A US company working with farmers and landowners launched a third-party audited soil carbon certification programme, according to a Thursday announcement.

Carbon calling - In its third year, the Productive Arrangements programme from the legislature of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo is entering a new strategic phase focused on the carbon credit market, reported A Gazeta. The initiative will guide family farmers in structuring environmental projects capable of reducing GHG emissions, seeking to combine environmental preservation and income generation in rural areas. The new focus complements the already established actions for technical training and productive diversification, and runs parallel to the territorial expansion of the programme, which will cover 35 municipalities in the state starting this year.

IT offset offering - Germany-based IT services provider Bechtle is now offering customers the chance to offset carbon emissions generated during the production and delivery of purchased hardware via a collaboration with Berlin-headquartered nature-based solutions platform goodcarbon, it announced Thursday. The projects selected for Bechtle CO₂-Conscious IT enable companies to credibly support their beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) activities in line with the requirements of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), goodcarbon said, and involve activities such as supporting renewable energy projects and protecting or restoring natural ecosystems.

Mangrove market valuation – Mangrove forests in Ecuador’s Churute Ecological Reserve stored an average roughly 1.7 mln tonnes of carbon between 2015-2021, equal to around 6.1 MtCO2e, according to a study published this week. Using satellite land-cover data and standard IPCC factors, the authors determined that carbon stocks were largely steady from 2015-19, while a sharp decline in 2020 was mainly linked to changes in mapping methods rather than actual forest loss. Based on carbon prices used in the analysis, the reserve’s notional annual market value ranged from $18-123 mln, with price swings driving most of the variation. The authors stressed the need for consistent high-resolution data to track real changes over time.

The European Commission convened an expert workshop last week to examine the potential of so-called “mineral carbonation” methods, putting the cement and construction industry at the forefront of EU efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and put climate change into reverse gear.

A Tokyo-based project developer has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an Indonesian research institute to develop nature-based carbon credits in the Southeast Asian country, particularly in agriculture and land-use sectors, it announced Friday.