Panellists on a Thursday webinar pointed project developers toward compliance and regulated markets rather than the voluntary carbon market (VCM) as the primary source of future demand and price formation.

The UAE is in the unique position of being both a potential buyer and seller of international carbon credits, carbon market participants said during the Carbon Forward Middle East conference last week.

Carbon credit purchases are increasing among mid-market buyers as oil and gas companies have reduced their volumes, and new cookstove projects favour newer, more rigorous methodologies, a director from a carbon market intelligence firm told a webinar on Thursday.

Brazilian prosecutors have called for a probe into what would be one of the country's biggest banking scandals, allegedly involving R$45.5 billion ($8.6 bln) in fraudulent carbon credits generated in the Amazon as part of an illegal scheme, local media has reported.

10k reached - 10,000 companies have now set science-based targets under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi),  representing more than 40% of global market capitalistion, the organisation announced Thursday. They span nearly every major sector, region, and company size, and are headquartered in more than 90 countries. European-based companies still account for a large share, but growth in Asia has sped up of late, with Japan now boasting the highest number of validated companies globally at over 2,000, followed by the UK, the US, and China. The final version of SBTi's updated Corporate Net-Zero Standard is expected soon, with potential implications for carbon credit uptake.

Nice rice - Green Earth Group, an investor, has made its first foray into Ghana by through a partnership with Pangea Global Ventures. The investor has provided structured financing to FarmerTribe into a modern rice milling facility in Walewale. It has also provided working capital facility that allows FarmerTribe to pay its network of 5,000 smallholder farmers immediately upon harvest.

A new international panel has appointed its first members to help develop a standardised system for tracking carbon emissions at the product level across supply chains, organisers said Monday.

A voluntary carbon standard body has added three more risk maps for jurisdictional REDD projects, bringing the total to nine.

CDRs issued - Renewable fuels producer Gevo has issued more than 500,000 engineered carbon removal credits from its North Dakota plant since activities began in June 2022, it said in a news release. The credits generated by the ethanol carbon capture and storage project are registered on Puro.earth and have received an 'A' rating from BeZero Carbon. The company claims they have a 1,000 year permanence.

Potential in Thailand - Tokyo-headquartered developer Green Carbon on Thursday said it has seen emissions reduction potential, particularly from alternate wetting and drying (AWD) projects, in Thailand. The company has conducted demonstration projects in multiple regions of the Southeast Asian nation in collaboration with local farmers and universities, and has gathered key data for project development. Green Carbon said it is keen to develop AWD projects in Thailand at a certain scale - a maximum of 50,000 hectares per project and an estimated annual reduction of 5 tCO2/ha.

Offsetting - India’s Sagar Cements has partnered with the climate action platform Sow&Reap Chara to generate 1 mln carbon credits through biomass gasification technology, the company announced. Under the collaboration, the partners will support farmers and agricultural communities in adopting sustainable practices that sequester carbon and qualify for voluntary carbon markets, while also helping Sagar Cements offset emissions from its operations. The initiative is part of the company’s broader environmental strategy to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to climate mitigation by linking rural land-use improvements with high-quality carbon credit outcomes, with the targeted credits expected to be delivered over the coming years, it said.

One of the largest corporate buyers of carbon removal (CDR) credits published an update to its portfolio on Wednesday, indicating Fiscal Year 2026 contracts are leading with high sequestration durability commitments.

Carbon credits offered both opportunities and significant limitations for financing the conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems, according to an interim report published on Wednesday by a European state environment agency.