The number of applications to submit land to New Zealand’s ETS slipped to single digits in March, according to government data published this week.

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.

Aviation’s non-CO2 climate effects could be priced under the EU’s carbon market, but doing so will require a fundamental rethink of how emissions are measured, verified, and translated into compliance obligations, according to new research.

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.

Superfund stalls - Illinois lawmakers did not advance a proposed “climate superfund” bill this session, as opposition from business and labour groups prevented the measure from gaining traction in the Democratic-controlled legislature, E&E News reported. The proposal, backed by House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel (D), would have required major fossil fuel producers and refiners to contribute to a state fund supporting climate adaptation projects such as flood protection and cooling in schools, but it failed to receive a hearing. The outcome leaves Illinois behind states such as Vermont and New York that have enacted similar laws, though Gabel said the effort was intended to gauge opposition and build momentum for future legislative attempts.

Michigan moves - Michigan has filed a federal climate lawsuit accusing major oil companies of violating antitrust law by allegedly acting as a “cartel” to suppress clean energy, diverging from other states’ consumer protection claims, while the US Department of Justice argued the move shows its efforts to limit such cases are working, E&E News reported. Legal experts say the strategy may avoid delays tied to a pending SCOTUS review, but warn the case faces steep hurdles in proving coordinated conduct and linking it to market impacts.

TIER today – Canadian carbon market intelligence firm Carbon Assessors launched a daily spot index for Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) market on Wednesday, expanding its existing monthly benchmark. The company said the new index will draw on transaction and indicative data from brokers including Tradition Financial Services and OX CO2 to improve price discovery and reflect real market activity. It aims to give compliance entities and traders clearer visibility on day-to-day price movements, supporting timing decisions, valuation, and risk management in the Alberta carbon market. The daily index is available from Apr. 1 via the firm’s platform, with additional analytics and reporting tools expected later this year.

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.

The world's largest electric vehicle producer has reported a significant slump in monthly sales for the third time this year, as a cooling Chinese market hits demand.

European carbon market prices jumped to a seven-week high on Wednesday as traders reacted to the European Commission's confirmation that it would propose only minimal amendments to the market's supply management tool that the market felt would not have a short-term price impact, while energy markets weakened after the US president said the war in Iran may be over in as little as two weeks.

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

Northern Ireland could serve as a loophole for companies seeking to avoid paying the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fees, due to the absence of controls on goods crossing from there into the bloc via Ireland, experts have warned.

The French government will next week unveil a wide-ranging electrification plan aimed at cutting the country’s reliance on imported fossil fuels to 40% by 2030 from 60% currently, amid surging energy prices linked to the war in the Middle East.

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.

Renewable power capacity increased by 15.5% last year to reach more than 5,000 GW globally, led by solar PV, but 2025 also saw a sharp rebound in non-renewables additions, which nearly doubled compared to 2024, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Benchmark EU carbon prices gained nearly €2 in the space of a few minutes on Wednesday morning, immediately after the European Commission confirmed that its proposal to reform the Market Stability Reserve would only scrap a clause that invalidates excess permits in the supply-balancing mechanism.

Electrification remains the cornerstone of EU road transport decarbonisation, but sidelining sustainable fuels risks slowing the transition, according to the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST).

Rethink nuclear - Germany's economy minister Katherina Reiche has called for a rethink of the country's position on nuclear, saying that previous governments' decision to close nuclear power plants means there is now no alternative to gas to meet demand. Germany's nuclear phaseout was decided under former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 and completed under Olaf Scholz, leading to an increased reliance on gas for baseload power. The country is now especially exposed to European gas prices that have risen over 60% since the Iran war began. German power prices for May based on futures contracts are four times as high as those of Europe's nuclear power leader France, according to marketplace EEX. Reiche, a member of the Christian Democratic Union, urged Germany to somehow take part in Europe's nuclear power revival to keep a stake in how the industry develops. Countries including France, Sweden, and Poland are either investing in new nuclear stations or extending reactor lifespans. (FT)

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.  

Deadline extended - The deadline to respond to the 'COP30 presidency roadmaps on transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly, and equitable manner and on halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030' has been extended to Apr. 10, said COP30 CEO Ana Toni, on LinkedIn. The extension follows requests from several parties and observer organisations seeking extra time to prepare their submissions.

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.

The European Commission will now publish long-awaited benchmarks that determine how many free permit allocations industries receive under the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) shortly after Easter, a senior EU official said, after a delay to their release, which had been expected on Wednesday.

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

Singapore’s carbon tax receipts are set to remain broadly flat in FY2026, according to budget documents, showing how transitional allowances and policy design features to protect local industry are capping revenues.

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.

The European Commission put forward a proposal on Wednesday to revise the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), a key instrument guiding the supply of permits in the bloc’s flagship Emissions Trading System (ETS), opting only to scrap an invalidation clause that permanently removes excess allowances from the market's buffer pool.

Seven methods that generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) sunset on Wednesday, as the government has prioritised two more to be remade.

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.

Ready to help - Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA) on Wednesday said it had registered itself as a verification body for the second phase of the GX-ETS, which starts this month, following a similar statement by Socotec. Japanese companies with an average direct CO2 emission of 100,000 tonnes or more over the past three fiscal years are now obligated to engage in emissions trading and third-party verification. Allowance trading will begin in 2027, according to the government's plan.

Proof of origin - A new UK scheme called RFAS Aviation has been launched to address the lack of a consistent approach to proving the origin and emissions impact of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Developed by Zemo Partnership, it's intended to support industry participants in evidencing GHG emissions reductions from SAF use under the UK ETS. RFAS Aviation extends the existing Renewable Fuels Assurance Scheme - used in road transport - into aviation. A key feature of the scheme is a standardised declaration that records key data about fuels, including production pathways, feedstocks, and lifecycle emissions. The scheme verifies fuel from the point that it is blended with conventional jet fuel through distribution to airports. The UK govt aims to cut GHG emissions from aviation by up to 6.3 Mt of CO2e. by 2040 and SAF is expected to contribute significantly to the target. (edie.net)

Without solar power, the EU’s additional fossil fuel import bill since the Iran war began would have been 32% higher – almost €2 billion more – according to analysis by an industry body.

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.

Wind and sun sale – South Australia is opening more than 11,000 square kilometres of land for renewable energy development, inviting global investors to bid for projects under its Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act framework, it announced. The competitive tender process is designed to select the best projects while providing certainty for investors, communities, and landholders, and could generate enough electricity to power over 500,000 homes once developed, according to the state government. This initiative reinforces the state’s position as a global leader in renewables, aiming to accelerate investment, support economic growth, and progress toward its target of 100% net renewable electricity by 2027, it said. The tender closes on June 28.

Australia needs to raise awareness of carbon removal in the country in order to meet labour requirements to meet its 2050 net zero target, the country’s peak science body said in a report.

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.

Kernel of truth – Fonterra has settled out of court with Greenpeace Aotearoa over claims the New Zealand-based dairy giant made misleading statements about the origins of butter-producing cattle’s diet, the two parties said Wednesday. In an emailed statement, the NGO said it brought the Sep. 2024 lawsuit as claims on butter packaging that it was 100% New Zealand-grass fed was misleading and tantamount to greenwashing, as the livestock can also be fed up to 3 kg per day of imported palm kernel – which is linked to deforestation overseas. Fonterra’s statement accepted that the use of 100% New Zealand-grass fed was likely to mislead some consumers and has removed the label, and undertaken to not use it again.

Green notes – New Zealand gentailer Meridian Energy has issued A$400 mln ($277.1 mln) green medium-term notes in an over-subscribed issuance, it said in a stock exchange announcement on Tuesday. The cash raised from the notes will be used for green asset investments, in accordance with its Sustainable Finance Framework, Meridian said. Rated BBB+, the notes mature on Mar. 31, 2033.

Charging up - Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation is committing A$100 mln ($69 mln) to accelerate electric vehicle uptake among households and small businesses, it announced. The funding will provide discounted finance for both new and used eligible EVs across multiple brands, broadening access beyond just new vehicles and specific manufacturers, the green bank said. Eligible customers who take up the discounted finance offering from Volkswagen Financial Services Australia (VWFS) could save up to 1% on standard loan rates for eligible EVs, with 0.5% from the CEFC and 0.5% from VWFS. The initiative aims to lower cost barriers and scale EV adoption nationwide, supporting emissions reduction and the transition to cleaner transport.