A R$250-million ($48.7 mln) nature finance vehicle has completed its investment period after fully deploying capital across its portfolio of 11 nature-based solutions (NbS) in the Brazilian Amazon, according to a report published this week.

Cash for deserts - Saudi Arabian startup Terraxy, a soil improvement and carbon capture company in desert environments, has secured $3 mln in second round funding, led by Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of oil company Saudi Aramco. The funding will support Terraxy’s transition from pilot-scale production to industrial production and deployment across Saudi Arabia, including the establishment of a 30,000-sqm commercial facility in Al Zulf. Carbosoil, Terraxy’s proprietary soil enhancer, can deliver up to 70% improvement in plant growth and yield with the same water and nutrient inputs, improving resource-use efficiency in sandy soils, the company claimed.

Costa Rica will soon receive funds from the LEAF Coalition public-private buyers’ club, becoming the first country in the world to receive results-based forest carbon finance through this programme.

First of a kind - Estonian-based forestry carbon developer Ecobase has announced that its European Improved Forest Management (IFM) project has been registered by Verra as Project 5315. Spanning Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia across around 570,000 ha of forest, the project focuses on increasing the carbon stored in existing forests through improved forest management, largely by extending forest rotation ages. It is the first European project to apply Verra's VM0003 methodology, which allows landowners to boost long-term carbon storage while continuing to manage forests as productive assets. The first credit issuance is expected by year end, with initial expected issuance of around 900,000 verified carbon units (VCUs), said the press release Friday.

Peru’s Ministry of Environment (MINAM) has accredited two new standards and added 17 new methodologies to the national carbon registry RENAMI, as per a resolution issued Thursday.

Importers face steep challenges to take advantage of proposed EU rules allowing the application of carbon credits against Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fees, due to the “onerous” conditions imposed by Brussels on their use, experts told Carbon Pulse.

An ocean carbon removal startup that has yet to reveal its pioneering technology has struck a partnership with a state-backed Saudi development company to further bolster the country’s carbon credit exchange.

Chemical weathering triggered by permafrost thaw could offset a substantial share of CO2 emissions from rivers draining frozen landscapes, and in some regions may eventually outweigh them altogether, according to new research.

The EU should tailor its Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF) methodology for improved forest management (IFM) to regional climate risks and forest conditions, while tightening baseline rules to reduce over-crediting risks, a policy brief published Thursday said.

A new agricultural technology company has been launched in the US through the combination of two existing digital agriculture businesses, with ambitions to build a neutral data and verification platform linking farm-level activities to sustainability, compliance, and carbon market outcomes.

Malaysia is seeking to upgrade its national forest carbon registry to meet standards set by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and the aviation sector's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation.

Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) has unveiled a new strategic vision through 2033 centred on expanding Indigenous and community control over tropical forests, arguing that rights-based conservation and local stewardship offer the most effective response to accelerating deforestation and biodiversity loss.

The EU should resist calls to weaken aviation climate policies in response to the recent kerosene price shock and instead extend its ETS to cover all flights departing the bloc from 2027, according to a policy paper published this week.

Firsts - Carbon removal registry Isometric has issued the first enhanced rock weathering certificates to India-focused developer Mati Carbon, covering 492.4 tonnes of CO2 removed from its project in the state of Chhattisgarh, it announced. Mati applies crushed basalt from the Deccan Traps, one of the largest volcanic features on Earth, to rice paddies, where natural weathering processes lock away carbon in ocean-bound bicarbonate ions. The issuance marks the first credits generated under Isometric's Enhanced Weathering in Agriculture Protocol v1.2. The developer Mati won a $50 mln XPRIZE Carbon Removal grand prize in 2025.

The European Union risks repeating the mistakes of the Kyoto Protocol as it moves to reintegrate international carbon credits into its climate policy, a Brussels-based think tank has warned, amid growing calls to include next-generation credits in the EU carbon market.

Companies are "excited about finally having clarity" on using market instruments to show progress towards their climate targets under the newly released Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard, say consultancies referring to the standard's "incredible ripple effect".

Independent due diligence on jurisdictional claims will be increasingly necessary for generating buyer-facing confidence in jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) programmes, speakers said during an online event on Thursday.

Regulatory oversight should be viewed as an enabling condition to scale up carbon credit markets, according to new research.

A US-based developer of super pollutant credits is targeting rapid expansion into Central and South America as food supply chains increasingly shift into the region, according to its CEO.  

Carbon standard Verra has reinstated the Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project after a community formally reaffirmed its participation through a process conducted in line with Kenyan law.

Getting personal - All Nippon Airways (ANA) has launched a Personal Program under its Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Flight Initiative, allowing individual travellers to contribute to SAF use when booking flights. The airline said it is the first Japanese carrier to offer such a programme to retail customers. Through an online platform, travellers can enter their flight details, view estimated CO2 emissions, and purchase SAF environmental attributes linked to their journey. Participants receive a certificate showing the estimated lifecycle emissions reductions associated with their contribution. The programme was designed by ANA and is powered by Chooose, which provides emissions calculations, SAF attribute tracking, and auditability systems. ANA said the initiative aims to broaden participation in aviation decarbonisation by giving leisure travellers a transparent way to support SAF deployment.

A small batch of an anticipated 5 million European soil carbon credits from one developer have traded at an average of just over €50 a credit.

A Dutch nature-based (NbS) project developer has completed a two-year assessment of soil carbon opportunities across Eastern Europe and launched a full feasibility study in Ukraine that could lead to carbon credit issuance before 2030, it announced Thursday.

Ukraine has adopted a two-year framework on Wednesday to test procedures for authorising, issuing, and transferring mitigation outcomes under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, alongside rules for a national carbon registry.

UK forest project – A UK-based afforestation, reforestation and restoration (ARR) project has received a BeZero Carbon ex ante rating of AApre with low execution risk, its developer announced on Thursday. The project, based in Scotland, is the first AA-level rating awarded to a UK Woodland Carbon Code scheme, according to developer Oxygen Conservation. The Invergeldie Estate Woodland Creation seeks to generate over 350,000 carbon removal credits over an 100-year commitment period, based on its native woodland work in Perthshire.

A US carbon capture and storage (CCS) startup announced on Thursday positive analysis from a large, independent engineering consultancy about the price competitiveness of its water-based technology, the founder told Carbon Pulse.

Blue carbon – A blue carbon accelerator, managed by Fair Carbon and Finance Earth, announced its first cohort on Thursday, backing two mangrove projects in West Africa. The Blue Catalyst Fund will provide early-stage finance to projects in The Gambia and Guinea, offering technical expertise to help them develop “investment-ready” blue carbon initiative, Fair Carbon said in a statement. The Gambia-based North Bank Ecosystem Restoration Trust will use the accelerator’s funding to conserve and restore 16,950 ha of mangroves while Guinea-based West Africa Blue will scale its mangrove initiative across 34,000 ha of the country’s Forecariah and Boffa prefectures. The Blue Catalyst Fund, endorsed as an Action of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, aims to support the conservation and restoration of 150,000 ha of coastal ecosystems.

The carbon industry still faces a critical financing bottleneck as traditional lenders remain sidelined by a lack of bankable offtake agreements, despite growing support for early-stage projects, a conference heard Thursday.

A Kenyan biogas project has announced it has secured formal approval from the country's government, eyeing Article 6 trade, just days after a government minister said the number of credits allowed for international sale would be limited to around 10 million until 2030.

As promises to tackle emissions in the short term butt heads with the realities of rising energy demand and pricey, early-stage carbon removal technologies, companies are increasingly looking for faster, easier wins – and driving a new market for superpollutant credits.

The UK Carbon Markets Forum (CMF) has appointed a new chair from a major global consultancy, as it seeks to accelerate the growth of global credit markets and deepen engagement across the financial sector.

Divergent rules for managing carbon reversal risks could weaken market integrity and encourage project developers to choose less demanding standards, according to a report released Thursday.

A German-headquartered foundation opened a call for proposals this week, offering a total $17 million of funding to projects focused on establishing blue carbon schemes in marine protected areas, and Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) across four Asian countries.

The CEO of a legacy REDD+ project in Indonesia has said overseas buyers and investors are looking for stability in the country’s carbon regulatory landscape to instil confidence that credits will resume and remain flowing.

A Qatar-based standard body said it will likely revive an independent carbon finance facility in 2026, pitching itself as the only Global South standard with a governance and digital‑heavy approach to carbon markets.

Asia-Pacific industry is beginning to explore how carbon market‑style accounting can support the emissions assurance now demanded under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), even as regional readiness remains highly uneven.

A major certification body for jurisdictional carbon programmes issued just under 1.1 million credits to Costa Rica, a share of which are the first removals certified by the standard, it announced Wednesday.

Refocused – Equinor has scrapped its 2030 renewable energy capacity target and dropped a 2035 goal for CO2 transport and storage, as it shifts focus towards higher oil and gas output. The Norwegian energy major said in a strategy update Tuesday that it would no longer aim for 10-12 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030, replacing the target with an outlook for power generation that also includes gas-fired electricity, energy storage, and trading activities, Reuters reported. The company plans to allocate around 10% of capital expenditure to its power business, while still expecting production to rise fourfold to more than 20 TWh by 2030, mainly from projects already under construction. Equinor also dropped a target to transport and store 30-50 mln tonnes of CO2 per year by 2035, with Irene Rummelhoff, head of its midstream, marketing, and processing business, saying the company had secured enough storage space to meet the goal if demand emerges but would not move ahead of the market.

The Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), a UN-regulated carbon market grounded in Article 6.4 rules, is guiding national frameworks, voluntary market (VCM) standards, and even other UN schemes, experts and country delegates said on the sidelines of climate talks in Bonn.

Retirements across the voluntary carbon market (VCM) were strong across the first five months of 2026  with volumes no longer concentrated at lower price points, according to new analysis, but removals purchases were down by 50% over the same period with questions over whether recent demand boosts will be enough to keep developers heads above water.

Carbon removal (CDR) buyers club Frontier launched more than $900 million in a new advance market commitment (AMC) while onboarding two major AI and technology buyers.

An ocean carbon removal research initiative on Wednesday unveiled plans to launch a $5 million funding round aimed at expanding a global research network for ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), as interest grows in marine CDR technologies but questions remain over their scalability, environmental impacts, and monitoring requirements.

A project developer operating in Brazil hopes that a new rating will help its Amazon project set a benchmark to restore the credibility of REDD+, a representative told Carbon Pulse.

Verra and S&P Global Energy have announced that their "next-generation" environmental registry platform will officially go live on July 27, which they say marks a major upgrade for global carbon market infrastructure.

An environmental commodities broker and an energy trader have launched a second carbon auction, offering 100,000 Article 6- and CORSIA-labelled credits.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) opened a public consultation on Wednesday on a draft international standard for net zero transition planning.

After more than a decade teaching smallholder farmers how to turn crop waste into biochar, the leaders of a climate tech firm said that beyond making the biochar itself, the real complexity lies in building the relationships and infrastructure needed to sell high‑durability carbon removal credits.

Malaysia and South Korea have agreed to cooperate on biogas development and carbon market initiatives, including potential Article 6 projects under the Paris Agreement, they announced this week.

Environmental activists are demanding answers about several agricultural carbon credit projects in Ukraine, arguing that insufficient transparency surrounding the initiatives raises concerns about the integrity of future carbon credits that could be generated under the voluntary carbon market.

SAF supply deal - EcoCeres has extended its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supply agreement with British Airways (BA) until the end of 2030, according to an announcement Wednesday. The deal terms state that the company's SAF is expected to help BA avoid around 198,000 tonnes of lifecycle carbon emissions compared with using the same volume of fossil jet fuel - equivalent to offsetting around 341,000 round-trip economy-class seats on direct flights between London and New York. EcoCeres's SAF is made from 100% waste-based feedstocks such as used cooking oil and can achieve lifecycle GHG emissions reductions of up to 94.4% compared to fossil jet fuel. The extended commitment reflects the importance of long-term partnership across the aviation supply chain to support the SAF market scale, said the release.

A new satellite-based assessment has found that industrial logging concessions across Africa's Congo Basin emit around 87.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, while widespread adoption of reduced-impact logging practices could cut those emissions by up to 58% and unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in carbon finance.

Forming ties - Japan's Green Carbon said it signed a new agreement with the Department of Agriculture and Environment in Vietnam's An Giang province, which lies in the rice producing Mekong Delta, to develop carbon credits from methane reductions in rice cultivation using alternate wetting and drying (AWD) techniques. The company said it will launch a 100 ha pilot in 2025 and gradually expand implementation under Vietnam government's own one-mln-ha low-emissions rice programme. Green Carbon said it is targeting the generation of around 3.66 mln carbon credits by 2035 across its Vietnam AWD project portfolio, while An Giang is expected to become one of its largest project areas. It has signed cooperation agreements with authorities in 15 Vietnamese provinces since opening a local office in 2024.

New partnership -  The Carbon Removal India Alliance (CRIA), an industry body representing more than 25 CDR companies, has signed a partnership agreement with New Delhi-based advisory firm cKinetics to support the growth of India's durable CDR sector, it announced. The organisations said they will jointly develop research, stakeholder forums, and projects aimed at improving access to finance, market infrastructure, and positioning the South Asian country as a hub for high-integrity carbon removal solutions.

Increasing research and development, building out infrastructure, creating durable markets, and strengthening standards and measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification could help tech-based carbon removals to scale in the US, according to a report from an NGO.

India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), administrator of the country’s emerging carbon market, has launched a public consultation on draft rules governing Programmes of Activities (PoA) under the offset mechanism.

Project-based carbon credit markets are moving towards a more regulated, state-led model as voluntary standards remain unable to address weak oversight, fragmented rules, and uncertainty around credit use, a report published Wednesday said.

A California-headquartered carbon credit investment and project management firm has opened a regional office in Singapore amid its Asian expansion efforts.

Projects registered with the International Carbon Registry (ICR) will be required to include both a rating and a risk assessment – the first carbon registry to make such a move.

A Vienna-based climate tech startup has secured Austrian government support to establish what it describes as the world's first integrated laboratory dedicated to assessing the CO2 storage potential of mineral materials.

Oil and gas companies have spent over $273 million to bolster carbon credit use in California’s emissions trading scheme, as well as shape early governance of climate-related market risks at a US financial regulator, a report found.

More than half of the world's largest companies now have net zero targets and nearly half plan to use carbon credits as part of their climate strategies, according to a report released Tuesday, highlighting the continued mainstreaming of voluntary carbon markets among major corporates.

A mangrove restoration project in western Senegal has been registered under Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community, and Biodiversity (CCB) standards, becoming the second globally under the body's flagship VM0033 blue carbon methodology, its developer announced this week.

A Rio de Janeiro-headquartered mining company has mapped nearly $2.5 billion in estimated decarbonisation-related spending and warned that carbon pricing mechanisms could cost the company up to $4 bln from 2030 onwards, according to an annual report.

Verra has put a large Zambian REDD+ project on hold, six years after project registration, according to the standard body's registry.

KAI PACT - Indonesia’s state railway operator, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), has launched a decarbonisation roadmap aimed at achieving net zero emissions by 2060, with support from the UK government through the UK PACT programme. The plan targets a 25.8% emissions reduction by 2030 from a baseline of nearly 648,000 tonnes of CO2e, rising to 35.6% by 2035 and 78.2% by 2050 before reaching net zero in 2060. A key component is the electrification of around 1,039 km of rail infrastructure, including commuter rail services, the Jabodebek LRT and the Whoosh high-speed rail line. The roadmap also includes energy-efficiency measures, green building certification for stations and depots, expanded solar power deployment, and a shift from diesel fuel towards higher biodiesel blends, in line with Indonesia’s planned move from B40 to B50 biodiesel. KAI has already installed more than 3.4 MW of solar capacity across 66 sites and planted over 107,000 trees since 2021. Consultants involved in the project highlighted rail’s relatively small contribution to Indonesia’s transport emissions - around 1%, compared with roughly 89% from road transport - arguing that expanding and electrifying rail services could play a significant role in reducing overall transport-sector emissions by encouraging a shift away from private vehicles. The UK-backed initiative also includes studies on B50 biodiesel adoption, diesel-to-electric rail conversion, signalling upgrades, and financing mechanisms designed to help KAI access international climate finance, including sustainability bonds and other green investment instruments. (ecobiz.asia)

A UN-backed restoration finance facility has partnered with a Peru-focused nature-based solutions developer to help advance a pipeline of community-led forest restoration and conservation projects targeting carbon, biodiversity, and sustainable land-use outcomes across Latin America.

The UK government should incorporate project-level ratings assessments when they integrate domestic carbon removals into their Emissions Trading System (ETS), a ratings agency said Tuesday.

A group of companies including Danone, Nestle, and Unilever, shared a set of recommendations on Tuesday which it says could accelerate a European agricultural transition under the bloc’s Carbon Removal Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation.

A Helsinki-based carbon removal (CDR) registry has surpassed one million retired carbon credits, after retirements more than doubled in 2025, the company announced on Tuesday.

Verra published its first framework to quantify emissions reductions in marine transport Tuesday in an effort to support alternative low-carbon fuels in shipping.

Kenya's recent announcement that it will limit Article 6 transfers to 10 million Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) between 2026 and 2030 surprised many market participants, particularly given the scale of the country's existing carbon project pipeline, and may signal a fundamental shift for project developers relying on voluntary prices currently languishing in single-digit figures.

A voluntary carbon standard, a research non-profit, and an emirate in the UAE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster carbon market engagement, including on the Paris Agreement’s Article 6, among other sustainable development objectives.

A carbon project developer has pitched contracted durability mechanisms as a way to manage reversal risk, suggesting these buffer pool alternatives could equalise nature- and tech-based removal credits under the newly-introduced requirements of the Science-based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) latest Corporate Net-Zero Standard.

A project developer lobby group has thrown its weight behind a new stakeholder initiative that aims to boost the number of credits available for CORSIA to around 250 million by the spring of 2027.

A Swedish bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project developer has signed long-term agreements to supply permanent carbon removal (CDR) to two real estate companies, it announced Tuesday.

A coalition of agricultural, climate, and carbon market organisations has called on the European Commission to take urgent action to ensure demand for carbon farming credits, warning that the success of the EU's Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation depends on creating a viable market for farmers.

Nodal Exchange launched several new environmental futures and options contracts, including for CORSIA.

CORSIA futures were little changed last week, with benchmark contracts on ICE slipping below $10/tonne mark after stabilising in recent weeks following a prolonged decline.

From Mexico to Brazil, state support and regulations appear to be influencing the scale and bonus attributes that carbon project developers plan for in their initiatives.

Zimbabwean officials met Friday in Bonn with members of CORSIA’s Technical Advisory Body (TAB) to understand the TAB’s limits on involving national registries in the scheme, a country representative told Carbon Pulse, citing high stakes for standards and host countries alike.

The introduction of specific price anchors for companies choosing to set an internal carbon price under the newly released Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard, will help to 'avoid race-to-the-bottom dynamics' and provide viable financial support to many carbon projects, according to experts.

Governments around the world have urged the EU to simplify what they describe as overly prescriptive and complex requirements for complying with its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

A carbon markets investment firm has hired a new client solutions director from an enhanced rock weathering (ERW) developer, it was announced Monday.

Guyana’s jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) programme is blowing past prior annual revenue figures, bringing in some $196 million this year, according to Carbon Pulse calculations based on statements made by the government.

The Norwegian state energy agency, Enova, is looking to launch an auction scheme for carbon capture and storage, open to a wide variety of technology types and with a budget ceiling of €1.7 billion for carbon removal, the agency announced on Monday.

Every bit counts - Seoul Energy Corporation has signed a MoU with climate fintech firm Hooxi Partners to help citizens monetise their GHG reductions, starting with rooftop solar installations, they announced Monday. The government has been promoting citizen-led carbon reduction projects, though these contributions are often underutilised due to complex certification procedures, the companies said. Hooxi Partners plans to use its AI platform to streamline the process, allowing participants to earn profits simply by inputting their facility data.

A Seoul-headquartered procurement platform for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon credits has acquired a Singapore-based consultancy, it announced Monday.

Indonesia is looking to launch an international sale of forestry carbon credits next month, offering more than 30 million tonnes of emission reductions to global buyers, according to officials.

A coalition of environmental NGOs has triggered an internal review of the European Commission’s newly adopted methodologies for biogenic carbon removals, arguing they breach the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation and could end up increasing emissions rather than cutting them.

Carbon standard Verra has reinstated four additional Chinese forestry and grassland carbon projects following a review of their government authorisations, according to a developer.

ASX-listed digital infrastructure company NoviqTech on Monday annouced a CEO shakeup and the complete divestment of its supply chain traceability platforms in a move to pivot the company’s focus to its carbon removal (CDR) business.

Global biochar production has nearly tripled in the past two years and is projected to reach more than 9 million tonnes annually by the end of the decade, as the carbon removal technology moves from an emerging industry into large-scale commercial deployment, according to a new market report.