Companies should move beyond deforestation-free compliance towards nature-positive strategies as EU sustainability rules expand, panellists said during a Tuesday webinar.

VCS update - Verra has released clarifications to the effective dates of its Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, it announced Tuesday. The clarifications are effective immediately, and pertain to: the effective date of those updates to Table 1 that pertain to changes to the default eligibility of projects that install light-emitting diodes (LEDs); procedures for how project proponents can choose to voluntarily update their projects to be validated or verified against VCS Version 5 requirements prior to the mandatory effective dates; section numbers that were removed in the requirements for projects registered with other approved GHG programmes; and late-to-verify procedures for Improved Forest Management (IFM) and Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) project types.  

A UK pension management company overseeing a £54.8-billion investment portfolio has signed its fourth deal with a carbon removal (CDR) market intelligence platform, aiming to procure credits.

Looser forest risk assessments – The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility's (FCPF) Facility Management Team (FMT) has announced that use of the updated Reversal Risk Tool and submission of Annex 5 in Monitoring Reports are now optional, rather than mandatory, with immediate effect. Verification and Validation Bodies (VVBs) will no longer treat the absence of these elements as a compliance issue. However, if REDD+ Country Participants choose to apply the tool and submit Annex 5 voluntarily, the associated requirements will then form part of the verification criteria. The change reflects delays in implementing Annex 1 of the FCPF Buffer Guidelines, and the fact that all Emission Reduction (ER) programme crediting periods ended in December 2024, making full implementation impractical for some participants. Despite the relaxation, countries must still assess and report reversal risks in Section 7 of their Monitoring Reports, which will continue to be subject to verification. The FMT said it will provide guidance to VVBs to ensure reversal risks remain adequately managed and the integrity of FCPF credits is upheld.

Money for mangroves - Developer Blue Forest has secured funding from the UK govt's COAST facility to support sustainable livelihoods in the Zambezi Delta in Mozambique, said founder and CEO, Vahid Fotuhi, on LinkedIn. The programme will be implemented by a consortium of global and local partners led by advisory firm DAI and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The funding will support programmes that create lasting harmony between mangroves and the local communities, such as beekeeping and honey making, bamboo woodlots, and crab farming. It will also help boost the durability of Blue Forest's Mozblue mangrove project, co-developed with Removall Carbon.

Tree targets - Turkiye is aiming to plant 600 mln saplings and seeds by November in a bid to expand forested areas and create new carbon sinks. The target was announced by Forestry General Director Bekir Karacabey who said that 517 mln saplings and seeds were planted last year, leading Turkiye to record an average annual increase of 118,000 hectares of forest. This allowed the country to climb from sixth to fourth place among countries that increased their forest cover the most, according to the FAO’s 2025 Global Forest Resources Assessment, he said. Turkiye is also using unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor forest and prevent fires, and setting camera traps to monitor critical areas, which Karacabey said makes it among the world's most advanced nations for forestry monitoring. (Daily Sabah)

An academic paper has posed 10 priority questions for the next decade of blue carbon science, including whether blue carbon crediting methodologies could be simplified.

ERW partners - Climeworks is partnering with Lithos Carbon to bring enhanced rock weathering (ERW) credits to market and help scale the sector. Lithos applies finely ground basalt rock sourced from quarries to US farmland, claiming to lock up CO2 for over 1,000 years, with the results measured through sampling and analysis. The two formerly partnered in 2023 to deliver 3.5 mln tonnes of CDR over more than a decade. By 2025, Lithos had become the largest ERW developer by issued credits, while Climeworks had become the single-largest offtaker in the category.

A US-headquartered biochar company has secured an agreement to supply Microsoft with 1 million carbon removal (CDR) units over a 10-year period, it announced on Tuesday.

Several Latin American countries historically focused on nature-based solutions (NbS) and land use are seeing carbon project developers stride into technology-based GHG reductions and removals.

In a world-first application of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), biogenic CO2 from a wastewater biogas facility in Norway has been transported and permanently stored 2,600 metres below the seabed, the project partners announced Tuesday.

Several carbon market stakeholders in Southeast Asia signalled an interest in developing credits for international markets, but domestic policy architecture still lags behind such ambition, conference attendees heard Tuesday.

Prices in New Zealand’s ETS will continue to come under pressure from forestry-issued units absent any changes, the country’s former climate minister told Carbon Pulse on Tuesday – despite legislative tweaks to restrict farm-to-forest conversions last year.

Carbon markets should be integrated within wider regulatory frameworks that address deforestation risks and promote Indigenous stewardship to ensure they deliver real outcomes for biodiversity, according to a new paper.

Debt-for nature swaps – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is talking with three African countries to set up debt-for-nature swaps potentially worth over $500 mln, it told Reuters this week. Ademola Ajagbe, TNC’s regional director for Africa, did not name those involved due to confidentiality agreements. However, he hinted that one deal would likely close this year while the remaining two would be finalised in 2027. Other African countries, Gabon and Seychelles, have agreed to debt-for-nature swaps in the past years, reducing repayments in line with conservation commitments.

Prices of carbon credits under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 are seen below $20 per tonne in the early years as supply outpaces demand, before a tightening market pushes rates above $100 by mid-century, according to an analysis.

With a surge in power demand from data centres extending the life of fossil fuel-fired generation, carbon removals are even more important than before, a high profile investor said Tuesday.

A Zurich-headquartered carbon removal (CDR) financier has committed to procuring over 305,000 CO2 removal certificates (CORCs) from a biochar facility in Bolivia, it announced on Monday.