Bamboo carbon credits - Guatemala's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food (MAGA) is launching the Bamboo Carbon Credits initiative, supported by the Taiwanese embassy. The initiative aims to generate carbon credits for participants, who would look to sell them on the international market. Organisations with land management capacity, including cooperatives, associations, municipalities, community organisations, environmental organisations, and companies, are also invited to take part in the initiative, the MAGA said. Selected organisations will receive high-quality bamboo seedlings, specialised technical assistance, and support in the international certification processes. Interested parties can fill out the following form.

J-REDD+ - The Secretariat of the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) confirmed on Thursday that it has accepted a set of documents from the Brazilian state of Acre, as previously announced by the local government in January. These include a TREES Monitoring Report (TMR) for 2023 and a TREES Registration Document (TRD) covering the 2023-27 crediting period. After deductions, Acre’s jurisdictional programme (J-REDD+) expects roughly 6.5 mln credits for 2023.

City slicker - The Brazilian city of Cubatao will sign on Mar. 31 a Technical Cooperation Agreement (ACT) with the Brazilian Institute of Education and Development in Sustainable Innovation (IBEDIS) with the objective of structuring and implementing the Cubatao Verde Program, aiming to be the first municipality in the Baixada Santista region to engage in the trading of carbon credits in a regulated structure. Planned actions include conducting a technical diagnosis of environmental assets, developing a structured work plan, developing an ESG-GGA (Environmental, Social, and Governance and Global Goal on Adaptation) certification methodology, and raising private funds from companies. The agreement does not foresee the transfer of public funds. All financing will be carried out exclusively through private investments raised by IBEDIS, without the municipality assuming any financial or contractual responsibilities. Governance will include a joint management committee responsible for monitoring, validating, and overseeing actions, and the signing of the ACT is also expected to include the participation of representatives from the industrial sector.   

ICE Futures Europe has proposed changes to the trading calendar and delivery timelines for its CORSIA-eligible and nature-based carbon credit futures, in a move aimed at aligning the contracts more closely with established compliance market conventions.

Assessing additionality in forestry carbon projects remains a key challenge, panellists said in a webinar on Thursday.

Verra will release the first phase of its Scope 3 Standard (S3S) Program in Q3 2026, delaying an earlier timeline as it works to align the framework with external standards and ongoing pilots, it announced on Wednesday.

A global carbon management platform has raised $7 million in fresh capital, doubling its total funding, as investor appetite grows for tools that can translate corporate emissions data into operational decision-making.

Key gaps remain - Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) second draft of its Automotive Net-Zero Standard shows notable improvements but still contains important gaps to ensure high transparency, credibility, and comparability of corporate climate strategies, according to the New Climate Institute. The non-profit recommends that SBTi set mandatory volume targets for procured materials, that it mandate sales share targets for zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), and that it maintain disaggregated ZEV sales targets by geography and vehicle type to ensure clarity and accountability.

Carbon credit registry Isometric has certified Version 2.0 of its core standard, expanding its crediting scope to super pollutants.

Kenya cement collab - DAC developer Octavia Carbon has partnered with local cement manufacturer Bamburi Cement to explore CO2 mineralisation in concrete, it announced on social media. The collaboration will assess how captured CO2 can be permanently stored in building materials, as part of efforts to decarbonise cement production, which is among the hardest-to-abate industrial sectors.

Stakeholders across the UK’s carbon and nature markets hold differing views on whether the government should use voluntary integrity initiatives as best practice guides, the government said on Thursday.

Existing clean cooking solutions can help to close the massive gap in access by 2030, but only a fraction of the necessary investment has been mobilised so far, and uptake of available finance is limited, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The first transaction under the European Union’s new carbon removal framework has been publicly disclosed, involving carbon removal credits tied to a bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project in Sweden.

Challenges around additionality, financing, and limited demand are emerging as key constraints for scaling blue carbon markets, even as interest in high-quality projects remains strong, experts said on Thursday.

Tender open (again) - The government of Balochistan in Pakistan has reopened bids for the Khor blue carbon offset project, a large-scale initiative aimed at restoring coastal ecosystems and generating carbon credits through afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation activities. Being developed under a public-private partnership framework in collaboration with the Balochistan Public Private Partnership Authority, the project will cover 34,351 ha along the province’s coastal belt and is expected to sequester over 300,000 tonnes of CO2e annually. Bids for the project are open until Apr. 15.

A global climate investment and advisory firm has been awarded up to $25 million to develop a blended finance platform to scale a Timor-Leste community agroforestry programme with the potential to generate up to 20 mln verified carbon credits over its lifetime.

A new satellite-based monitoring tool aims to detect early-stage risks in forest carbon projects, offering developers and investors faster visibility into project performance.

The UK Transition Finance Council's initial draft guidelines for financial firms, designed to steer climate conscious investments, recognise the value of carbon credits to offset residual emissions and support wider environmental outcomes.