Colombia has for a decade been planning a cap-and-trade system (Spanish: PNCTE) and is months from publishing the final regulation – but the country must first consider its pre-existing CO2 pricing landscape, according to experts.

New blood - Edwina Johnson, formerly of GTM. Investor, has joined CUR8 as as COO. Having worked for several venture capital firms in recent years, Johnson welcomed being back in early-stage building mode, she said on social media. Acario Innovation, the corporate venture arm of Tokyo Gas, the largest city gas provider in Japan and a diversified electric utility, announced this week a strategic investment into London-headquartered CUR8.

Human-free verification - Texas-based Waste Energy’s patent-pending carbon credit automation system would seek to remove human error from the reporting chain and create blockchain-backed carbon credits. The company said in an update that its system would use on-site video monitoring and sensor data to capture the conversion process in real time. That data is then run through a carbon credit algorithm when a match is confirmed, a credit is created automatically, minted as an NFT, and deposited directly into a digital wallet. It said the result is a verifiable, immutable record of exactly how and when the credit was generated amid credibility concerns. The company’s first project in the Texas Permian Basin would process 10,000 tonnes of waste tires annually, and could offset 12,800 t/CO2e per year at full capacity – though the company has yet to validate its process through a third-party validation and registry methodology.

A direct air capture (DAC) project developer has secured an offtake agreement aimed at scaling carbon removals (CDR) in Kenya, the company announced this week.

Racing to remove - The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team will imminently announce a new carbon removal deal for a total of more than 18,600 tonnes from seven projects, the Economist Sustainability Week heard in London on Tuesday. These projects include ones developed by biochar developer Carboneers and Brazil-based enhanced rock weathering (ERW) developer InPlanet, said Alice Ashpitel, the company's head of sustainability, on a panel about carbon credits. The purchase will contribute to the company's net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 goal, and the projects were chosen to reflect geographic diversity and innovative technology - to reflect the team's need to travel internationally for races and investment in its own R&D, said Ashpitel. Framing carbon removal as aligned with the company's core values was key to getting approval by the CFO, she said.

Experts charged with implementing the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) have a tricky year ahead as they aim to fast-track implementation of the new Article 6 market, while ensuring standards are kept high, observers have said.

A Latin American biochar company has reached a significant milestone in credit issuance for the carbon removals (CDR) market, it said on Tuesday.

Cheap CO2 mineralisation – A new monitoring approach could cut costs and complexity for large‑scale underground CO2 storage, a study from the University of Edinburgh has shown. The study found that captured CO2 injected into volcanic rocks in Iceland was successfully locked away as solid minerals, as shown by its natural chemical “fingerprints”. The approach reduces the need to add artificial tracers and could make it simpler and cheaper to prove that CO2 is stored safely and permanently underground. This mineralisation method locks away CO2 permanently, so its carbon removal credits are expected to command higher prices than many nature-based projects, which may only store carbon for 100 years or less.

Locked in - Isometric has introduced locked protocol requirements across all carbon removal pathways, it announced Tuesday. This means that the project requirements in place at the start of registration are the same used for credit issuance throughout the project's crediting period, and means suppliers can plan with certainty, the registry said. Protocols won’t be updated more frequently than once every six months, and will continue to evolve based on scientific advances, tech developments, and real-world rollouts. New projects must use the most recent certified protocol version available, and when Isometric releases updated protocol versions, existing projects can voluntarily adopt them. Read more.

India’s struggle to build a pipeline of forest carbon projects has less to do with international methodologies and more to do with who owns the land, according to developers of the only community-based REDD+ project in the South Asian country.

A global consultancy has launched to provide integrated advisory services remotely across carbon market policy, science, and communications, its founders announced on Wednesday.

Removal on the map – RMI and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability have launched an interactive online tracker to monitor global progress in carbon removal (CDR) and direct air capture (DAC), covering 10 technology approaches and assessing their commercial status. The tracker builds on RMI's Applied Innovation Roadmap for CDR, published in 2023, which examined 32 CDR approaches and their path to deployment. A second phase, expected in summer 2026, will expand coverage to 13 additional CDR types and include a review of global academic activity in each approach. The project was funded by Cornell Atkinson.

A-rating – Colombia-based developer Biofix's 2-mln ha Ilha do Bananal+ project in Brazil has secured an ‘A’ rating from MSCI under its Carbon Project Ratings framework, it announced Monday on LinkedIn. Certified under Cercarbono, the project is located in the Amazon-Cerrado transition zone in the state of Tocantins. It includes both REDD+ and non-REDD+ activities in forest and wetland ecosystems. The project has already received 3.8 mln credits from Cercarbono. The rating signals alignment with institutional expectations on additionality, permanence risk mitigation, buffer design, and governance, executives from Biofix and MSCI said in a separate press release.

A Swiss-based insurer aims to replace buffer pools with regulated in-kind and in-cash cover, but says the Verra pilot will test the mechanism's efficiency and long-term sustainability.