An Australian company developing zero-emissions chemicals for use in hard-to-abate sectors has raised A$30 million ($21.3 mln) in a Series A financing round, led by the Gates Foundation.

Brazil J-REDD+ implementation – The state of Para is continuing its free, prior, and informed consultation (FPIC) process on its jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) programme in the Brazilian Amazon. This week, the state government resumed consultations in the municipality of Cachoeira do Arari with Quilombola leaders, representative associations, local communities, and public authorities, it said in a press release. Last year, the State Secretariat for the Environment, Climate and Sustainability (Semas) concluded consultations with representatives from the extractive sector.

COP30 pledge formalised – Brazilian development bank BNDES and sustainable land management company Tree Agroflorestal (Tree+) signed on Monday a R$151.8 mln ($29.3 mln) financing agreement to support restoration of the Atlantic Forest. The deal had previously been announced during COP30 in Belem last November, with the expectation that the project will generate carbon credits. The resources will come from the National Climate Fund and are earmarked for the ecological restoration of 15,000 ha, mainly in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Tasty marks – Global Cookstoves, a joint venture operated by cookstove developer Burn and financier Key Carbon, has received an AA rating from Calyx Global for its Kenyan clean cooking project, Burn said in a press release Monday. The analysis confirmed a low risk of non-additionality, with carbon revenues necessary to subsidise improved stove adoption in rural areas where traditional three-stone fires and inefficient stoves were common. Overall, Calyx estimated that any potential overestimation of climate impact is below 10%. This rating came just weeks after another project by Global Cookstoves in Somalia gained a BBB rating from BeZero. Both projects use sing Gold Standard’s TPDDTEC methodology, which has been approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market for its Core Carbon Principle programme.

Voluntary carbon credit retirements surged last week to more than 14 million credits across the four main standard bodies, boosted by strong activity from an oil major.

Five improved forest management (IFM) projects in China show no statistically significant evidence of additional carbon sequestration, while projected removals exceeded empirical estimates by an average factor of 3.7, a new study said.

Opening up - The Carbon to Sea Initiative has launched the Interactive MRV Database to document how MRV is currently being conducted across five of the world’s earliest ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) field projects. OAE is an open-system CDR approach, meaning carbon uptake occurs gradually across space and time. Carbon to Sea said that while this makes it potentially scalable, it also creates challenges around measurement, attribution, and standardisation. Monitoring approaches vary depending on the OAE method used, the objectives of the research, and whether the project is led by academic researchers or private companies, it added. "In the absence of a shared regulatory standard, there remains ambiguity around what monitoring for OAE entails, how much progress has been made, and how closely perceptions align with actual field practice." In 2025, Carbon to Sea carried out a structured MRV landscape analysis, combining a review of public documentation with 37 expert interviews spanning academia, private developers, MRV providers, buyers, and funders. The resulting database aims to establish a baseline against which improvements in MRV quality, confidence, and eventually cost can be tracked. Developed with input from the five featured projects, the database indexes more than 250 individual measurements. It records parameters measured, locations, sampling methods or sensors used, and the stated purpose of each measurement. The information is consolidated into a unified structure and accompanied by a meta-analysis highlighting patterns and areas of alignment across projects. Carbon to Sea said the database is not intended to compare projects directly, assess the adequacy of individual MRV systems, validate CDR claims, or evaluate baseline monitoring. Instead, it focuses specifically on OAE-related measurements and seeks to identify emerging themes and opportunities for improvement, acting as a practical tool without having to compile information from multiple sources. Carbon to Sea plans to update it annually as additional projects come online and monitoring practices evolve, and is inviting further submissions to expand its coverage. An open fellowship position will support the next phase of database development.

Carbon removal should be treated as “time-bound storage leases” backed by specialist delivery companies, according to a recently published academic paper that argued current markets have failed to deliver liquidity, price discovery, or scale.

Papua New Guinea has formally operationalised its Carbon Permit Application (CPA) process, replacing the previous Project Concept Note system with a structured statutory framework designed to tighten environmental integrity, formalise landowner consent, and provide clearer timelines for project approval.

Chocolate for good - Confectionary company Mars has launched an impact fund committing $85 mln between 2025 and 2027 to programmes across community resilience, scientific support, and companion animal health. Initial funding includes a $3 mln, three-year programme with Save the Children to expand village savings and loan associations in cocoa-growing regions of Indonesia. A further $726,000 will go to Humane World for Animals to improve access to veterinary services and professional training in India and Mexico. The fund will also act as Mars' primary mechanism for disaster response affecting employees, communities, and supply chains. From 2028, Mars plans to increase the fund’s scale with a minimum annual commitment of $50 mln. (Food & Drink International)

Greener operations - Lithuanian cement producer AB Akmenės cementas plans to invest more than €700 mln on transforming its business, mostly for sustainability purposes, according to a press release. The total includes up to €600 mln for carbon capture and storage (CCS), in a bid to be carbon neutral from 2035 onwards, and to ensure continued competitivity under the EU ETS. The company is launching the CCS Baltic consortium alongside KN Energies, Schwenk Latvija, Larvik Shipping, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. This aims to develop a full CCS value chain in the region, from capture at cement plant to transport, liquefaction, handling at the Klaipėda CO2 transshipment terminal, and permanent storage beneath the North Sea. About 75% of the cement produced at Akmenės Cement, the only cement factory in Lithuania, is sold in Lithuania itself.

The European Commission will launch its first call to approve certification bodies under the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation in April, an official has indicated.

A UK carbon project developer and a Singapore-based merchant bank have signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the government of the Kyrgyz Republic to support the development of country’s carbon market under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Recent controversies linked to forest carbon projects have reignited debate over one of Brazil’s most complex governance challenges: land tenure regularisation.

Advancing clean cooking - Sustainable Energy for All, in collaboration with the Rwandan government, has released the National Integrated Clean Cooking Planning (NICCP) framework to accelerate the country’s transition to clean cooking. The initiative will use interactive, data-driven tools to provide a roadmap for policy design, investment opportunities, and sustainable service delivery. The NICCP assesses two planning scenarios against a baseline: the Aligned Plan, which aims to meet Rwanda’s existing national clean cooking ambitions, and the CleanStep Plan, which targets higher clean cooking penetration by 2029 followed by economic recovery and stable social costs through 2034. The framework accounts for regional differences, mapping technology adoption based on LPG and electricity infrastructure, consumer demographics, and land-use patterns, and is designed as an adaptable tool to support progress towards universal access, the government said.

First overseas project - Tokyo-based Linkhola has launched a carbon credit project that aims to cut emissions in Thailand based on the solar power purchase agreement (PPA) model, the first overseas project under its crediting programme Earthstory. Credits from the project, developed based on a J-Credit methodology, will be issued in May, Linkhola said, without disclosing more project details. The company also said it aims to expand its presence in the ASEAN region.

The investment arm of a Tokyo gas provider has invested in a UK-based carbon removal (CDR) intelligence and due diligence platform.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are being systematically shut out of global climate finance despite facing some of the most acute climate impacts, according to a report released Monday that said funders view these nations as too small, fragmented, and risky to support.