News

Recent news from around the industry on carbon credits, carbon reduction and related topics.
09/05/2024
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Reuters
Climate tech startup Mantel to use molten salt to capture factory flue CO2 with $30 million funding from Shell, VCs

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.

6 Breakthrough Climate Research Initiatives

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

08/16/2024
Widespread crab burrows enhance greenhouse gas emissions from coastal blue carbon ecosystems

...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.

How I learned to stop worrying and love (or tolerate) carbon offsets

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.

08/07/2024
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NewsBytes
Bill Gates backs effort to standardize carbon removal methods

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.

07/23/2024
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S&P Global
Paris Olympics to lean heavily on offsets, clean power to hit carbon targets

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.

07/17/2024
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Business Wire
Earthshot Carbon Development Platform Raises $5.5M Series A

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

07/16/2024
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Eco-Business
Carbon credits a ‘catalyst’ for climate action, not just a method to offset emissions: ecosecurities chief

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.

07/11/2024
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BNN Bloomberg
Carbon Offsets Project the Size of Las Vegas Wins Court Reprieve

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. 

06/21/2024
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Reuters
Howden creates warranty and indemnity policy for carbon credits

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.

06/18/2024
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Reuters
Microsoft to buy 8 million carbon credits from BTG Pactual in largest-ever sale

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.

Is The Voluntary Carbon Market Moving Toward Version 2.0?

“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.”

06/06/2024
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S&P Global
Carbon credits with high-quality tag emerge on VCM in bid to rebuild trust

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.

06/04/2024
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GreenBiz
How rethinking carbon markets can forge a path to the green transition

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.

05/29/2024
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Forbes
3 Reasons Why Kenya’s Carbon Markets Can Be Expected To Grow

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.

05/28/2024
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The Hill
Biden administration issues guidelines on carbon credit integrity

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.

05/16/2024
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edie
Airlines ‘set for carbon credit crunch by 2030’

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.

05/16/2024
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GreenBiz
The 5 most common questions from carbon buyers

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

04/24/2024
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Reuters
Comment: Why the SBTi’s proposal to include carbon credits is on the right side of climate history

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.

04/15/2024
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Yale E360
Solomon Islands Tribes Sell Carbon Credits, Not Their Trees

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.

04/06/2024
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CNBC
Big oil is racing to scale up carbon capture to slash emissions but the challenges are immense

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.

03/27/2024
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MIT News
Engineers find a new way to convert carbon dioxide into useful products

"...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,”

Africa Clean Sweeps into $900B Global Carbon Credit Economy

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.

03/14/2024
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Google
Our pledge to support carbon removal solutions

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

03/12/2024
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Reuters
US-based CarbonCapture raises $80 mln from Saudi Aramco, others

"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

02/26/2024
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S&P Global
Bain & Company makes highest integrity carbon credit claim under VCMI rulebook

"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.

Reporter’s Guide to Investigating Carbon Offsets

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

02/09/2024
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Euronews
Not all carbon credits are created equal

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

02/07/2024
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Forbes
Carbon Credit Buyer Preferences Are Rapidly Shifting

“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.”

01/22/2024
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BNN Bloomberg
China Relaunches Voluntary Carbon Credits Halted in 2017

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.

01/19/2024
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SWI swissinfo
Where the world – and Switzerland – stands on carbon offsets after COP28

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.

Thai-Swiss Deal Sets Paris Agreement Carbon Offsets in Action

...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

Carbon Credits: What Are They and Why Are They Popular?

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.

Introduction to Forest Carbon, Offsets and Markets

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.

12/20/2023
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Reuters
Microsoft inks carbon removal deal with offsets startup Chestnut

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.

12/19/2023
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Dentons
New California Statute on Voluntary Carbon Offsets and Greenhouse Gas Claims Takes Effect January 1, 2024

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.

What Every Leader Needs to Know About Carbon Offsets

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.

Nasdaq Reveals Revolutionary Tech for Carbon Credits to Propel Carbon Markets

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

11/29/2023
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About Amazon
An update on Amazon's sustainability efforts: Here's what we’re doing to aid nature-based solutions and carbon removal

Amazon is expanding its investments in nature-based solutions that fight climate change with two new agroforestry projects in the Amazon Rainforest.

11/23/2023
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Reuters
Every country needs an Inflation Reduction Act

Concerns about market distortion from the policy intended to stimulate investment in the energy transition and signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022 are easing. Other countries are realizing they need to adapt the blueprint.

Can tree farms save a forest? Brazil is about to find out

Climate scientists have demonstrated that at least 30 percent of humanity’s climate targets can be met by protecting and restoring nature — but meeting the target means restoring 200 million hectares (500 million acres) within the next seven years.

11/15/2023
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Verra
Verra Launches Public Consultation on ABACUS Market Label for Nature-Based Removal Credits

Verra is launching a public consultation on the ABACUS label, a new market label that can be applied to VCUs from projects validated and verified to Verra’s new ARR methodology if these units meet a set of key quality requirements.

11/01/2023
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MIT News
MIT startup has big plans to pull carbon from the air

Noya has developed low-power, modular units that can be combined to create facilities for removing millions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

10/30/2023
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S&P Global
Summit Carbon CEO undeterred by folding of fellow CO2 pipeline project

Summit Carbon Solutions LLC is not giving up on obtaining the permits for a five-state, 2,000-mile CO2 pipeline on which it has sunk hundreds of millions of dollars... despite a competitor's decision to quit over the permitting uncertainty.

10/25/2023
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Reuters
Petrobras to use carbon credits to decarbonize premium gasoline

Brazil state-run oil firm Petrobras will use the 175,000 carbon credits it purchased last month to render carbon neutral around a year's worth supply of its premium gasoline, Gasolina Podium, a company executive said on Wednesday.

10/17/2023
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Yale E360
Abandoned Lands: A Hidden Resource for Restoring Biodiversity

...these neglected and often despised new wildernesses could be a crucial part of the planet’s salvation. If only we noticed and tended them, [Daskalova] says, they offer great opportunities for meeting both climate and biodiversity targets.

10/17/2023
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GreenBiz
Common questions in soil carbon monitoring

Advancing sustainable farming means working to improve the way we measure both its financial and environmental benefits. This allows a stronger market to develop where farmers are compensated for transitioning to regenerative management. 

10/10/2023
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edie
Buying carbon credits doesn’t discourage corporate decarbonisation, study finds

New research has revealed that the companies engaged in the voluntary carbon market are surpassing their counterparts in key areas of climate action, accountability and ambition, rather than simply using credits as a method to ‘buy their way out’.

09/27/2023
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Forbes
Why Suriname’s Carbon Finance Program Could Change The World

Marciano Dasai, Suriname's minister of spatial planning and environment, spoke at Climate Week in New York and is pitching 4.8 million carbon offsets to the real heavy hitters — the rich nations responsible for most of the globe’s CO2 emissions.

Ohio farmers have a growing interest in (and some questions about) carbon markets

“Anyone who has a concern for our climate should look at agriculture as one of the ways that we can help solve the problem.”