The voluntary carbon market (VCM) is unlikely to get over its "midlife crisis" in the short-term, stakeholders said at the North American Carbon World 2026 conference Wednesday.

Colombia has debuted its first biochar-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits, as the issuer expands beyond its traditional stronghold in neighbouring Bolivia.

Warming-driven soil carbon losses could be significantly amplified under drought conditions, while wetter climates may instead see gains, according to new research that highlights a key but underrepresented driver of land-based emissions in climate models.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape how voluntary carbon markets function – from project design and monitoring to certification and pricing – but its growing role is exposing both new efficiencies and new integrity risks.

Regulations for Mexico’s long-delayed ETS could be put on the back burner until the recent global energy crisis subsides and a trade agreement review with the US is concluded, a national carbon industry representative said this week during North American Carbon World (NACW).

Ethanol expansion – Gevo announced this week it is planning a major expansion of its North Dakota ethanol facility that could double output and boost carbon capture volumes, as it eyes growing demand for low-carbon fuels. The US-based company said it will add a second plant at its Richardton site, targeting up to 75 mln gallons per year of additional capacity alongside an existing expansion already underway. Combined, the projects could lift total output at the site to around 150 mln gallons annually and enable capture of more than 400,000 tCO2, supported by revenues from voluntary carbon markets and low-carbon fuel programmes.

The new, far-right government of Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast has approved renewable energy projects worth just over $1 billion in investment – even as it rescinds other mitigation measures, subject to further review.

Market confidence in soil organic carbon (SOC) is building as standards agencies get behind the project type, accelerating carbon removal approach into a new era of trust and growth, credit managers and developers said Tuesday.

Argentina has registered its first domestically-focused agricultural land management (ALM) carbon project under Verra, marking a further expansion of land-based crediting activities in the country’s growing voluntary carbon market.

Cuba’s proposed benchmark for forest-sector emissions has been revised upward following a UN technical assessment, with reviewers commending improvements to transparency and scope but flagging data gaps that could affect the country’s eligibility for results-based payments under REDD+.

A carbon project developer reported $0.2 mln in net income for 2025, while advancing credit issuance across its portfolio, with initial CORSIA-linked sales were completed by a project partner in early 2026.

Old UN certified credits under the soon to close Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are changing hands in large volumes for as little as $0.20, an exchange has revealed.

A large volume of food waste carbon credits that have been certified by Verra are soon to be sold on the CBL platform.

Efforts to scale technologies that remove CO2 from the atmosphere are being held back by financing issues, a paper released this week has found.

A new framework to assess the environmental performance and costs of direct air capture (DAC) projects could improve comparability and support investment decisions, a recent report found.

First of a kind - Mombak has generated its first carbon removal credits for enhanced rock weathering (ERW) from Project Cajueiro in Brazil using Isometric's ERW protocol, and registered its reforestation projects with Isometric. The development makes it the first supplier with both engineered and nature-based carbon removal projects listed on the Isometric registry. Mombak has previously secured offtakes for over 1.8 Mt of removals with buyers including Google, McKinsey, and Microsoft, while members of the Symbiosis Coalition have bought 215,000 tonnes of removal from its Amazonian reforestation project.

Pakistan and Norway have signed a bilateral agreement under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, aimed at scaling up carbon market cooperation and supporting emissions reduction efforts.

Methodology update - Social Carbon has opened a public consultation on an updated version of its methodology SCM0006 for the conservation of areas of biodiversity importance. The consultation is open from Apr. 1 to June 1, and stakeholders can submit feedback here. Version 3 sets a new integrity threshold for conservation-focused GHG methodologies, introducing an evidence-based, removals-focused approach grounded in net ecosystem productivity (NEP). It aligns crediting with measured ecosystem performance, not projections; introduces risk-based crediting to prevent over-crediting; and embeds biodiversity and social safeguards.  

Deepening ties - Indonesia and Japan will deepen cooperation on forestry and carbon markets following ministerial meetings in Tokyo, national news agency Antara reported. Talks between Indonesia’s forestry minister and Japanese counterparts covered sustainable forest management, carbon trading, and conservation initiatives, alongside support via JICA projects and expert deployment. Both sides also pushed to expand cooperation under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), including mangrove restoration and the proposed World Mangrove Center.

Researchers at South Korea's Kookmin University (KMU) have launched a government-backed project to develop ecosystem restoration solutions with the use of new technology, in order to increase carbon sinks.

Existing approaches to ensuring additionality, leakage, and permanence in nature-based carbon projects may fail to support biodiversity conservation, a new study argued.

A new climate advisory firm has launched with a focus on integrating fragmented carbon market systems, targeting growing demand for coordination across voluntary and compliance frameworks, particularly in Southeast Asia.

A coalition of buyers has launched a second procurement round for nature-based (NbS) carbon removals, introducing a rolling application process and piloting a pre-purchase mechanism, it announced Tuesday.

Russian carriers should be able to purchase carbon units for CORSIA use from domestic projects, a government minister said Wednesday, following the recent application of a national carbon standard for approval to supply Phase 2 of the international offsetting scheme.

Eight southern African countries have formally launched a regional alliance aimed at strengthening coordination on carbon markets and climate finance, as interest in Article 6 cooperation continues to grow across the continent.

An Indigenous tribe has had its forest protection project certified, enabling it to join a voluntary carbon market (VCM) project located on a vulnerable small island developing state, the project coordinator announced on Wednesday.

An Israeli-founded startup has lobbied the New Zealand government for changes to local regulations so it can proceed with marine carbon removals (mCDR) in the country’s waters, local media reported on Wednesday.

A major prediction market operator has launched a suite of contracts on which voluntary carbon standard will face the next integrity controversy, with sub-markets created to bet on the affected project category, country, and reversal type.

A project developer’s choice of methodology – once the cornerstone of commoditised carbon markets – is now just one of several rounds of bespoke due diligence processes, an expert said on Tuesday while providing recommendations on how to quicken the process.