a permanence standard affecting new Article 6 carbon projects.

An autonomous region of Spain has opened a call for expressions of interest to launch its voluntary carbon market, marking the next step in implementing Spain's first regional carbon trading system.

As a marine CO2 removal (mCDR) company scopes out sites to capture up to 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, experts on the sidelines of COP30 emphasised the gaps in science and governance of the sector at large.

South Korea is accelerating work to build what it describes as a high-integrity global voluntary carbon market (GVCM) aligned with the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), with plans to establish a credit issuance body next year.

Goias has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with non-profit Emergent to explore future sales of jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD) credits to the LEAF Coalition, becoming the latest Brazilian state to signal its intent to access large-scale forest finance under the initiative.

A Canadian-headquartered carbon credit financier has swung to a quarterly profit after sweeping cost cuts and cash recovered from disputed projects, though the company continues to grapple with stalled, abandoned, or contested carbon streams across its portfolio.

Projects that remove super pollutants from the atmosphere represent the biggest short-term opportunity to tackle emissions – even if they will have to be replaced with permanent removals in the long term, according to a large corporate carbon removals buyer.

SBTi explainer launched - A consultancy and data provider, Abatable, has published an explainer report to help companies navigate the new draft of the Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) Corporate Net Zero Standard V2 (CNVS V2). The guide addresses eight key questions in the revised draft standard including how CNVS2 change the use of carbon credits and removals. It also tackles what the new Ongoing Emissions Responsibility (OER) framework means for carbon credit use to address ongoing emissions, and how corporate demand for credits evolve under the new standard. The latest draft of the Corporate Net-Zero Standard (Version 2) takes a step forward on climate finance transparency, and makes an effort to clearly recognise companies that buy quality carbon credits, according to stakeholders in the market. But there is criticism that it will fail to help drive near-term investment towards removals.

Less than two months from the deadline to approve transitions from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, only 7% of projects and programmes have received approval, the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre wrote in its monthly update.

Differences in financing terms can more than double the price of carbon removal (CDR), a climate expert said this week.

A New York-based carbon removal (CDR) asset management company is kicking off its expansion into biochar with a sale of 3,000 ex-post credits valued at $154-$160 per tonne of CO2 equivalent.

Carbon pricing data from 79 countries, covering 82% of global GHG output, shows increasingly diverse and flexible market signals, tracked through effective carbon rates (ECRs), with adoption spreading across new jurisdictions and sectors, a report released on Thursday has found.

An oil major is investing in a cookstove project in Rwanda that is expected to avoid 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 over the next decade, and will pursue Article 6.2 authorization under the Paris Agreement.

A Colorado-based measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) company will partner with a UK-based carbon market consultancy to accelerate high-integrity soil carbon projects out of Central Asia.

Indonesia and Norway on Thursday signed a “mutual expression of intent” that paves the way for Norway to buy carbon credits from Indonesia’s grid-connected renewable energy projects under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

ICAO has approved six of Isometric's methodologies for engineered removals under the UN's CORSIA aviation offsetting system, backing a wider suite of CCS, direct air capture (DAC), and biochar methodologies.

Equitable Earth on Thursday launched a new REDD+ methodology on the sidelines of COP30 in Belem, aiming to accelerate the certification of high-integrity, community-led forest conservation projects across multiple continents.

Cote d’Ivoire has signed a purchase agreement worth $23 million with a US non-profit to commercialise verified jurisdictional REDD+ emission reductions and removals issued under the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) – The Carbon to Sea Initiative and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation have launched a call for research proposals to study how ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) could affect commercially and culturally important marine species. The partners plan to fund two 24-month projects of up to $300K each for hypothesis-driven experiments on valued invertebrates and fish across the water column. Proposals should focus on biological and ecological responses, including potential co-benefits like reducing harm from ocean acidification, and align with emerging best practice frameworks for mCDR and community engagement. Applications are due by Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, with decisions expected by March and projects starting from May 1, 2026.

A Japanese agtech startup has suspended plans to generate carbon credits from rice paddies in regions where severe drought will make mid-season drainage impossible in fiscal year 2025, it announced on Monday.

Day 4 at COP30 in Belem. A brief presidency update, calmer rain and cooler protests, and a flurry of (more) announcements from Brazil kept the week ticking along on Wednesday. Closed-door talks continue on Thursday on climate finance, trade concerns, and other contentious matter, as delegates will now have to wait until Saturday for a formal update on the state of negotiations. 

A soil carbon project in India has received a $30 million investment from a Paris-based investor, with the initiative set to generate carbon credits from smallholder farmers adopting regenerative practices.

Car registration – Singapore-based Saxon Renewables has registered a first-of-its-kind-for-Asia EV project with Verra’s VCS, the project developer told Carbon Pulse. The EVolve Grouped Electric Vehicle project will claim emissions reductions from the rollout of EV chargers in Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and is expected to cut emissions by 300,000 tCO2e in its first seven-year crediting period (2024-31). It is aiming to deploy and integrate 30,000 EV charge points by 2030, it said. Saxon is also eyeing Singapore’s carbon tax and CORSIA as other possible sources of demand for the resultant emissions units, it said.