News

The second report in a biennial series on decent work, just transition and nature-based solutions

Climate finance and carbon markets took centre stage at the 2024 UN Climate Conference (COP29), which strongly focused on increasing funding and creating effective carbon market mechanisms.

It may seem safer to sit on the sidelines, but this bias towards inaction is why we are failing to achieve our climate goals. We cannot let uncertainty prevent action where it counts most — reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The agreement is expected to pave the way for Japan and Indonesia to sign carbon trading agreements with other partners using this one as a template. It could also serve as the blueprint for other bilateral deals...

The market could be one route for U.S. companies to keep participating in global efforts to address climate change, even if Trump were to quit the Paris accord.

The Singei Project enables swine producers to earn credits through verified emissions reductions achieved by adopting sustainable practices such as improved manure management, feed efficiency, and waste-to-energy technologies.

Members of the panel will be charged with providing technical knowledge to the Integrity Council, aiding in the development and refinement of the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and the ongoing updates to the Assessment Framework.

The decision, which officials said would fight climate change, makes Oregon the second state after Michigan to dedicate an entire state forest to storing harmful emissions while selling carbon credits for revenue.

Despite increasing interest in and attention to BC, a recognition exists that the full potential of coastal and marine habitats in mitigating climate change is far from being realized, and that more could be done to catalyze marine initiatives...

“...there’s been a lot of negative press about the VCM, but the fact of the matter is it’s an incredibly important tool, and it’s not going away.” -Alexia Kelly, managing director of the Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative, High Tide Foundation.

Kenya has historically led Africa in issuing carbon credits... The partnership with S&P Global not only builds on this track record but also positions Kenya to generate new revenue streams for local communities through carbon markets.

Incoming govt plans green fund underwritten by carbon credit sales Fund aims to create jobs and help economy reach 8% growth, says adviser Analyst says fund's targets highly ambitious due to market challenges

The $30 million raised in the Series A round will allow Mantel to build a demonstration project at a paper mill that can capture 1,800 metric tons of emissions a year, around 10 times more than the half a ton a day captured in a laboratory setting.

Here’s a closer look at six organizations leading groundbreaking research to advance climate solutions.

...further clarifying the impact of crab burrows on the carbon budget is crucial for understanding the complexity of blue carbon systems and the relative importance of biological interactions.

If you can pay $10/ton to remove CO2 from the air, or to keep it from being emitted, that’s ten times better than the option that costs $100/ton. We want our climate-fighting dollars to get the most bang for the buck.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies vary significantly, from constructing industrial facilities to filtering CO2 from the air or seawater. However, concerns have been raised about their effectiveness in combating climate change.

Paris 2024's goal to halve its carbon footprint -- across scope 1, 2 and 3 categories -- is benchmarked against recent editions of the Games, which are assumed to have caused 3.5 million mtCO2e of emissions.

Earthshot’s fundraise comes at a strong inflection point for nature-based climate solutions.

Carbon financing, be it through nature or technology-based solutions, will be key to near and long-term decarbonisation in Asia. With the region’s emissions trading systems seeing some progress, regulation is still crucial to momentum and expansion.

Indonesia, where President-elect Prabowo Subianto’s team aims to lift spending, sees offsets as a potential new source of revenue and is planning to remove an existing ban on sales of credits overseas. 

Howden's policy aims to protect against fraudulent activity at project level, giving assurance over the way credits were produced, something that is expected to allow project developers to charge a premium for the credits.

Carbon offsets allow companies to offset some of their... emissions by paying for actions to cut emissions elsewhere. Each credit represents the reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions and can be used to meet corporate climate goals.

“We wanted to start tracking quality, recognizing that the voluntary carbon market is starting to mature. The quicker we improve carbon credit quality and restore confidence, the more effective companies can be at addressing climate change.”

The VCM has endured tough years, and many expect the CCP-labeled credits to lead a better functioning market, with these offsets demanding higher prices.

We must stop treating the removal or avoidance of a ton of carbon as the market’s main goal. Instead, the market should channel money to sustainable, future-focused businesses and support governments tackling climate change.

In COP 27, Kenya's president promoted carbon credit as a significant export from the country. When the president of a country openly declares what a country's leading export is, you stop in your tracks and pay attention.

The guidelines issued... say that these credits should represent actual and additional reductions in carbon dioxide emissions... be permanent emissions reductions and be validated by an accredited and independent third party.

By the end of the decade, the number of carbon credits airlines will seek to offset their emissions could exceed the supply of high-quality credits fourteenfold.

Here are the top questions on the minds of corporate carbon credit purchasers -- and some answers.

The world faces a stark reality: thousands of companies have now made commitments to cut their emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. Yet the money hasn’t followed.

In a South Pacific nation ravaged by logging, several tribes joined together to sell “high integrity” carbon credits... The project not only preserves their highly biodiverse rainforest, but it funnels life-changing income to Indigenous landowners.

The challenges to implementing the technology are immense. The world needs to capture more than 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2030, more than 20 times the 45 million metric tons captured in 2022, according to the IEA.

"...It’s really a path forward for decarbonization because we can take CO2, which is a greenhouse gas, and turn it into things that are useful for chemical manufacture,”

ACMI’s prime target is to generate 300 million carbon credits and unlock 6 billion annual revenues by 2030. By 2050, ACMI is targeting over 1.5 billion annual credits, leveraging over $120 billion and supporting over 110 million jobs.

This model of mutually reinforcing public-private support is an important tool to commercialize carbon removal solutions.

"This is exactly what has to happen - this alignment with large industrial partners who have the capacity, the access to capital, the skills to actually scale DAC to a meaningful level," -CarbonCapture CEO Adrian Corless

"This is a crucial step in fostering a high-integrity voluntary carbon market and shows how corporate decarbonization and the use of VCMs can complement each other to accelerate the transition to net zero," VCMI executive director Mark Kenber said.

Investigations can be conducted on a number of fronts: whether carbon offset projects are valid, who is benefiting, and who is not.

So how are high-integrity carbon credits better? First, they must be tracked and disclosed, and then validated and verified by independent third parties.

“we don’t see a shift away from NBS, but rather a diversification... into Technology-Based Solutions due to affinity of big tech firms for technology, making them more willing and interested to invest in novel technologies such as DACs, BECCS, CCUS.”

National trading of the China Certified Emissions Reduction credits began Monday in Beijing, state-owned CCTV reported. Issuance of the credits was halted in 2017 to prevent surplus supply.

Switzerland has doubled down on its strategy to offset its emissions abroad. But after the latest round of UN climate talks in Dubai, questions continue to swirl around the details and effectiveness of carbon markets. A look at where things stand.

...Switzerland’s KliK Foundation, representing fuel importers, finalized the inaugural purchase of 1,916 carbon credits from Thailand’s Energy Absolute. This groundbreaking transaction demonstrates the potential of a nascent market for carbon credits

A Carbon Credit is an allowance for a company holding the credit to emit carbon emissions or greenhouse gases. A single credit equals one ton of carbon dioxide to be emitted or the mass equivalent to carbon dioxide for other gases.

Forests comprise approximately 750 million acres within the US, serving as the nation’s largest terrestrial carbon sink (an area with more carbon being stored than released), capturing and storing the equivalent of ~11.9% of U.S. carbon emissions.

Under the agreement, Microsoft will acquire carbon removal credits for a period of 15 years from Chestnut from trees planted in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.

The new law imposes disclosure requirements... on California voluntary carbon offset marketers and sellers; California voluntary carbon offset purchasers and users; and entities operating in California making greenhouse gas related claims.

The market for carbon credits is projected to grow 50-fold within a decade, from nearly $2 billion in 2022 to nearly $100 billion by 2030, and as much as $250 billion by 2050, according to Morgan Stanley.

This innovative offering will be made available to market infrastructures, registry platforms, and other global service providers.