New TREES VVBs - The Secretariat of the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) announced on Monday it has provisionally approved two more validation and verification bodies (VVBs) under its TREES carbon credit standard. There are now three such provisionally-approved VVBs, namely: S&A Carbon, TUV Sud, and SCS Global. The only two fully-approved VVBs are Aster Global Environmental Services and Aenor.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) futures plunged 20% last week as the market reversed course from peaks above $50 and plummeted late in the period after market administrator RGGI Inc. issued a statement asserting the programme's commitment to affordability, before prices bounced back up Monday closer to the $40 level.

Explain, please – The US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to brief them by May 22 on how the agency evaluates and shields domestic rulemaking from undue international influence, citing concerns that the GHG Protocol and other international emissions accounting frameworks have shaped US regulatory programmes and private-sector requirements despite lacking force under US law. In a May 8 letter, Chair Brian Babin (R) and investigations subcommittee Chair Rich McCormick (R) said the committee is reviewing whether the GHG Protocol has been incorporated into federal rulemaking and whether corrective legislative or administrative action is required, arguing that such frameworks can impose compliance costs on US companies and affect access to contracts, financing, and global supply chains.

Windy highlands – Shanghai-based green technology company Envision Energy has partnered with Cape Breton China Corp to develop a 300 MW hybrid wind and storage project in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Through coordinated planning and optimisation, the wind-storage hybrid system is expected to enhance grid flexibility and stability, supporting regional clean power integration and accelerating the decarbonisation of the local energy mix in Eastern Canada, the companies said.

Data provider prisoners – Juan Carlos Gonzalez Aybar, founder of French project developer Fronterra, criticised the fees charged by data providers in a post directed at standards body Verra in a LinkedIn post last week. He said developers were facing a “triple squeeze” from “50-90% reduction in credits”, “extremely high fees” charged by the hectare, and “overall anti-climate anti-ESG backlash”. Gonzalez Aybar urged Verra not to become “prisoner of the data providers and their business model”, adding that “if you lose the supply companies, you lose the game”. Verra replied that it “regularly review[s]” its fee structure to ensure fees both cover costs and enable project implementation, while Gonzalez Aybar clarified that “your success is ours” and "we are big supporters of your work".

Eminent dismay - Iowa lawmakers adjourned their legislative session without advancing new limits on eminent domain, according to local media, drawing criticism from both Democratic and Republican commentators amid continued debate over Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed CO2 pipeline across the state. The Republican-controlled Iowa House passed a bill that would have banned the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines, but the Republican-controlled Senate did not take up the measure, despite Senate GOP making the issue a priority last year before Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) vetoed related language. The debate has centred on landowners who oppose giving up property for the project, with Rita Hart, Iowa Democratic Party chair, pointing to broader pressure on farmers from weak markets, low prices, and high input costs, while Drue Mielke, former Rock Island County Republican Party chair, said eminent domain should be used for public, not private, benefit.

Jet set Ghent - LanzaTech, a US-headquartered carbon management company, has selected North Sea Port in Ghent, Belgium as the permanent site for what it said will be Europe’s first commercial-scale alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility, a €500 mln project targeting annual production of 79,000 tonnes of SAF and 9,000 tonnes of renewable diesel, the company and port said Monday. LanzaTech said it is preparing to submit an environmental impact assessment scoping notification to Belgian authorities as it moves toward a final investment decision. The facility is designed to comply with CORSIA, EU ReFuelEU Aviation, and UK SAF Mandate regulations.

Wind battle - New York asked a federal district court on Friday for permission to intervene in support of Orsted’s 924-MW Sunrise Wind offshore wind project, which is facing a lawsuit from Rhode Island non-profit Green Oceans and other challengers seeking to overturn Interior Department approvals, E&E News reported. The challengers sued Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in March, alleging the approvals violated multiple federal laws. New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state has a strong economic interest in the 924 MW-project, which is under construction off the state’s coastline and is scheduled to be fully operational next year.

A South Korea-based multilateral climate finance facility last year supported mitigation programmes that could generate over $500 million in Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), also hitting other milestones, according to its annual report.

Biomass carbon removal (CDR) developers may find a faster route to credit issuance by using third-party managed monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) services, rather than software-only digital systems, but a recent analysis said the right choice depends on a project’s internal expertise and compliance capacity.

The Brazilian COP30 presidency is pushing forward with the development of a roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, with the first consultations starting in New York on Monday on the margins of the 21st Session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF21).

High-rated mangrove restoration credits surged to record highs last week amid an uptick in demand for quality nature-based units, while the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) said another standard body and another methodology met its Core Carbon Principles (CCP) bar.

A Green European Parliament lawmaker who will help steer the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) says talks could conclude by the first quarter of 2027, provided the European Commission anticipates key issues and EU capitals and the Parliament avoid major changes to the draft.

France is urging the European Union to move beyond a renewables-only framework and adopt a technology‑neutral “Decarbonised Energy Directive” that fully recognises nuclear power’s role in the energy transition, according to French officials who spoke ahead of an informal EU ministerial meeting on Tuesday.

European carbon prices recovered after an initial decline in response to the United States' rejection of Iran's latest peace proposal over the weekend, and made strong gains in the afternoon as positive fundamental sentiment began to spread amongst traders, while UKAs also jumped to a three-month high as hopes for an EU-UK market linkage were boosted ahead of this week's King's Speech.

A clean cookstove developer is expanding into Uganda, beginning with the delivery of 10,000 improved cookers to rural communities, it announced on Monday.

The European Commission is weighing an extension of the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) that would extend carbon costs to international flights departing the bloc, not just those travelling within Europe, according to the Financial Times.

Global progress on forest conservation remains uneven, with continued tree cover loss and financing gaps threatening efforts to meet 2030 goals, a UN assessment said.

Shopify signed $24 million in new durable carbon removal (CDR) offtake contracts in 2025, but most of its suppliers remained behind their original scale-up schedules, with just 37% of credits due by year-end delivered.

The UK government will introduce legislation this week enabling it to nationalise one of the country's highest emitting companies, British Steel, if it's in the public interest.

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) projects could overstate their carbon removal (CDR) impact unless they account for a wider range of chemical, physical, and biological processes that can reduce CO2 uptake, according to a report.

Five developing nations have outlined activities they may approve under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 crediting mechanism, with most placing forestry, land use, agriculture, waste methane, and renewables among their main areas of interest.

Campaigners have urged Brussels to resist growing political pressure to dilute the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), warning that weakening the bloc’s flagship carbon market in the name of industrial competitiveness would undermine two decades of decarbonisation efforts just as the system "is finally working somewhat".

A carbon and energy finance outfit has appointed four senior executives to its leadership team as the company looks to accelerate its expansion across global environmental markets.

Companies are setting increasingly unified voluntary climate standards that can drive meaningful progress to net zero emissions, despite the political headwinds and lack of clarity around the use of carbon credits, according to an academic review.

The European Commission is proposing to maintain the highly-contested steep cuts in general 'fallback' categories for the benchmark values used to determine the number of free EU ETS allowances handed to industries, and confirmed that it will provide an extra €4 billion worth, mainly to the chemical sector. 

Singapore will again allow companies under its carbon tax to carry over unused international carbon credits (ICCs) into the following year, as a shortage of eligible units under the city-state’s Article 6 framework persists.

A blockchain-based removal and reduction registry has appointed a new advisor to head design and build a new framework for nature-based projects, it announced on Monday.

The green advantage - NATO is openly backing renewables and other non-fossil fuel energy sources as critical to the alliance's security, despite moves by its most powerful member the US to actively undermine the energy transition. A NATO official told Politico that energy diversification including through alternative fuels, helps to boost operational readiness and resilience, as well as reducing dependencies. Their comments follow a NATO publication from earlier this year, which pointed to the "considerable logistical challenges" of diesel generators to power militiary camps, as well as their environmental disadvantages. The organisation recognises that solar, biodiesel, and hydrogen can be more economically and logistical viable than diesel generators when operating remote bases. The publication also spoke to the importance of coordinating public, private, and military interests to address energy crises and ensure that fossil fuel access can't be used as a bargaining chip.

Climate campaign group 350.org has cautioned Indonesia that revenues from export duties and windfall tax on coal should be directed toward renewable energy subsidies rather than reinforcing fossil fuel dependence.

China is seeking to bring in the first batch of financial institutions to participate in the national emissions market before the end of the year, according to a high-ranking government official.

Biochar funding in the US – Edinburgh-based Carbogenics has secured $80,000 from New Mexico’s Job Training Incentive Program to support its US expansion, the company announced last month. The funding will support the hiring and on-the-job training of three local workers at the company’s facility in northern New Mexico. Carbogenics produces engineered biochar products for applications including anaerobic digestion, wastewater treatment, orphan gas well sealing, and DAC.

More than two dozen Angolan landowners have registered to use the NatureOS platform to scan their areas for project potential and monitor risks such as fire, encroachment, deforestation, and climate exposure, according to the platform's developer. 

US forest carbon – The American Forest Foundation-led Family Forest Carbon Program has to date enrolled 200,000 acres across 20 US states, it said on May 6. Participating forests are on track to remove 3.5 mln tonnes of CO2 over the next 30 years, generating $54 mln in payments to landowners. Launched in 2021 with The Nature Conservancy, the programme is now open for enrolment across the northeast, Appalachia, midwest, and southeast.

Japan-Vietnam JCM – Japan and Vietnam signed a new memorandum of cooperation on May 2, formally establishing their Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) as a cooperative approach under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. Verified emission reductions or removals from JCM projects can be used towards both countries’ nationally determined contributions, while projects registered under the Japan-Vietnam JCM cannot be used for other international climate mitigation mechanisms to avoid double counting. The partnership runs until 2030 and will automatically renew for successive five-year periods unless either side gives notice to discontinue it.

UK Met Office tender – The UK Met Office is seeking suppliers of UK nature-based carbon removal credits under a contract worth up to £900,000 including VAT, according to a tender notice published on May 5. The five-year contract is expected to run from Oct. 31, 2026 to Oct. 30, 2030, with market engagement open until June 2. The procurement is intended to support the weather agency’s purchase of carbon removals, with the tender listed under Find a Tender notice 041217-2026.

Paraguay Article 6 – Paraguay’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development has launched a tender for a consultant to assess mitigation activities and develop mitigation activity idea notes, it said on May 6. The work forms part of a programme led by the ministry, implemented by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), and funded by the Carbon Transaction Facility to help Paraguay participate in international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Proposals are due by June 1 via GGGI’s e-Green Procurement Portal.

Ensuring that carbon projects demonstrate additionality is critical to preserving market integrity and climate goals, said scientists in response to a recent academic paper that suggested rethinking such requirements.

Brazil is moving forward with Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) approvals and progressing toward an Article 6 regulation, breaking free from its prior policy stagnancy on Paris carbon markets, Carbon Pulse reported last week.

Next steps - South Korea is working to establish a framework for carbon market cooperation with Bangladesh and to identify international emissions reduction projects based on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the Korean trade ministry (MOTIR) said Monday. MOTIR will host a training programme for Bangladeshi government officials this week, following a MoU signed between the two countries for their Article 6 partnership. The training also comes after Bangladesh announced its national carbon market framework.  

Yellow carbon - A team led by Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University travelled across five rural districts in Tainan to study “yellow carbon”, or carbon stored in agricultural soils, as part of efforts to develop natural carbon sinks and generate carbon credits, it announced. Researchers examined sweet potato fields in Xinhua, endangered white wax apple orchards in Xinshi, rice paddies in Liuying, and maize farms in Xinying, assessing how different crops and land management practices could absorb and store CO2. The initiative aims to create a Taiwan-specific agricultural carbon methodology using measurement, reporting, and verification systems.

Transparency is key - Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Philippine government have launched a technical cooperation project to strengthen sustainable finance and climate-related transparency. Improvements to the national GHG inventory will help establish the foundation for the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, including the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), JICA said.

The third round of Chile’s offsetting provision (SCE) within its national ‘green tax on carbon’ has seen carbon credits retired under the levy fall after a meteoric rise in the 2024 tax cycle, even as the country’s first nationally-accredited project joins the pool.

Western Australia’s proposed Browse-to-North West Shelf gas project would not prevent the state from reaching net zero emissions by 2050, but would reshape the road to that goal, a new report has found.

Echoing A Tale of Two Cities, today’s climate transition is marked by both unprecedented progress and mounting headwinds, and overcoming false binaries will be critical to unlocking the capital and action needed at scale.

Taking measures - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged citizens to cut fuel consumption and avoid foreign travel to help the country weather the energy crisis sparked by the Western Asia conflict leading to elevated crude and refined product prices. Modi called for work-from-home arrangements, greater use of public transport and electric vehicles, and restraint on non-essential gold purchases to reduce pressure on foreign exchange reserves. The South Asian country is the world’s third largest oil importer and consumer, and heavily dependent on energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. He also urged farmers to reduce chemical fertiliser use and shift towards natural farming, as the narrow strait is also a route for feedstocks for fertilisers.

Seeking feedback - Australia opened consultations on a draft National Environmental Standard for Environmental Offsets on Monday, seeking feedback on rules designed to ensure environmental damage from approved infrastructure projects is properly compensated. The standard would apply when environmental harm cannot be avoided or mitigated, requiring offsets through restoration activities, financial contributions, or both, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said. The government said the revised draft incorporated feedback from an earlier consultation round that closed in January, and aimed to ensure approved offsets leave the environment “better off overall”. Public submissions on the draft standard will close on June 9.

The New Zealand government on Monday unveiled its strategy to scale the country’s voluntary carbon and nature markets, focusing on unlocking private funding for restoration projects.