Root cause – Yale University has selected a 10,000-hectare restoration project in Panama developed by Ponterra, a tropical forest restoration project developer, as the site of a new study on tropical forest regeneration, supported by a 2026 Yale Planetary Solutions Constellation Grant. The study, led by researchers from the Yale School of the Environment and the Centro del Agua del Tropico Humedo para America Latina y el Caribe (CATHALAC) – a Panama-based water centre for the humid tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean – will examine how naturally regenerating seedlings can support large-scale forest restoration and help deliver carbon and biodiversity outcomes. The project on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, backed by Microsoft and Rubicon Carbon, uses assisted natural regeneration and active planting of more than 100 native species to restore degraded tropical land. The research team will map existing trees and forest areas within agricultural sites and link those findings to seedling censuses across the landscape to assess where natural regeneration can best support restoration goals.

South African commercial farmers could earn supplementary income from regenerative agriculture practices under a new bank-backed carbon credit programme.

India has the potential to scale carbon removal from biochar to 450 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030, creating a $45 billion market largely from utilising a fraction of surplus agricultural residues, according to a report released Saturday.

More methods - Oneshot.earth and Global Heat Reduction are bringing the latter's superpollutant methodologies onto Open Carbon Protocol, the companies announced Friday. Four Global Head Reduction methodologies will be available - GHR002, methane recovery from anaerobic digestion of manure; GHR003, methane recovery from landfill gas; GHR004, methane emission reduciton from enteric fermentation; GHR005, emission reductions from rice cultivation.

Express your interest - The Climate Action Reserve, a California-based voluntary carbon credit programme, seeks expressions of interest for a long-term partner to design, implement, and maintain a next-generation registry platform for its carbon crediting operations, as it expands globally and looks to support project data management, credit lifecycle tracking, interoperability, security, and alignment with standards including Article 6, CORSIA, country-specific compliance, and digital monitoring, reporting, and verification. Expressions of interest are due by June 8, with the first stage expected to finish by mid-July and a request-for-proposals process expected to select one or more registry platform partners by the end of 2026.

Researchers have published what they describe as the first field-based evidence that deploying olivine sand for marine CO2 removal caused no detectable adverse effects on ocean ecosystems, potentially bolstering confidence in alkalinity enhancement pathways that have faced persistent environmental scrutiny.

Logging less – Cheakamus Community Forest said revenue from carbon credit sales rose six-fold in 2025 as new industrial carbon pricing rules in British Columbia boosted demand for offsets, Business In Vancouver reported this week. The 33,000-ha project, co-managed by the Lil’wat Nation, Squamish Nation, and the Resort Municipality of Whistler, now earns more from carbon credits than timber harvesting. The project joined British Columbia’s carbon market in 2009 as the first initiative of its kind, and has typically generated around $100,000 annually from carbon credit sales. Proponents said prices for the project’s carbon credits more than doubled under OBPS, rising from around $30/tonne in the voluntary market.

A proposal to make it harder to sue companies over some “carbon neutral” claims based on voluntary carbon credits was effectively blocked in the California Assembly on Thursday.

Too hush hush - The spread of green hushing is losing UK companies business opportunities, finds a survey by the Marketing Pod. Some 85% of 250 senior level decision makers in mid-sized and large UK organisations have intentionally reduced sustainability communication to the public. Some 29% of respondents fear keeping up with latest regulations; 19% fear a risk to professional reputation; 17% lack resources to revisit data; 16% lack knowledge; and 15% have no confidence that claims are back-dated. But almost all the respondents, some 98%, say they have also been excluded from a new contract opportunity, or have lost business, due to their inability to back up their sustainability credentials. The same percentage would also consider allocating a budget for sustainability communications experts to safeguard their organisation’s reputation.

A Canada-based carbon project financier reported a Q1 net loss on Friday that was lower from the previous three-month period while also disclosing first-quarter sales of CORSIA-eligible cookstove credits.

Companies using super pollutant abatement and carbon removal (CDR) to compensate for emissions should account for their warming impact over time, rather than rely on a single global warming potential horizon, according to a new preprint from researchers in the tech and CDR sectors.

April saw around 1.14 million tonnes of durable carbon removals (CDR) contracted, with deals that saw JPMorgan Chase and Boeing add to their existing portfolios, while a registry focused solely on CDR saw record monthly issuances and retirements.

Brazil’s ethanol industry could become a globally competitive source of engineered carbon removals through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), but developers are still waiting for the regulatory clarity and carbon pricing signals needed to make projects financially viable.

Early-stage capital invested in the carbon credit market reached a record $22 billion last year as more buyers sought to lock in price and quality, according to an analyst group.

Vietnam has issued a circular outlining market-surveillance architecture for domestic carbon trading, relying on its securities markets to detect and report abnormalities.

A new Ugandan bill to crack down on foreign vested interests in the country, broadly defined, poses grave implications for carbon project development in the emerging hub, local and international experts have told Carbon Pulse.

Long-term procurement, delivery certainty, and measurable co-benefits are becoming increasingly important to scaling biochar carbon removals, a senior executive at the world’s largest biochar carbon removal producer by delivered volume told Carbon Pulse.

The venture capital arm of a major oil refiner in Japan has decided to invest in a US-based startup dedicated to wastewater alkalinity enhancement (WAE) solutions, marking its latest push into the carbon removal market.

The New Zealand government has updated its guidance for voluntary climate change mitigation efforts, just days after it unveiled its strategy to grow the voluntary carbon and nature markets.

Taking root - Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University has formed a working group on carbon credits to help farmers in the Indian state tap carbon market opportunities through sustainable farming practices, local media reported. The group will focus on teaching, research, and outreach linked to carbon farming and carbon-smart agriculture. The university hopes that practices such as residue management, biochar, agroforestry, and soil carbon enhancement could help cut emissions while generating additional farmer income through carbon credits. The initiative also included a training session on carbon farming and carbon measurement, with scientists and extension officers discussing challenges and opportunities for implementing such practices across Punjab.

Carbon removal markets will need to expand far beyond today’s voluntary offset model if the sector is to scale to the levels required to meet global climate targets, a think tank has warned, pointing to governments and supply chains as potential new demand drivers as concerns grow over the market’s reliance on big tech buyers.

Verra has launched a new label for forest carbon credits generated by projects located on lands with a forest management certification.

A developer of carbon transport and storage infrastructure in the US has secured a key validation milestone for its biomass carbon removal project and expanded a forward sales agreement for future CDR credits, as interest in engineered removals continues to build among corporate buyers.

A wastewater treatment technology company has raised $25 million to expand deployments of a process that it says can lower utility costs while delivering verified carbon removal (CDR), it announced Thursday.

Verra now has three new vetted third-party data providers to supply benchmark data for projects using its afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) methodology, it announced Thursday.

A Brazilian project developer has generated its first tranche of afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) carbon credits in the Atlantic Forest to be delivered to Microsoft, the company announced on Thursday.

A carbon removal registry published a protocol for hydrofluorocarbons and ozone-depleting substances on Thursday, following comments from a company official that companies might stack superpollutant credits with longer-term removals.

An easier path - The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has updated the methodology companies use to set absolute emissions reduction targets as part of its Corporate Net-Zero Standard Version 2, set to be published this summer. Now, 2030 targets require a significantly less steep trajectory across all three scopes, with reductions spread more consistently out to 2050 rather than overly concentrated in the near term, it said. Under the previous framework, companies needed to cut total GHG emissions by a fixed percentage (translating to c. 42%) by 2030, regardless of how much progress a company had already made. Now, for companies setting a new five-year near-term target from 2025 to 2030, the minimum reductions equate to around 21% for Scope 1, 33% for Scope 2, and 21% for Scope 3. (edie.net)

A province in South America expects it will soon be issued millions of CORSIA Eligible Emissions Units (EEUs) and is arranging to sell most or all of these to a regional airline at just over $23 per unit, local media has reported.

Oman has launched a new regulatory framework for carbon markets, through which it plans to convert its emissions reduction targets into verified and tradeable carbon credits, according to media reports.

Event emissions cut - Sunkonnect, a Singapore‑based renewable energy consulting firm, today announced a 5% carbon footprint reduction target for India’s $14.3 billion event and exhibition industry through its newly launched suite of tailored net zero solutions and retirement of high‑quality carbon credits over the next five years. It aims to mitigate up to 960,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, directly addressing an industry responsible for 12-18 mtCO2 in large event emissions each year.    

Clients of a large US bank are keen but struggling to enter the carbon market because they find it too "mystifying" and in need of standardisation through blockchain-based banking, a finance expert said at a conference, adding that this would finally attract the necessary large-scale capital. 

A Spanish lender has launched a carbon credit trading platform aimed at helping corporate clients and small businesses offset their CO2 emissions, expanding the bank’s push into sustainable finance and voluntary carbon markets.

Isometric on Wednesday released its Spring 2026 update addressing 17 carbon crediting protocols and 10 accounting modules, including changes to align protocols with existing buffer pool rules and broaden the application of its GHG Accounting Module.

An Australian carbon services firm has launched the nation’s largest environmental carbon planting project, expected to generate about 3.2 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) over its lifetime, as demand for high‑integrity credits increases.

Gold Standard has partnered with a digital infrastructure provider to upgrade one of its registries, in a move aimed at improving links with national registries, marketplaces, and exchanges, it announced Thursday.

A US carbon removal portfolio developer has issued a call for nature-based solutions (NbS), carbon removal (CDR) policy initiatives, and methane mitigation projects seeking funding through the next year.

VMD0055 update - Verra has issued corrections and clarifications for its VMD0055 Estimation of Emission Reductions from Avoiding Unplanned Deforestation, v1.1 in the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program. The document contains seven corrections and six clarifications pertaining to leakage calculations, baseline validity periods, and reporting requirements effective May 13.

Reforestation projects need earlier capital and clearer ratings signals to unlock buyer demand, panellists said on Wednesday, as companies weigh project quality, risk mitigation, and community benefits following Microsoft’s pause in carbon removal (CDR) purchases.

Turkiye’s upcoming emissions trading system (ETS) risks failing to both cut greenhouse gas output and shield exporters from looming EU carbon border costs because of weak design features, according to a report published Wednesday.

Zimbabwe is pushing back on a UN decision and subsequent move by Gold Standard to stop marking certain credits from the country as eligible for the aviation scheme CORSIA, calling it a "direct attack" on African development and climate goals.

Russian offsets - Sovcombank has fully offset the carbon footprint of its 2025 operations using carbon units and green electricity certificates linked to renewable energy sources, the Russian bank announced on Wednesday. The move covers both direct emissions and electricity consumption. The bank has assessed its emissions annually since 2020 and says it has maintained carbon neutrality for direct and indirect energy emissions for four consecutive years.

Host governments are increasingly tired of waiting for airlines to buy CORSIA-eligible carbon credits, with some projects now pivoting from the UN offsetting scheme to the voluntary market, developers warned.

Combining revenues from carbon credits with the underlying commodity such as timber or crops is necessary to deliver a workable business case for many forestry and soil carbon projects, experts said at a conference in London.

The Core Carbon Principles (CCP) quality tag is proving to be a major driver of voluntary carbon interest, according to speakers at an industry event.

Phase 1 CORSIA prices slipped on Wednesday, with spot prices for the international aviation offsetting scheme bid under $11, an exchange said.

A voluntary carbon standards body has expanded its jurisdictional REDD+ risk mapping framework to Bolivia, Nigeria, Peru, and Tanzania, bringing coverage under a forest conservation methodology to 16 jurisdictions globally.

Startup carbon removal developers will struggle to attract large sums of capital in the coming years, as institutional investors remain wary of projects that lack offtake agreements and proven results, finance experts told a conference in London on Wednesday.

PepsiCo and Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) have launched a regenerative agriculture programme in Saskatchewan aimed at expanding lower-emissions canola production and supporting soil health improvements across western Canada, the companies announced Wednesday.

Carbon credit markets will not scale permanent carbon removals (CDR) without a new financing model that raises prices, reduces volatility, and creates long-term demand, according to a paper published Tuesday.

A US-based climate non-profit on Wednesday said it has partnered with a South Asia-focused startup to scale carbon credits from rice methane abatement, as demand rises for projects targeting the potent greenhouse gas.

New analysis has revealed a widening imbalance between the supply of carbon credits eligible under the aviation industry’s CORSIA offsetting scheme and still-limited airline demand.

The largest companies listed on the German stock exchange reported 4.84 million carbon credits under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) last year, but not a single one disclosed details about the projects they came from, and those identified were judged of poor quality, according to analysis of disclosures by companies in the DAX40 Index.

An independent advisory has launched a carbon removal catalyst that has already helped to secure a £1 million financing deal to support a biochar developer in southwest England.

Terra tech - Terra Global said it’s working with carbon tech firm BlueLayer to scale its portfolio of nature-based projects. Terra said the BlueLayer platform would strengthen its ability to streamline credits issuance amid its expanding pipeline of afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) and jurisdictional REDD+ programmes, with multiple projects targeted to issue credits this year.

A carbon removal (CDR) portfolio manager has published guidance on how corporations can navigate changing government regulations and civil society frameworks to make credible net zero claims.

Voluntary standard body Verra launched a public consultation on Tuesday on a draft revision to its improved forest management (IFM) methodology that would expand its use beyond the US by allowing projects to use qualifying national forest inventory datasets.

Brazil published four resolutions in the Official Gazette on Tuesday that contribute to the operational development of its national ETS (Portuguese: SBCE).

CDR for your information - Following a relative uptick in March, April remained almost flat in terms of market activity, with around 1.14 Mt of durable CDR contracted, led by deals that saw participation from market actors such as North Star Carbon Solutions, Microsoft, Engrow, Altitude, Graphyte and JPMorgan Chase, according to the platform CDR.fyi. The biggest deal was North Star Carbon Solutions which signed an offtake agreement with Microsoft for 626,000 tonnes of CDR. The tonnes will be delivered over 15 years from the North Star BECCS Project. Exomad Green and Supercritical signed a three-year agreement for up to 500,000 tonnes of biochar CDR, exhausting Exomad's remaining inventory of credits for 2026 along with allocations for 2027 and 2028. JPMorganChase signed a 10-year offtake agreement with Graphyte for 60,000 tonnes of CDR. Boeing procured 20,000 carbon removal credits from six suppliers across Brazil, Bolivia, Namibia, and India, spanning biochar and enhanced weathering through Supercritical.

The carbon removal (CDR) market has a demand issue, despite the EU's new certification framework providing a "very positive signal", market stakeholders told an industry conference Tuesday.

Latin America’s finance-sector scene creates unique and critical barriers to mobilising capital for nature-based and technology-driven carbon removal (CDR) projects, requiring creative, context-appropriate solutions beyond mere offtakes, according to a carbon industry group.

A carbon platform has launched a specific ITMO registry ahead of the closure of the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), while also claiming voluntary players will have the “lowest cost” for trading credits that have been granted approval for Article 6 trade under the Paris Agreement.

A US-based climate research group has launched a global initiative to accelerate enhanced rock weathering (ERW).

A major carbon removal buyer coalition has approved a Paris-based carbon registry as a credit issuer, allowing suppliers in its portfolio to use the platform for credit issuance if the relevant protocols are also approved.

Extreme weather hits finances - Extreme weather is already delivering material financial blows across the global economy, and the risks are set to escalate sharply, the non-profit corporate disclosure organisation CDP reported. Out of 11,000-plus companies that disclosed full environmental data through CDP last year, only 35% identified extreme weather as a material financial risk. Yet, they also disclosed nearly $3 bln in real losses in 2025, mostly from increased direct costs and operational shutdowns. Heavy rain alone accounted for $1.5 bln in losses. Now, companies anticipate $898 bln of future financial impacts, mostly from flooding ($528 bln), cyclones ($161 bln), and heavy rain ($86 bln). Nearly half of these extreme weather risks are expected in the next two years. Among just over 1,000 cities, states, and regions that disclosed last year, instead, 62% said they had already been impacted significantly by extreme weather, and over 60% expect the hazards to intensify and/or become more frequent.

Southeast Asia’s forestry and agricultural concessions, long associated with deforestation and biodiversity loss, may also hold untapped potential for conservation and carbon finance, according to new research.

Registry change - Thailand-based biochar project Enable Earth, Chiang Rai has moved to Puro.earth after being de-listed from the Isometric registry on Apr. 20, following validation-stage non-conformities with Isometric’s Biochar Production and Storage Protocol, according to an Isometric notice. A preliminary assessment under Puro.earth found the project aligned with Puro’s Biochar methodology.

Compliance costs – International Airlines Group’s (IAG) cost of complying with emissions trading schemes and CORSIA rose to €148 mln in the first quarter of 2026, up from €70 mln in the same period last year, the airline group said in its Q1 results published May 7. The increase was linked to the end of free allowances in the EU and UK, as well as updated assumptions on CORSIA-related costs, while fuel consumption, emissions, and related costs continued to benefit from investment in newer aircraft, IAG said.

Old hands - Climeworks has appointed two new advisors from large financial and technology organisations to its advisory board. These are Celine Herweijer, former group chief sustainability officer of HSBC and Mark Kroese, former general manager of sustainability solutions at Microsoft, both of whom will support the direct air capture (DAC) company with commercial strategy, customer engagement, and market priorities. Herweijer is also vice chair of the We Mean Business Coalition and holds a PhD in climate modelling and policy from Columbia University, while Kroese is strongly experienced in positioning carbon removal portfolios for large corporate buyers. They will support Climeworks in scaling its diversified carbon removal portfolios, said the press release Tuesday.

Guyana’s national jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) programme, which currently uses the ART TREES v2.0 ‘high forest, low deforestation’ (HFLD) methodology, is “already aligned” with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label, the government has claimed – even though the ICVCM has rejected this protocol for a CCP seal.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.