Several proposals on what to do with Colombia’s carbon tax from designated ministers and the newly installed Congress have appeared this week, uncovering the first carbon governance challenges for the country’s incoming administration.

Oil and gas well evaluation – Carbon credit ratings agency Sylvera on Wednesday launched an evaluation method for orphaned oil and gas carbon projects, targetting the methane emissions leaking from inadequately sealed wells. With public funding for plugging orphaned wells falling short, the voluntary carbon market has stepped in, Sylvera wrote, increasing the need for high-integrity methane reduction credits. Sylvera's framework will evaluate across four pillars: carbon accounting, additionality, permanence, and safeguarding and co-benefits.

Citi's carbon credit haul - US-based multinational investment bank Citigroup bought almost 50,800 carbon credits in 2025, a slight decrease from the previous year, it revealed in its annual sustainability report published this week. 2025 purchases were more concentrated in forestry credits, which accounted for four of the six Citi-supported projects during the year, while energy demand projects represented half of supported projects in the 2024 report, and forestry only one-fourth.

The European Commission’s plans for potentially integrating up to 250 million carbon removal (CDR) credits into the EU ETS are puzzling and fail to account for the reality of the market, a policy expert told Carbon Pulse on Wednesday.

Gold Standard is seeking feedback on a new methodology designed to support climate action across entire energy systems, rather than renewable generation alone, and updating its eligibility criteria for renewable energy projects. 

Biochar should be considered for supplying permanent CO2 removals to the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), according to the lead European Parliament negotiator on the market’s reform, who suggested introducing "safety margins" and "limitations" to address environmental integrity concerns.

Carbon revenues alone may not be enough to make many blue carbon projects in Southeast Asia financially viable or bridge the region’s massive $2.1 trillion blue economy financing gap, according to a new OECD report.

False advertising - The UK Advertising Standards Authority's recent rulings against Eurowings and Qatar Airways mark another step in the tightening scrutiny of carbon offsetting claims in aviation, according to law firm Burges Salmon. The regulator found both airlines misled consumers by suggesting passengers could offset or compensate for the emissions from specific flights without sufficient evidence. The decisions reinforce that advertisers must substantiate environmental claims with robust evidence and clearly explain how offsetting schemes work, rather than implying flights become environmentally benign. Burges Salmon said the rulings continue a broader crackdown on aviation green claims and signal that airlines promoting offsetting, sustainable aviation fuel or other climate initiatives should exercise greater caution to avoid breaching UK advertising rules.

Wasted millions - Nigeria is forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars in potential carbon credit revenue because it lacks the domestic expertise needed to develop and manage carbon projects, according to climate finance specialist Olusola Omole, speaking to Vanguard. He argued the country's main constraint is not funding or policy, but a shortage of skilled professionals such as carbon accountants, MRV specialists, GIS analysts, biomass experts and project developers. Although Nigeria has established a regulatory framework through its Climate Change Act and National Council on Climate Change, it still relies heavily on foreign consultants, sending project development and verification fees overseas. Omole estimated Nigeria could generate 30 mln carbon credits annually by 2030, worth more than $500 mln.

A London-based spot marketplace for voluntary carbon credits on Wednesday said cumulative trading on its platform had surpassed 1 billion units exchanged.

CO2 released through the neutralisation of acid mine drainage could increase the carbon footprint of copper production by more than tenfold, according to a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday.

Carbon benefits for farmers – India’s government said it will support 11 pilot projects aimed at boosting farmer participation in the voluntary carbon market, according to News Arena India. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare told parliament on Tuesday that the projects are designed to generate income through carbon credits and promote sustainable farming practices. The pilots will focus on techniques to improve soil health, develop methodologies, and create a framework that supports farmer earnings. They will be implemented through seven institutes under four state agricultural universities and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Certification partners - Rainbow, which provides both a carbon crediting standard and a carbon credit marketplace, announced a new Partner Program on Tuesday, wherein it will list technology and service providers pre-vetted to support carbon removal projects under its standard. These partners will support the carbon removal developers in the certification process across four categories: industrial pyrolysis manufacturers, digital monitoring, reporting and verification (dMRV) for industrial biochar and distributed biochar, and closed-kiln manufacturers. Rainbow plans to add further categories and partners to the programme in the coming months.

Open methods library - Carbon credit registry Isometric announced on Tuesday that it would be open-sourcing its calculation library, starting with the Enhanced Weathering and Biosphere pathways. Available on GitHub and the Python Package Index, open-sourcing means that suppliers can rely on Isometric's methods rather than creating new methodology, the company said. Where there is no single, unified calculation method for handling carbon removal data, verifiers are also working with several different measurement approaches for each project, they added.

The ICAO has deemed carbon credits under ACR's jurisdictional power sector programme as eligible under UN aviation offsetting scheme CORSIA, the registry announced on Tuesday.

High-integrity stamped credits now cover at least 13% of the new issued volume, the chief executive of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) said on Tuesday.

On the mark - Agreena's soil carbon programme (VCS4022) has received a 'BBB' ex-post BeZero Carbon rating following the issuance of credits in Sep. 2025 under Verra's standard. The ex-post rating is unchanged from the project's 'BBB' ex-ante rating assigned in Feb. 2025, indicating that the project's performance has been broadly consistent with earlier expectations, the developer said.

The European Commission's proposed reforms to the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), which include provisions linked to the procurement of up to 260 million international credits, should mean the total demand for Article 6 units from the bloc reaches as high as 650 mln, experts have noted.

The EU should allow biochar carbon removal (BCR) into the EU ETS alongside other EU-certified permanent carbon removal pathways, an industry association has said, warning that a CCS-only approach would undermine competition and raise costs.

Marine carbon removal (mCDR) will struggle to reach commercial scale without stronger government action to create reliable long-term demand beyond voluntary carbon markets, researchers argue.

Gender-responsive – The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has partnered with UK-based consultancy Social Development Direct (SDDirect) to promote gender-responsive approaches in high-integrity carbon markets, the Council said on Monday. The agreement covers joint knowledge-sharing and communications activities, including a gender-focused blog series, webinars and in‑person events. ICVCM said the collaboration supports its Core Carbon Principles agenda and aims to strengthen trust, transparency and equity across the voluntary carbon market.

Trading and open interest has continued to pick up in CORSIA futures after the European Commission proposed a compromise to extend the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to some international flights.

SBTi appointments – The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has named a new cohort to its independent Technical Council, the organisation announced on Tuesday. The new council will begin work in July 2026, providing oversight of SBTi standards, methods and guidance as the organisation implements its Technical Work Plan and refined standards architecture. Former vice chair Laura Draucker has been appointed chair, with Piers Forster as vice chair, heading a 16-strong body combining reappointed and newly selected members under a staggered renewal model approved in Dec. 2025. The council’s expertise will be critical as SBTi rolls out its updated corporate net-zero standard, the organisation said.

Ethiopia has become the first country to issue carbon credits under a World Bank-managed programme supporting jurisdictional forest activities, with 12.4 million units available for carbon market transactions.

From California to Hawaii and back again: The birth, rise, and survival strategy of an mCDR startup. In the first of a three-part series on marine carbon removal, supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center, Carbon Pulse editor Allison Gacad investigates Captura's efforts to turn direct ocean carbon capture into a viable business.

A draft reversal-risk tool under Paris Article 6.4 is cementing permanence requirements to clean cooking credits for the first time. But before debating the numbers, the market should ask whether this category belongs in a permanence framework at all.

A carbon ratings agency is funding an initiative to analyse the causes and impacts of extreme wildfires, which represent a growing risk for nature-based projects, it announced on Tuesday.

A Norwegian bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project has become the world’s first to generate verified carbon removal credits from biogas production, the certifier, Finnish registry Puro.earth, announced Tuesday.

Singapore’s draft Digital Infrastructure Bill, currently under public consultation, would allow regulators to penalise data centre operators that fail to meet environmental sustainability requirements, including by requiring them to surrender carbon credits to compensate for any resulting increase in emissions.

Carbon credit pricing is significantly influenced by who the buyer is more than what the credit actually does for the climate, a recent study has argued. 

A senior executive in charge of international projects has left an Asia Pacific carbon developer, as the company said it intends to "sharpen" its overseas strategy.

The first Verra-approved jurisdictional and nested REDD+ (JNR) programme, located in northern Argentina, is aiming to incorporate a batch of privately owned native forests in the coming months after the launch of a capacity-building programme, according to local media.

Low-carbon energy and CDR technologies perceived as more natural were judged as safer, more beneficial, and evoked less negative emotion among US study participants, according to a preprint published Monday.

Latin America's push to establish Article 6 frameworks gained added significance after the European Commission proposed allowing a limited volume of international credits into the EU ETS from 2036.

The South Carolina chapter of the National Audubon Society will launch a programme aimed at enabling family landowners to generate revenue from the voluntary carbon market (VCM), the conservation charity announced Monday.

Iraq’s state-owned carbon pricing company is in talks with aviation industry stakeholders to introduce a country-specific surcharge on plane tickets, according to a senior official.

A proposed class action challenging carbon neutral marketing for vaping products should be revived because the lower court misdefined the term and prematurely resolved disputed factual questions, three consumers have told a US appeals court.

Apple Watch buyers have asked a US appeals court to revive claims that the tech giant falsely marketed certain devices and its corporate operations as carbon neutral, arguing that a lower court improperly required scientific validation before allowing the case to proceed.

The European Commission proposal to hold off on extending the Emissions Trading System (ETS) to all international flights is a welcome sign of certainty for the UN's carbon offsetting scheme CORSIA – although ICAO, and market participants, worry the relief will be short-lived.

The European Commission plans to set up an EU facility to centralise purchases of international carbon credits and domestic removal units that will enter the bloc’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) in the 2030s, officials told Carbon Pulse.

Public lands guidance - A working group within Brazil's finance and environmental ministries expects to publish a report on Sep. 9 providing guidance related to the development of carbon credits on federal public lands, Reset reported. The working group's goal is to propose ways to resolve legal, land, environmental, and institutional bottlenecks for carbon credit projects on areas including conservation units, Indigenous lands, rural settlements, and public forests that have not yet been designated, aiming to address issues such as land tenure and protecting the rights of traditional communities and family farmers. While each agency that administers federal lands is responsible for defining its own processes for approving and monitoring projects, one of the group's goals is to ensure these regulations are harmonious with each other.

EU carbon removal units procured for integration into the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) could be much lower than the headline 250 Mt, as this figure refers to the number of carbon permits that will be set aside to fund removal unit purchases, experts have noted.

A newly launched biochar company plans to help African agricultural processors convert biomass waste into biochar and generate verified carbon removal credits for corporate buyers, it announced last week.

A French producer of low-carbon cement materials has raised €17 million to expand the output of its calcined clay product that it says has up to 90% lower CO2 emissions than the clinker it replaces.

Gains - Thailand-based digital services firm Ditto’s digital token tied to 400k carbon credits from a mangrove project rose on its trading debut on Thailand’s Bitkub exchange on Monday, opening more than 8% above its THB 1.20 ($0.04) offer price, Kaohoon International reported. The company had raised THB 480 mln through 400 mln tokens to fund the restoration and maintenance of 2,805 ha of mangrove forests. Ditto projects an average annual internal rate of return of 10% under its base case, rising to 20% in the best-case scenario, while targeting a minimum 3% return in the worst case, with carbon credit-linked payouts expected after the first four years.

ICE CORSIA Dec-26 futures continued their upward swing last week, rising to $12.50/t by the end of Friday, from $10 per tonne the previous week, as the European Union proposed to extend EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) coverage to some international flights while continuing “support for multilateralism” through a CORSIA cost deduction mechanism.

Scaled-up carbon crediting, which covers emissions reductions measured across entire jurisdictions or sectors, or linked to specific government policies, needs stronger safeguards as demand from aviation and Article 6 buyers grows, the OECD said in a report released Monday. 

New IFM leakage tool - US-based carbon standard Verra is developing a tool to calculate carbon leakage from improved forest management (IFM) projects that reduce timber harvest volumes. The tool, currently at the draft methodology development stage, will account for both activity-shifting leakage by the baseline agent and market leakage caused by other actors, Verra said on its website.

You choose - Japanese petroleum supplier Kygnus has introduced an "eco-friendly" offering that offsets GHG emissions from fuel combustion using domestically issued J-Credits. According to the company, clients can select their preferred offset percentage for applicable fuel oils and choose between energy-saving or forest-derived J-Credits. Idemitsu Kosan, another Japanese company, has also launched similar products.