An international carbon standard has released a methodology to value blue carbon ecosystems' impact on avoided flooding damages and trade climate-risk reduction assets.

Georgia goes green - Georgia regulators have approved a new programme allowing large electricity users, including data centre operators, to directly fund and develop renewable energy projects, aiming to meet rising power demand while expanding clean generation, E&E News reported. The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously backed the Customer Identified Resource programme this month, enabling customers to procure up to 3 GW of wind and solar capacity by 2035 – enough to power millions of homes or several large data centres. The initiative, described as a first in the Southeast US, is intended to provide flexibility in a region dominated by vertically integrated utilities. The move follows advocacy from the Corporate Energy Buyers Association, whose members, including major technology firms, have pushed for expanded access to carbon-free power to support energy-intensive operations.

Biofuel boycott - Two House Republicans have introduced a joint resolution to nullify the US EPA’s final rule setting Renewable Fuel Standard obligations for 2026 and 2027, along with a partial waiver of the 2025 cellulosic biofuel volume requirement and other program changes. H.J. Res. 157, introduced on Monday by Republican Representatives Scott Perry and Chip Roy and referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would revoke the rule under the Congressional Review Act, stating that the measure published in the Federal Register on Apr. 1 should have no effect if the resolution is approved by Congress.

California issued more than 140,000 compliance-grade offsets over the last two weeks to mine methane capture (MMC) and livestock projects, as total issuances remained nearly 70% lower year-on-year (YoY), according to data published on Wednesday.

Certificates catching on - Isometric said in an announcement Wednesday it is expanding into Environmental Attribute Certificates, starting with low-carbon steel and cement. The company said the move is aimed at addressing a gap in certification infrastructure for book-and-claim markets, where environmental attributes are separated from physical products and sold as certificates, and argued that more rigorous standards are needed to ensure claims are traceable, transparent, and not double counted. Isometric said it is developing a certification standard for steel and cement EACs and will release a Book and Claim Module in May aligned with ISO 22095-3 and the forthcoming second version of the SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard, enabling issuance, tracking, and retirement of certificates across low-carbon materials, sustainable fuels, and energy.

The global tech giant’s reported pause on the procurement of carbon removal (CDR) credits represents a wakeup call for the nascent market, but one that could ultimately help it mature, according to a whitepaper published by a US-based project developer.

A North American carbon offset provider said in filings Tuesday that its net losses expanded in the latest quarter to over $5 million despite a ramp up in revenues over the first nine months of the fiscal year.

Energy security took centre-stage at annual international climate talks in Berlin this week, with a number of leaders highlighting their work in support of a clean energy transition – against the backdrop of the global fossil fuel price spike.

Issuance and retirement levels of voluntary credits both dropped in the first quarter of the year, as well as investment in carbon projects – although carbon credit prices climbed higher, a webinar heard Wednesday.

A federal judge in Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction against several Trump-era agency actions that had slowed or constrained wind and solar project permitting, siding in part with renewable energy groups challenging the measures.

On the back of reports that major carbon removals (CDR) buyer Microsoft may be temporarily halting its CDR purchases, nature-based CDR developers have highlighted the significance of its ‘partnership’ model of project investment.

Colombian forest – The consultancy Climate Impact Partners has teamed up with Aviva Investors on a large-scale afforestation and reforestation project in Colombia called Llanos Vivos to be registered under Verra's VM0047 methodology. The project covers up to 13,600 ha of currently degraded and under-productive grassland and will create a forest the size of Paris. The initial phase will sequester 2.4 Mt of carbon removals and at full scale, the project should store more than 6 Mt of carbon over its lifespan. Llanos Vivos will also create more than 110 local jobs during peak planting, and areas of land will be dedicated to community-run farms. Climate Impact Partners is the project originator and delivery partner to Aviva Investors, while &Forest is the on-the-ground developer. Aviva Investors is funding the project through its Carbon Removal Fund, and shall receive rights to a share of the future carbon credits.

Reports from earlier this month that Microsoft may be easing away from new investments in the carbon removal (CDR) sector caused alarm for developers, though some pathways stand to be relatively more exposed to a drop-off in forward buying from the tech giant.

A US environmental non-profit said Wednesday it will launch a new research programme to assess whether phytoplankton stimulation can remove atmospheric carbon and what impacts it may have on ecosystems and communities.

Turkiye's COP31 high-level champion is hoping to help translate the carbon market "architecture" established in recent years into "real-world delivery", primarily through harmonisation, during this year's UN climate summit. 

A US developer in enhanced rock weathering (ERW) has defended the carbon quantification behind its first issuance of credits that raised eyebrows for being too good to be true.

On Earth Day 2026, a new Gold Standard methodology challenges the “one-size-fits-all” approach to ARR projects, proposing a flexible framework that reconciles integrity with accessibility to unlock carbon finance.

US tech giant Amazon has agreed to buy 685,000 carbon credits from smallholder rice farmers in India, backing a large methane reduction programme led by a German multinational.

Investors will enjoy a new avenue for legal recourse against host countries' interventions into carbon credit projects as certain business-oriented states pursue expansions in their international investment treaties, a Singapore-based lawyer told Carbon Pulse.