Blue carbon boost - Solomon Islands Environment Minister Wayne Osopo Ghemu called for stronger national policies to support blue carbon financing at a UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Committee on Environment and Development event in Bangkok, where ESCAP and the Landscape Alliance launched a Regional Learning and Exchange Platform on Blue Carbon Finance. Ghemu said governments need clearer legal frameworks, stronger scientific and technical capacity, more innovative financing tools, and people-centred approaches that include Indigenous Peoples and coastal communities as partners in projects protecting and restoring mangroves, seagrass meadows, and tidal wetlands.

Microsoft's greenhouse gas output rose 25% in fiscal year 2025 as the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure drove higher emissions across its value chain, but the technology giant reiterated its commitment to become carbon negative by 2030 through a combination of operational decarbonisation and one of the world's largest CO2 removal (CDR) procurement programmes.

Voluntary carbon certification body Gold Standard has published two new methodologies on Thursday as it continues to align its crediting programme with the principles of the Paris Agreement.

An Indian carbon project developer is deploying bioacoustic monitoring across its agroforestry projects, betting that hard data on biodiversity can convince cautious corporate buyers to enter the voluntary carbon market.

Adding "co-benefit premiums" to carbon markets to reward nature-based climate projects that deliver measurable adaptation, biodiversity, and social benefits alongside carbon sequestration, could redirect investment towards higher-impact projects that are currently overlooked.

Tokens - Thai conglomerate CP Group has partnered with the Mae Fah Luang Foundation to tokenise forest carbon credits, with the pilot project expected to generate around 10,000 credits, the Bangkok Post reported. CP has committed THB 30 mln ($930,000) to purchase the tokens, which will initially be available through the TrueMoney app for consumers to offset emissions from travel and daily consumption. The pilot covers forest across Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Tak provinces, with plans to expand the model and develop a fully tokenised system, subject to regulatory approval, the report said.

A group of German researchers has proposed a new framework for classifying carbon offset projects based on the underlying mechanisms by which they reduce or remove greenhouse gases, arguing that existing taxonomies obscure important differences in project quality and accounting approaches while lumping together fundamentally different activities.

Colombia’s incoming environment minister has pledged to revive the country’s carbon market by reversing key policies introduced under the outgoing administration, including a cap on the use of carbon credits to offset the national carbon tax and controversial draft regulations governing carbon projects.

Singapore sovereign investor Temasek recorded 7% year-on-year growth in its sustainability portfolio value to S$49 billion ($37.8 bln) and opted to maintain its focus on enabling carbon market solutions as a pillar of its net zero goal, according to financial year-end figures published on Wednesday.