Bamboo bamboozled - In debates held Thursday in the Agriculture Committee of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, speakers discussed the lack of progress on the National Policy for Incentives for Sustainable Management and Cultivation of Bamboo, which was enacted into law 13 years ago but has not been regulated by decree. Guilherme Corte, the president of the Brazilian Association of Bamboo and Natural Fiber Producers (Abafibras), said the lack of regulation has prevented the recognition of carbon credits for bamboo forests in the country and denied legal security to producers.

Carbon finance inquiry – In Brazil, the investment fund Reag holds R$40 bln ($7.2 bln) in shares in developers Global Carbon and Golden Green, two companies that do not operate at their registered address – which is the same for both – and are little known in the sector, local outlet UOL reported. Reag is under investigation for alleged money laundering linked to Brazil’s largest criminal faction, the First Command of the Capital (PCC). Two of Golden Green’s directors are executives at Reag. In response to UOL, the fund said that the companies are in pre-operational phase and that their assets are environmentally integrated, audited, and properly inventoried.

Getting good grades - The UK-based voluntary carbon ratings agency BeZero Carbon has awarded the renewable fuels producer Gevo an “A” rating related to its CDR credits generated via its North Dakota SAF facility, Gevo announced Thursday. The plant generates 65 mln gallons of ethanol per year and has a CCS capacity of 165,000 tCO2/year. That captured carbon is sequestered via a Class VI carbon injection well in the state. The credits are verified under Puro.earth’s Geologically Stored Carbon methodology, and the company is the only ethanol CCS project to issue credits for thousand-year permanence, Gevo said. The plant sources most of its corn feedstock from within 75 miles of the facility, and leverages the company’s own carbon-tracking platform for upstream agriculture MRV. The company is also developing another SAF facility in South Dakota.

Not on record - GHG Protocol’s plan to limit the use of “market-based” emissions accounting is proving contentious among US tech giants, Semafor reported Thursday. The standard setter, which has extended its public consultation to the end of Jan. 2026, finds itself in the crosshairs of companies with net zero targets - between those that prefer to invest in low-carbon energy projects directly powering their operations, or those that invest in credits from clean energy installations anywhere in the world, though claimed towards their own facilities.

From soil to credits – Rabobank is working on a new carbon project in Brazil, in partnership with UK-based consultancy Anthesis and Argentinian Ruuts. The project, called ReTerra, was registered with Verra last week and is expected to generate 717,000 carbon credits annually under the Improved Agricultural Land Management methodology (VM0042). The project will be implemented across 350,000 ha in the state of Mato Grosso and aims to promote the large-scale adoption of regenerative agricultural practices in Brazil. ReTerra is designed to support producers in transitioning to regenerative practices, measure and verify soil carbon outcomes, reward performance through outcome-based carbon revenues, and scale through partnerships across the value chain so that benefits reach producers, buyers, and ecosystems, said Kim van der Leeuw, head of nature-based solutions at Rabo Carbon Bank.

Voluntary carbon market standard Verra has published an initial list of approved insurers to support project developers for credits eligible under the UN’s international aviation emissions scheme, CORSIA.

Tech-backed Frontier buyer group has signed a $44.2 million carbon removal offtake with a Canadian company, bringing the advance market commitment's total 2025 investment to $261 mln across 688,300 tonnes contracted.

Surging ahead - Carbon market platform, Emsurge, has received a strategic investment from BE Catalyst, the investment arm of BEClimate. "This partnership is a strong endorsement of the technology we’ve built and our mission to modernise environmental market infrastructure. We believe efficient trading systems that increase market access and reduce transaction fees are critical to accelerating decarbonisation - particularly across the built environment,” said Melissa Lindsey, Emsurge founder, on LinkedIn. Emsurge said it has data from more than 300 carbon market participants and 600 projects. The details of the investment were not disclosed.

A standard body has published its new approach to calculating baselines for the carbon savings of REDD projects, alongside a series of jurisdictional maps.

Voluntary and regulated carbon markets are converging, a development that could mark a "turning point" for climate finance, according to a new research paper.

DAC deal - Canadian DAC developer Deep Sky has formed a strategic partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), one of Japan’s largest financial institutions, to accelerate deployment of high-integrity CDR in Japan, the companies announced Dec. 3. Unveiled at the DeCarbon Tokyo 2025 Conference, the collaboration aims to build commercial pathways, financing structures, and policy frameworks to scale DAC in the country. Priority areas include enabling carbon credit offtakes, advancing local business collaboration, and supporting Japan’s DAC ecosystem.

A central Vietnamese province working on a pilot forest carbon trading scheme has authorised a consortium led by a regional carbon credit trading platform to conduct field surveys for new nature-based projects, local media reported.

dMRV survey - The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) is inviting market professionals to share their insights on digital measurement, reporting and verification (dMRV), and how it is strengthening integrity, where risks remain, and where evolution may be needed. The 20-30 min survey is open until Jan. 15, 2026 and will inform a working group next year, which will address areas such as potential revisions to the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) Assessment Framework.

A UK startup active in biochar carbon removal has secured £4 million in a late seed funding round to expand operations across Northwest England and speed up entry into northern Europe.

An Iceland-based carbon registry launched a public consultation this week for a new methodology aimed at quantifying emissions savings from avoided coal mining and combustion.

On fire - Burn has delivered 6.3 mln stoves and avoided 62.3 mln tonnes of CO2 to date, the developer said in an end-of-year update. In 2025, amid rising emissions, policy uncertainty, and pressure on carbon markets, the developer said its mission across Africa is still urgent. It recently saw nearly 200,000 credits labelled as eligible for Phase 1 of CORSIA.

A new academic study warns that the global energy transition is increasingly being shaped by fossil fuel companies promoting “false solutions” to climate change, approaches that appear climate-friendly but ultimately reinforce the dominance of high-carbon industries.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $10 million in financing to support forest restoration and diversify rural economies in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), it announced Thursday.

The Chinese government has approved three offset methodologies under the national voluntary CCER programme, targeting the abatement potential in the agricultural sector.