24th Week Carbon Credit Markets 2025. IETA, COP30, Basel, Nigeria Carbon Exchange, CAD Trust, NDCs x GDC, UNDP, BRICS, CBAM reactions, Argus Latin America Carbon Conference, SPCW, OECD, OPIS
- Art Dam
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Monday, 23 June 2025.
- Highlights of the Week 24 2025 from Carbon Credit Markets: IETA advocates for improving—not withdrawing—the EU Green Claims Directive; COP30 proposes turning the Global Stocktake into a Globally Determined Contribution with 30 cross-sectoral actions; the Basel Committee publishes a voluntary climate risk disclosure guide for banks; and a new publication explores legal opportunities in Brazil’s carbon market for agribusiness.
- Carbon Credits: Nigeria has launched Africa’s first subnational carbon exchange, the Lagos Carbon Exchange (LCX), the CAD Trust now connects 90% of global carbon credits using open blockchain-based data infrastructure, and Belize and Somalia highlight Article 6 of the Paris Agreement as key to implementing their new NDCs and expanding participation in carbon markets.
- Around the world: Responses to the EU’s CBAM with active opposition from BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) countries, domestic carbon pricing adjustments, and proposals for national border mechanisms; meanwhile, BRICS pushes for harmonized carbon accounting, California enacts new climate transparency laws, and a global report warns that the record-breaking extreme heat of 2024–2025 was intensified by climate change.
- Opportunities: UNDP has opened a Pool of Experts to support high-integrity carbon markets; SINAI is hiring a remote Climate Analyst; there’s an opening for an ESG Manager at a large multinational in São Paulo; and São Paulo Climate Week 2025 is calling for initiatives and hubs to join its program from August 2 to 8.
- Events globally from June to July include the 1st Argus Latin America Carbon Conference taking place in São Paulo (June 23-24), OPIS's update on regional carbon markets (June 25), OECD’s session on climate transition metrics for finance (June 25), the Congresso Sustentável 2025 in Belém on sustainable solutions (July 1–2), and OPIS’s discussion on blue hydrogen as a transitional energy source (July 3).
Let’s dive into the details.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
🇪🇺📢 IETA statement on the recent call for withdrawal of the European Union Green Claims Directive.
IETA advocates that the Directive be enhanced, not withdrawn, enabling the responsible use of high-integrity carbon credits — both reduction and removal — to strengthen corporate climate goals and align with the Paris Agreement. Read on.
🇧🇷📢 From Nationally to Globally Determined Contributions. COP30 Proposal in its Fourth Charter.
The COP30 Presidency proposed a Global Action Agenda with 30 measures organized into six thematic axes to accelerate the implementation of the Global Stocktake (GST) of the Paris Agreement. The proposal transforms the GST into a “Globally Determined Contribution” (GDC), functioning as a collective guide for concrete climate actions. The agenda seeks to involve governments, the private sector, civil society and local communities, promoting solutions adaptable to different contexts and strengthening multisectoral cooperation towards the energy transition and sustainable development. Click here for the press release. It is also worth reading Rogério Teixeira de Melo's analysis on LinkedIn.
🌍🏛️New Framework for Banks to Disclosure Climate Risks.
The Basel Committee has released a voluntary guide for banks to disclose climate risks, focusing on flexibility and local adaptation. The requirement to report “facilitated emissions” (linked to capital market activities) has been removed, and only financed emissions deemed material will be disclosed. Here is the framework.
🇧🇷📗Carbon Credits in Agribusiness: Legal and Business Opportunities for Lawyers. With case studies in the State of Mato Grosso.
Authors Alexandre Ricardo Machado, Paloma Gerzeli Pitre and Gabriela Trentin Zandoná. Publication (in Portuguese) with 163 pages that seeks to expand the knowledge of the legal and business class in the agribusiness sector about the carbon credits market. Access it.
CARBON CREDITS
🇳🇬 Nigeria Launches Africa’s First Subnational Carbon Exchange.
The Lagos Carbon Exchange (LCX) has recently launched Africa’s first subnational carbon exchange, in partnership with Greenplinth Africa and the Lagos State Government.
The initiative aims to position Lagos as an African hub for regulated carbon markets. The LCX will be responsible for structuring a carbon credit trading system focused on compliance, attracting green investment and fostering the development of a low-carbon economy in the country.
The exchange is directly linked to the ambitious project to distribute 80 million clean cookstoves across Nigeria, which is expected to generate more than 1.2 billion tons of carbon credits and create around 3.5 million green jobs.
🌏🖥️CAD Trust: Connecting carbon markets through open data.
Approximately 90% of all carbon credits ever issued globally are integrated into the CAD Trust, or Climate Action Data Trust, a global initiative that acts as a digital infrastructure to integrate and harmonize carbon credit data from different registries around the world.
Registries connected to the CAD Trust include Verra, Gold Standard, Global Carbon Council, Cercarbono, BioCarbon, Tero Carbon, Asia Carbon Institute, the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as well as the registries of two countries, Switzerland and Bhutan.
The platform uses blockchain technology, specifically the Chia network. The integration is made possible through an open-source solution.
The dataset is standardized, promoting interoperability, traceability and semantic consistency between different systems. It is freely available via API and through the Data Dashboard, expanding transparent and reliable access to voluntary carbon market data.
Behind the CAD Trust are three major entities: the World Bank, IETA and the Singapore Government.
Access the CAD Trust here — an initiative that, since 2022, has been well known to followers and subscribers of Carbon Credit Markets. It is worth remembering.
🇧🇿🇸🇴Belize and Somalia, new NDCs. See what those countries indicated about Article 6.
“Meeting these needs will require access to climate finance through a multitude of financial mechanisms, such as grants, results-based mechanisms, and opportunities under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement … Belize is considering the potential role of Article 6 in supporting its NDC climate ambition. Belize may examine options for engaging in national-level market-based mechanisms, such as cap-and-trade and offsetting of carbon-based emissions.” Belize NDC 3.0 update.
“Participation in carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, with robust measurement, reporting, and verification systems, will be crucial … creating an enabling environment for private sector engagement especially in carbon markets will be central to delivering mitigation outcomes, mobilizing climate finance, and enhancing low-carbon development. … The private sector can also benefit from bilateral agreements under Article 6.2, where international buyers purchase Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs). …Voluntary cooperation under Article 6 (carbon markets, non-market approaches) could provide Somalia with opportunities for fair participation in global climate action while ensuring benefits flow to local communities.” Somalia NDC 3.0.
AROUND THE WORLD
🏗️How Countries Around the World Are Reacting to the EU’s CBAM.
A great infographic from the GMK Center from June 2025 shows how different countries are reacting to the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Reactions fall into three main groups:
1. Active opposition, led by the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China), who consider the CBAM discriminatory and contrary to the Paris Agreement’s principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Some, such as India, are considering challenging the mechanism at the WTO.
2. Internal adaptation, with countries adjusting their carbon pricing policies to mitigate the impacts of the CBAM on their exports.
3. Development of their own mechanisms, such as Australia and the US, which are studying or proposing their own carbon border adjustments.
Furthermore, Poland, despite being a member of the EU, is challenging the CBAM in court, claiming that it constitutes a fiscal instrument that would require unanimous approval.
Access the infographic here. You may also be interested in Stanislav Zinchenko's analysis on LinkedIn, for the reference to the steel industry.
🌍BRICS discusses Carbon Accounting.
The urgency of standardizing carbon accounting methodologies was a central theme at the BRICS meeting in Brasília, held between June 17 and 18, 2025. The countries highlighted that the current fragmentation between sectors and regions hinders transparency, increases monitoring costs and undermines the efficiency of global chains.
As a way to overcome these difficulties, it was proposed that BRICS members advance in the construction of common and interoperable methodologies, supported by technical and scientific cooperation. This harmonization would promote sustainable trade, reduce regulatory costs and increase the credibility of compensation mechanisms, positioning the group as a leader in the formulation of global climate standards.
Read more about the meeting, when the certification of low-emission hydrogen was also discussed.
🇺🇸 All about California’s climate laws.
KPMG’s page on California’s climate laws (June 2025) provides a detailed overview of the new disclosure requirements for companies operating in that US state. The focus is on three main laws:
SB-253: requires companies with annual revenues above US$1 billion to disclose GHG emissions (Scopes 1 and 2 in 2026; Scope 3 in 2027).
SB-261: requires companies with revenues above US$500 million to report climate-related financial risks, in line with the TCFD.
AB-1305: requires transparency on the use of carbon credits and climate claims, regardless of the company’s size.
Implementation will be overseen by CARB (California Air Resources Board), which has initiated public consultations and will follow the regulatory process of the APA (Administrative Procedure Act). Despite delays in regulation, the start of reporting is set for January 1, 2026.
☀️Climate Change and the Intensification of Global Extreme Heat.
The latest report from the World Weather Attribution (WWA), published on May 30, 2025, analyzes the impact of climate change on extreme heatwaves that occurred between May 2024 and May 2025 — the hottest period ever recorded on Earth. Among the highlights:
4 billion people (about 49% of the world's population) faced at least 30 days of extreme heat;
In 195 countries and territories, climate change doubled the frequency of these events;
All 67 extreme heat events analyzed were influenced by climate change.
The study was conducted in partnership with Climate Central and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, highlights the urgency of measures to reduce risks and protect vulnerable populations and can be read here.
OPPORTUNITIES
🌎📢 UNDP Pool of Experts, to support countries in advancing high integrity carbon market policies and projects. Here are more details and here is the application.
🌎📢 Climate Analist. Remote position. SINAI.
🇧🇷📢 ESG Manager. Large multinational company in São Paulo, Brazil.
🇧🇷📢 Call for Initiatives & Hubs, São Paulo Climate Week 2025, August 2-8. Details here.
EVENTS
📅 🖥️ 25 June, OPIS Mid-Year Carbon & Clean Fuels Outlook: 30-Minute Deep Dives by Region. Update on how political and regional changes are rapidly influencing global carbon markets and the energy transition. Register here.
🇫🇷🖥️ 25 June, Climate transition metrics for the financial sector: translating targets into action. By OECD. Details here.
🇧🇷📍1 - 2 July, Sustainable Congress 2025 – Brazil of Solutions, in Belém do Pará, Brazil. By CEBDS. Check it out.
🇺🇸🖥️ 3 July, Hydrogen's Evolution: On the Path to Green, we’re Seeing a Detour Through Blue. Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas, but with a twist: during the production process, the carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated is captured and stored, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, it is an intermediate alternative between gray hydrogen (which releases CO₂ into the atmosphere) and green hydrogen (produced with renewable energy and without emissions). Event by OPIS, A Dow Jones Company.
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