A climate registry director said the update to its biochar protocol could be published as early as May, conference attendees heard on the final day of North American Carbon World (NACW) 2026.

California Carbon Allowances (CCA) have dipped to multiple month lows below $29 over the past week as uncertainty continues to plague the market on multiple fronts.

The voluntary carbon market is building the data and governance infrastructure needed to reward high-quality projects, but buyers and developers continue to rely on weak disclosure and simplistic procurement strategies that risk undermining progress, experts said this week.

Companies facing increasing pressure to track and disclose their Scope 3 emissions shouldn’t lose sight of mitigation as their ultimate goal, attendees of the North American Carbon World (NACW) 2026 conference heard.

Trump vs. New Jersey - The administration of US President Donald Trump (R) announced this week a legal challenge against Morris Township, New Jersey, over its ordinance banning natural gas, propane gas, and fuel oil infrastructure and appliances in some new constructions. The local policies drive up energy costs and constitute government overreach, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged.

The Q2 sale for Washington's cap-and-invest programme will offer 7.5% fewer allowances than the previous quarterly sale, representing another record low, according to a notice published Friday.

Total California-registered accounts under the state's Quebec-linked compliance carbon market dipped below 820 in Q1, state data published this week showed.

Team expansion - Brazilian carbon offset project developer Joias Ecologicas has hired three technical experts from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), it told Carbon Pulse this week. The arrival of Fabio Oti, Luan Rocha, and Erick Pinho aims to strengthen the company’s operations across conservation, carbon, and community development in the Amazon, coinciding with its decision to focus on three operational hubs. Oti will lead operations at the Belem hub in the region of Salgado Paraense, which involves a mangrove project. Meanwhile, Pinho will coordinate the Santarem Hub in western Para, and Rocha will lead the Rio Branco hub, which covers areas of Rondonia, Acre, and southern Amazonas.

Woodlands windfall – Project developer Finite Carbon announced on Thursday the registration and issuance of forest carbon credits under ACR’s Improved Forest Management v2.1 methodology for its 212,800-acre (86,100 hectare) Northeast Carry Woodlands project in Maine, with all credits bearing the Core Carbon Principles label. The company said the project is among the first and largest registered under the updated methodology, which refines baseline assessment and monitoring to improve transparency and accountability. Finite added the project is intended to deliver long-term carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, water quality protection, and local economic benefits. The project is also certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

Disbursement update - Brazil's national development bank (BNDES) announced Thursday it has completed a first disbursement totalling R$26 mln ($5 mln) to startup Symbiosis Florestal as part of a wider R$77.6 mln in support first unveiled in May 2025. The financing aims to support the expansion of a silviculture project using native species in southern Bahia, focused on the sustainable production of tropical timber, the productive restoration of the Atlantic Forest, and the generation of carbon credits. The support is part of BNDES' Floresta Credito, the bank's arm focused on financing ecological and productive restoration projects with native species within the broader BNDES Florestas strategy.

Fire and ice – A new poll released Thursday by Research Co. found that views on human-made climate change in the US and Canada are diverging further, with a widening gap in public acceptance recorded in a new poll. It said 48% of US Americans see climate change as human-caused compared to 63% of Canadians, a 15-point gap and the largest recorded to date. The survey also showed Americans were more likely to attribute climate change to natural causes (28% versus 21%) and less likely to view it as a major crisis (52% versus 63%), with sharp political divides in both countries. However, majorities in both nations said governments, companies, and individuals should do more to address current and future climate impacts, with support consistently higher in Canada across all categories, including willingness to support higher taxes.

Goodbye, Verra – Biofix has removed its 180,000 ha REDD+ project in Maranhao, Brazil, from the Verra certification process and transitioned it to Equitable Earth, founder and CEO Ana Milena Plata Fajardo said in a LinkedIn post. The decision was taken due to delays by Verra in publishing its risk map for the state, which Plata said posed a risk to the project. Equitable Earth has developed its own risk maps, published Maranhao’s on time, and is now advancing towards approval under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), Plata said. She also highlighted the registry’s independence, adding that Equitable Earth will continue working across other standards, including Gold Standard and Cercarbono.

The research arm of a renewable energy company has outlined an expansive vision for scaling African carbon markets into a $100 billion-plus opportunity by the end of the decade, centred on sovereign control of natural capital and the deployment of digital infrastructure to underpin credit generation and trading.

A local authority in southern France has launched a €13.7 million tender for a long-term biochar production facility, signalling growing municipal interest in carbon removal-linked waste management solutions.