Brazil’s carbon market needs more diversified and predictable demand if it is to scale beyond a niche voluntary market and to attract long-term investment, speakers said at an event in Sao Paulo.

A Brazilian project developer and a British asset manager have signed a collaboration agreement to develop scalable contract structures for afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) credits, they announced on Wednesday. 

Demand for carbon removal (CDR) may be stalling, despite rising corporate net zero commitments and growing recognition that they will be needed later this century for wider global climate goals, a new policy brief based on interviews with corporate sustainability leaders has found.

Wood wide – Deep Forestry, a Swedish robotics and AI company, has raised €3 mln in a funding round led by Fairpoint Capital to scale its autonomous under-canopy drone system for precision forest mapping, an Australian publication reported on Wednesday. The company said its drones have completed more than 1,000 autonomous flights globally and can measure stem diameter with a mean absolute error of 1.6 cm against harvester measurements, independently verified by a third-party government forestry authority. Deep Forestry said the fresh capital will be used to expand its technical and commercial teams, deepen partner integrations, and establish a stronger presence in key global forestry markets.

A carbon removals marketplace is aiming to help developers advance projects with "promising fundamentals through to signed deals" with large-scale corporates, which it says is urgently needed to scale the market in order to meet looming climate targets.

The buffer pool used for forest offset projects under a major US compliance programme is likely too small by an average factor of 6.3 to cover reversals from wildfires, drought, and insect outbreaks over 100 years, according to a paper published Wednesday.

Carbon removal (CDR) buyers remain constrained by delivery risk, high prices, unclear claims frameworks, and fragmented market data, experts said on Tuesday, as voluntary demand continues to play a limited role in scaling the still-nascent sector.

Climate awareness - Just over half (51.5%) of the Russian population are aware of the country's goal to reach net zero by 2060, according to a survey of internet users conducted by the Ministry of Economic Development. Almost 20,000 people (19,885) took part in the survey over a week from Apr. 30 to May 6, which was anonymous, and found that 74% of respondents approve of the development of renewables. Some 67% of respondents consider climate change an important issue requiring attention of the authorities, 63% believe that the climate affects the stability of the Russian economy as a whole, and 45% knew or have heard about carbon units trading. Planting forests and restoring ecosystems was considered important among companies that can influence GHG reduction by 65% of participants, while 36% considered public reporting on GHG emissions the most important, said the release on the Russia registry of carbon units website.

A Swiss carbon removal (CDR) company announced Wednesday it had appointed a new CFO to lead its financial strategy as it expands its direct air capture (DAC) and CDR businesses.

A bill introduced Tuesday to Argentina’s congress has proposed a three-tiered legal regime for carbon credits, an authorisation procedure, and a national carbon registry, also reinforcing the federalist relationship between the country’s provinces and national government.

Forestry company Midway has been asked to lead the remake of the reforestation and afforestation methodology for the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Josh Wilson announced on Wednesday.

A Denmark-based project developer has signed a seven-year agreement with Microsoft to deliver 650,000 carbon removal units from its bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility.

Singapore and the World Bank Group on Wednesday launched a new programme aimed at scaling up high-integrity carbon markets, with a focus on improving market infrastructure, mobilising climate finance, and helping developing countries participate more effectively.