A model that aggregates buyer demand through a centralised request for proposal (RFP) process for sourcing carbon removals (CDR) can reduce transaction costs and improve access to vetted supply, panellists said during a Thursday webinar.

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.

Product carbon footprints - Only a small proportion of companies in emissions and sustainability reporting are able to deliver product-level carbon data, according to analysis by Sightline Climate. This is according to a survey of 233 companies where only 36 (15%) were found to have the capability. Product-level carbon accounting is especially prevalent in sectors with complex supply chains, where regulation mandates such disclosure, and where end consumers or downstream buyers demand it. Food, fashion, and manufacturing industries are ahead of the game in this respect, while automotive and batteries are next in line, said Sightline.

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.

Switzerland should prioritise domestic removal projects 'as far as possible', a body for the sector has urged the government in response to a consultation on the country's net zero framework.

Fresh eyes - Climate tech company Spiritus has announced two leadership appointments - Kip Hensley has joined as head of project development, while Dorian West has joined the company's board of directors. Spiritus pairs high-efficiency natural gas generation with point-source carbon capture and direct air capture (DAC) driven by waste heat. Hensley joins Spiritus after eight years at Brightmark where he developed and managed renewable natural gas plants across the US, and will now guide Spiritus's first commercial-scale efforts in Wyoming. West joins Spiritus’s board after 15 years at Tesla, where he was an early employee and held engineering leadership roles. He will support the company’s next phase of engineering scale-up as it moves from technical validation into larger systems built for commercial deployment, stated the press release.

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.

A wide range of sub-national rates have been proposed by an expert UN panel that will be used to calculate how many units a cookstove project can generate under Article 6.4 carbon crediting.

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).

A US-based regenerative agriculture company is unveiling a new environmental asset division to issue carbon credits generated through soil carbon sequestration (SOC) and other climate improvement practices.

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.

Proposed revisions to how companies calculate their Scope 2 emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol could result in higher market-based emissions, even without changes in the underlying electricity consumption, analysts said on Wednesday.

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.

EV reboot – Verra has opened a consultation on minor revisions to its Verified Carbon Standard’s (VCS) EV methodology, VM0038, and its associated module, VMD0049. Proposed changes include updates to the applicability conditions taking into consideration market share in a project’s host country, updates to the positive list which determines additionality, and the adoption of VCS tools to bolster integrity, among other things. The consultation will run until Apr. 17, 2026.

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.