Efforts to scale up ecosystem restoration are accelerating across regions, but ongoing approval of extractive activities, weak coordination, and limited enforcement capacity are raising doubts over whether countries can meet 2030 targets, specialists said during a webinar this week.

Companies must use a final accounting standard for land-based emissions and removals from 2027 under updated guidance that revises timelines and tightens no-deforestation rules.

The Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) has filed three public civil actions against carbon credit projects in the state of Amazonas for allegedly violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, it announced on Thursday.

A German-headquartered carbon offset platform has selected six early-stage nature-based project developers for the fourth cohort of its accelerator, marking the programme’s first edition dedicated to land-based CDR activities.

Stacking carbon, biodiversity, and water at the MRV level would improve efficiency for participants in the EU’s public certification scheme for carbon removal activities, however markets for each credit type should be kept separate, a summit heard on Thursday.

CDR assessment - EU member states national energy and climate plans (NECPs) are falling short in delivering a proper assessment of how permanent carbon removals will be deployed to help achieve net zero, concluded Carbon Market Watch (CMW) in a new study. The most popular carbon removal technologies present key challenges as they compete for clean energy, water, and land, and can put pressure on food production, biodiversity, and the local community rights, it said. CMW therefore urges stronger governance at EU level, including through a dedicated space in NECPs for permanent carbon removal work and a clear definition of carbon removal overreliance as insufficient climate ambition.

FLAG update - The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has published an updated version of its forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) guidance, which is designed to make climate action more accessible and actionable. The updated version aligns FLAG with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s (GHGP) land sector and removals standard, sets a no-deforestation target date with an absolute deadline of Dec. 31, 2030 for submissions after 2028, and keeps the expected deforestation cutoff date to 2020 or earlier. It also updates the commodity requirements under no-deforestation commitments to include the main deforestation-linked commodities globally, and sets a requirement to publish evidence showing how companies will deliver their no-deforestation commitments. The updated FLAG guidance goes into effect immediately. More details here.

The UK will allocate around £6 billion to international climate finance (ICF) over the next three years, compared to a £11.6 bln five-year commitment for 2021-26, as part of wider changes to its development spending, the government said on Thursday.

Emissions disclosure alone is not enough for the food industry, a UK-based consultancy has argued, suggesting businesses instead deploy a new metric connecting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with corporate gross value added (GVA).

Indonesia is exploring the role of carbon trading as a form of funding to bolster state finances for management of the archpelagic country’s vast national parks.

Bond success – Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank (NDB) has raised LKR16 bln ($51.3 mln) via the country’s largest Basel III-Compliant thematic bond, it said in a press release this week. Supported by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), issuance of the inaugural Tier II Rated Unsecured Subordinated Redeemable GSS+ Bonds opened on Mar. 10 and was oversubscribed, the Seoul-based intergovernmental organisation said in its own release. NDB said the issuance strengthens its commitment to advancing its ESG agenda and supporting Sri Lanka’s climate and development initiatives, noting that the bank has funded around 20% of the South Asian island country’s renewable generation capacity since 2004. The bond’s proceeds will be directed to eligible green (including blue, ie marine-based), social, sustainability, and sustainability-linked projects, which support environmentally responsible, socially impactful, and sustainable economic development, NDB said.

Guyana has sold jurisdictional forest carbon credits to 19 international airlines over the past 18 months, a senior government official said, as demand for CORSIA-eligible units grows ahead of tightening aviation offsetting requirements.

A nationally replicable UK model for coordinating public and private investment into nature-based solutions (NbS) has been published in a report on Thursday by the Green Finance Institute (GFI).

A developer of nature-based infrastructure assets and a nature-based solutions (NbS) carbon project developer will share risks and long-term project value via a new co-development model, they announced Thursday in connection with an afforestation and reforestation (A/R) initiative.