18th CCM 2025 week. Advances in the carbon market: tokens in Thailand, regulation in Zimbabwe, Article 6 in Kenya and Moldova, new tools, BRICS and CCS, falling emissions and global events.
- Art Dam
- May 11
- 7 min read
Monday, 12 May 2025.
Global carbon markets continue to evolve. Thailand 🇹🇭 launches public consultation on tokenized carbon credits, while Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 creates its Carbon Market Authority. Tools such as the Voluntary Registry Offsets Database and the Carbon Data Open Protocol increase transparency. Kenya 🇰🇪 and Moldova 🇲🇩 make new NDC deposits and mention Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. 🌏 BRICS discuss Carbon Capture and Storage, and Climate Trace records a drop in global emissions, despite challenges for 2025. 🎓 Events such as Gold Standard's Carbon Market Training and discussion of the latest Climate Watch data by WRI help in understanding emissions. In Brazil🇧🇷, the 5th SAE BRASIL Symposium on Renewable Fuels drives the debate on the energy transition.
CARBON CREDITS
Thailand moves forward with tokenized carbon credit trading.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (Thai SEC) is amending regulations to enable the trading of tokenized carbon credits, with the aim of making the country a regional hub in this market. The initiative uses blockchain to increase transparency and efficiency of operations.
Key highlights:
The Thai SEC has approved, in principle, the regulation allowing brokerages, digital asset exchanges and traders to offer tokenized carbon credits.
The proposal also covers the trading of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and tokenized carbon allowances.
The Thai government sees this as a strategic measure to achieve its goals of carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero emissions by 2065.
Despite the initial approval, the Thai SEC is still gathering stakeholder input before defining the final rules, keeping the decision in the public consultation phase. Click here for the official press release from April 29, 2025 and here for the public consultation, in a very interesting format.
Zimbabwe creates its Carbon Market Authority.
Zimbabwe recently set up its Zimbabwe Carbon Market Authority (ZiCMA) to oversee carbon credit projects. The entity has the power to approve and register projects, issue permits, ensure greater transparency in the trading of emissions offsets and implement the promises made in the country’s
The country was ranked as the third largest producer of carbon credits in Africa in 2023, accounting for about one-eighth of the continent's production. In other words, the country has already been generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, including taxes, fees and licenses.
It is worth remembering that in 2023, in response to reports of fraud, the government canceled all existing projects and began requiring a new registration, including ensuring that the country would keep part of the revenues. We mentioned something about these problems in a recent article “UK launches Public Consultation on Voluntary Carbon and Nature Markets”.
Click here if you are curious about the 92 pages of Statutory Instrument 48/2025 which deals with Zimbabwe's general carbon trading regulations.
With a predominance of tropical savannas, carbon credits in Zimbabwe are mainly generated by activities such as reforestation projects. According to the Voluntary Registry Offsets Database - as of 28 February 2025 - Zimbabwe had generated more than 31 million carbon credits, across around 27 projects.
Voluntary Registry Offsets Database?
Yes. The Voluntary Registry Offsets Database is a database developed by the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at the University of California, Berkeley.
It gathers information on all carbon offset projects, credit emissions, and credit retirements registered globally by four major voluntary carbon offset registries: American Carbon Registry (ACR), Climate Action Reserve (CAR), Gold Standard, and Verra (VCS).
This database aims to increase transparency in the carbon offset market by allowing researchers and carbon credit buyers to have a clearer view of available projects and credits. It also offers dynamic charts to visualize trends over time and explore projects by location, type, and registration.
If you want to see more details or download the latest version of the database for free, you can click here. It is an Excel file, currently about 13 MB in size.
What about the Carbon Data Open Protocol?
The Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP) is an initiative launched a few weeks ago that seeks to standardize and harmonize carbon market data. Created by a coalition of 30 organizations, including Sylvera, RMI and S&P Global Commodity Insights, it seeks to improve the transparency and comparability of carbon credits.
The CDOP aligns with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and establishes a set of principles to ensure the integrity of data used by companies and investors. The implementation of its guidelines is scheduled for the end of 2025, promoting greater reliability in carbon credit trading and facilitating the entry of new participants into the market.
The wider adoption of a guideline like this will depend on several factors, including:
Acceptance by governments and regulatory bodies, especially those that already have well-established carbon market frameworks.
Compatibility with regional carbon pricing systems, ensuring integration with mechanisms such as the EU ETS and emerging markets.
Participation by companies and investors, who will need to trust the robustness of the protocol to support their offsetting and emissions neutralization strategies.
In other words, if CDOP can demonstrate credibility, efficiency and economic benefits, there is a good chance that it will become a broader reference for data governance in voluntary and regulated carbon markets.
Check out the press release about CDOP here.
After weeks without new NDCs, two countries make their deposits and refer to Article 6.
Let's see what Kenya and Moldova specifically say about their “intention to use voluntary cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement”.
“Kenya will engage in voluntary cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement as part of her efforts to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). This approach aims to enhance ambition and promote sustainable development while ensuring environmental integrity. Currently, Kenya is developing a comprehensive carbon market framework and establishing the necessary arrangements, including institutional structures, authorization processes, a carbon registry, and a project pipeline, to facilitate her participation in Article 6. Additionally, the country is exploring opportunities for international cooperation by leveraging bilateral agreements, ensuring that its efforts align with global climate goals while maximizing local benefits.” Kenya's Second Nationally Determined Contribution 2031 - 2035.
“Since 6 September 2022, Moldova has been a Joint Crediting Mechanism Partner Country with Japan. This mechanism is a system to cooperate with developing countries to reduce GHG emissions, under which the amount of emission reduction is assessed as a contribution by both partner countries, and aims to facilitate diffusion of leading decarbonizing technologies and infrastructure through investment by Japanese entities, thereby contributing to GHG emission reductions or removals and sustainable development in partner countries. The Joint Crediting Mechanism will contribute to the achievement of both partner countries’ NDCs by evaluating Japan’s contributions in a quantitative manner and assigning Japan part of the credit.” Republic of Moldova NDC 3.0.
WORLD and CLIMATE GOVERNANCE
BRICS discusses Carbon Capture and Storage.
A recent article addresses the discussions held by BRICS on energy transition, climate resilience and decarbonization in the oil and gas sector. Participants emphasized the need for international cooperation to ensure energy security and promote sustainable solutions.
One of the main topics was financing for infrastructure and low-emission technologies. In addition, the importance of energy inclusion was highlighted, ensuring that less developed regions can follow the transition.
Regarding CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage), the technology was mentioned as a strategic solution for reducing emissions in the oil and gas industry. The debates reinforced the need for investment and a favorable regulatory environment for the expansion of CCS.
Click here for the article and here for our series of posts on CCS, which is not new worldwide.
Climate Trace reports global emissions decline, but challenges for 2025 remain.
Climate TRACE’s recent press release on emissions data for February 2025 highlights that glbal greenhouse gas emissions totaled 5.04 billion tonnes of CO₂e, representing a 0.47% decrease compared to February 2024.
Some highlights:
Cumulative emissions for the year: Total 10.32 billion tons of CO₂e, a reduction of 0.55% compared to the same period in 2024.
Methane: Global methane emissions were 31.70 million tons, with a slight decrease of 0.01%.
The United States had a reduction of 0.79% compared to February 2024, while China's emissions increased by 0.21% in the same period.
Sectors: There was a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel operations, manufacturing, energy and transportation, with the transportation sector having the largest decrease, of 1.29%.
Cities with the highest global emissions: Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing, Suzhou and Houston led the ranking.
Cities with the highest emissions by continent: Shanghai, China, Asia; Moscow, Russia, Europe; Houston, United States, North America; São Paulo, Brazil, Latin America; Johannesburg, South Africa, Africa; Sydney, Australia, Oceania.
Cities with the largest decline worldwide: Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Houston and Dallas had the largest absolute declines.
Cities with the largest decline by continent: Tokyo, Japan, Asia; Nicosia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Europe; Los Angeles, United States, North America; Arauca, Colombia, Latin America; Raja, South Sudan, Africa; Sydney, Australia, Oceania.
The report also mentions that the data has been updated to version v4.2.0, with methodological adjustments and standardization of nomenclature. If you want more details, you can access the full press release here.
And if you are interested, here is another article we published about Climate Trace, a tool that shows 352 million GHG emission points around the world.
EVENTS and OPPORTUNITIES
📍🖥️ Carbon Market Training Resources, from Gold Standard with support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany🇩🇪. Details here.
📍🖥️ Latest GHG Emissions Data from Climate Watch, May 27 by WRI World Resources Institute. Register here.
📍🇧🇷 5th Symposium SAE BRASIL of Renewable Fuels, June 26, Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. Details here.
🏆 If you have an interesting story about carbon credits in your country, our audience already reaches over 100 nations! Send your message directly through our LinkedIn page.
Sign up at www.carboncreditmarkets.com to receive insights, news and media updates and visit our new portal, Busca Global.
