Large-scale infrastructure offers a key pathway for mainstreaming and financing nature-based solutions (NbS) amid broader challenges to securing capital, panellists said during a Thursday webinar.

Colombia-based carbon standard Cercarbono announced on Wednesday the final update of its methodology for afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) projects, following a public consultation launched in July last year.

An investment manager for the forestry sector this week unveiled an Ecosystem Integrity Index (EII), designed for timber companies to monitor biodiversity while logging and replanting trees.

The European Commission has updated the EU’s central carbon registry to reflect tougher climate targets for 2030 and clarify how national governments can use emission trading and land-use flexibilities to meet their obligations under the bloc’s Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR).

Malaysia’s palm oil industry could generate significant volumes of carbon credits, but structural challenges in the country’s carbon market such as low liquidity, high costs, and regulatory uncertainty continue to constrain progress, according to experts.

Public actors need to strategically tackle the widening gap in insurance against climate-related natural disasters through four actions that embed nature throughout, WWF said on Thursday.

An Indonesian lender has teamed up with a carbon project developer to roll out what the Jakarta-based partners said is the country’s first dedicated financing facility for forestry-based carbon credits, on Thursday.

The period 2026-30 is by far the most important for UK tree planting if it is to count towards the country’s 2050 net zero target, a non-profit research group said this week.

Bids requested - UNDP last week launched a tender seeking a consulting firm to conduct a mapping and baseline study on Vietnam’s blue carbon potential, according to procurement documents. The assignment, running from Jan. to Mar. 2026, will assess mangroves, seagrass, and tidal marshes, alongside policy frameworks, financing flows, and investment gaps. Findings will inform Vietnam’s National Blue Carbon Action Partnership and a forthcoming national roadmap, the documents said. UNDP said women-owned firms are encouraged to bid, with preference given where technical scores are equal.

US-based tech giant Microsoft has signed a carbon removal (CDR) offtake agreement with an Indian project developer, marking its first durable CDR purchase in Asia, according to an announcement Thursday.

The European Commission is preparing detailed EU-wide rules to certify CO2 removals from carbon farming activities, setting out how projects in agriculture, peatland rewetting, and afforestation must prove their climate benefits to generate tradable units under the bloc’s new Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation.

Show me the money - Pacific island nation of Samoa said it will seek to use Article 6 carbon credits under the Paris Agreement to help finance delivery of its latest climate pledge, and is interested in selling carbon credits to more developed countries that may be interested. In its third NDC, Samoa set an economy-wide target to cut GHG emissions by about 104 MtCO2e by 2035, relative to 2020 levels, while stressing that much of the ambition is conditional on external support. The government said it is targeting 75% renewable electricity by 2035, increased use of electric and hybrid vehicles, and large-scale reforestation to cut emissions from land use.

Microsoft will purchase 2.85 million soil carbon removal (CDR) credits from a US-based agtech firm as part of a new 12-year deal, it was announced on Thursday, marking the third transaction between the two companies.

First blue carbon credits - An Awaji Island-based blue carbon project has received certification for the fixation of 12.4 tCO2 under Japan's J-Blue Credit programme, the first of its kind for the island. The initiative was implemented by Inabata Fine Tech, Bluable, and a local fisheries cooperative. It aims to visualise CO2 fixation through seaweed farming as carbon credits, thereby improving the profitability of the local fishing industry and building a sustainable fishing model.  

The rapid expansion of the forward offtake market in the voluntary carbon market may be here to stay, and could determine credit pricing dynamics in the years ahead, according to analysis from a carbon data firm and rating agency.