The voluntary carbon market risks degenerating unless certifiers sharply improve the accuracy of their project screening processes, according to a new study that warns that current market structures could result in a self-reinforcing spiral of falling credit prices, vanishing high-quality supply, and eventual collapse.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a ratings agency in a bid to improve liquidity and use of carbon credits in its carbon market.

A Minnesota-based company aiming to generate carbon removal (CDR) credits from waste biomass has closed a $6 million investment round, it announced Wednesday.

Commons people - The OAE Field Data Commons is being developed by Carbon to Sea and Submarine Scientific to create a shared, high-quality repository for ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) field data. The online platform will centralise datasets from academic and private-sector projects, building on the OAE Data Management Protocol to standardise formats and improve accessibility. By harmonising data, the Commons aims to support cross-site comparisons, meta-analyses, and independent assessment of OAE’s effectiveness and co-benefits, helping researchers, policymakers, and collaborators make better-informed decisions. The Commons forms part of a wider set of OAE Data Management tools that also includes: the Data Management Protocol, which sets metadata and data-quality standards; a Metadata Builder to help users create compliant metadata; and a Compliance Checker to validate datasets and issue adherence badges. These tools will integrate with existing repositories and are being field-tested with research partners such as Rost Marine Research Center, the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and Iceland’s Marine & Freshwater Research Institute. The Data Commons pilot will use datasets contributed by Planetary Technologies, including those underpinning its Frontier offtake agreement.

Carbon capture collab - Critical technology platform Newlab New Orleans and JERA Ventures, an arm of the Japanese power generation company JERA, have entered into a strategic partnership to commercialise next-generation point-source carbon capture technologies applied to power generation facilities. The initiative is anchored by Newlab's public–private partnership in Louisiana, and involves working with regional partners to assess existing power generation facilities that could host a demonstration-scale project, alongside a selected startup and JERA. By connecting startups to industrial environments, the collaboration is aimed at accelerating the path from validated pilot performance to commercial deployment. The partners also intend to leverage the applied learnings to scale carbon capture and power decarbonisation efforts in Louisiana and across other key global markets.

Rising demand for high-integrity nature-based credits continues to support prices and increase the need for higher-quality data, with Earth observation (EO) and ground-based measurements being combined to verify carbon project outcomes, a webinar heard on Wednesday.

Global fire emissions averaged 3.4 billion tonnes of CO2 annually during 2002-22, according to a new scientific database that incorporates better detection of small fires and improved fuel consumption modelling.

Indonesia covered - Space Intelligence, a UK-based forest data and analytics company, has mapped 189 mln ha of Indonesia across seven time periods between 2014 and 2025, producing land-cover datasets used by project developers and governments worldwide, it recently announced at the Global Carbon Summit Indonesia 2025, hosted by Ecobiz Asia. Murray Collins, chief executive of the company, warned that many actors still depend on legacy, slow, and uncertain analytical methods, including manual map reviews and inconsistent datasets, which create delays and heighten technical risks in project pipelines.  If you cannot accurately quantify carbon potential or detect degradation, you cannot build a credible project, he told the conference, according to Ecobiz. He cited common bottlenecks: weeks-long screening processes, uncertainties in land-use change data, and difficulties in detecting subtle forest degradation that could undermine carbon credit issuance.

Australia’s most prominent carbon capture and storage (CCS) project has logged its worst annual performance since operations began in 2019, according to newly released monitoring data.

Delivered - K Line, one of Japan’s major shipping lines, has delivered the Northern Phoenix, the third of four liquefied CO2 carriers ordered by Northern Lights, a Norwegian CCS transport and storage venture, according to a press release. Built by China’s Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore, the vessel will move captured CO2 from industrial clients outside Norway to Northern Lights’ Oygarden terminal. The LNG-fuelled ship, equipped with rotor sails and air-lubrication tech, will be managed by K Line Energy Shipping UK, the company’s London-based gas-carrier arm.

Sentiment in Japan's mandatory emissions market over the coming years will largely hinge on the details of exact market design, including the setting of the price floor and banking rules, a conference heard Wednesday.

The Australian government has announced a permanent fixed delivery exit arrangement to apply to all eligible fixed delivery carbon abatement contracts (CACs).

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has teamed up with a project developer to target industrial decarbonisation, promoting the integration of hydrogen-based solutions into global carbon markets.

Green light – Vulcan Energy Resources has secured €2.2 bln of financing to proceed with Phase 1 of its Lionheart lithium and renewable energy project in the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany, the ASX-listed company announced on Wednesday, including €1.4 bln in strategic support from German, European, and international government-backed financial institutions. Construction is set to begin in the coming days, the company said, with this phase targeting a production capacity of 24,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate annually – enough for around half a million EV batteries – as well as 275 GWh per year of renewable energy and 560 GWh of heat.

A collection of governments around the Pacific are seeking input from businesses to guide their negotiations on a green economy partnership.

Steel union – ASX-listed clean hydrogen and graphite developer Hazer and South Korean steel manufacturer POSCO have extended their MoU for two more years or until formal binding agreements are executed. In a stock exchange announcement Wednesday, the Perth-based company said the extension sets out the next steps to integrate its hydrogen and low-emissions graphite tech into POSCO’s low-carbon steel process.

A series of high-profile sovereign forest carbon project agreements covering vast swathes of land, struck between Dubai-based Blue Carbon LLC and multiple developing nation governments in 2023-24, have stalled or could now be void as the company appears to have ceased operations, according to sources and media reports.

Project developers signalled strong support on Tuesday for replacing traditional buffer-pool contributions with regulated insurance products under Verra’s forthcoming permanence pilot, arguing that the shift could materially strengthen project economics and improve financial viability across nature-based portfolios.