29th Week Carbon Credit Markets 2025. Brazil and Türkiye advance on carbon; OECD and UNFCCC discuss tracking; Verra in transition; UN pressures big tech; ICJ and climate; opportunities and events.
- Art Dam
- Jul 27
- 7 min read
Monday, 28 July 2025.
Highlights from the 29th Carbon Credit Markets 2025 week.
Carbon Credits. 🇧🇷Brazil and 🇹🇷Turkey advance in regulating carbon markets — BNDES leads the creation of a Brazilian certification body, while Turkey formalizes its ETS. 🌍 Globally, the OECD discusses carbon intensity metrics and MRV systems. Within the scope of Article 6, the use of interoperable registries to track ITMOs is growing, with particular interest in the UNFCCC's 🖥️ International Registry. In the voluntary market, ❗️Verra reports on the challenges and expectations of restructuring.
Other Highlights of the Week 29. 🌐 For the ICJ, protecting the climate is a legal obligation of States and cites ✈️ CORSIA; 🇺🇳 UN raises its tone, calls on 🤖big techs for climate action. 🇲🇨 Monaco and 🇳🇺 Niue update their NDCs with interest in markets under Article 6.
Opportunities. 🇺🇳 Recent UNFCCC video on Article 6.4 standards, 🇧🇷ABNT publishes standard on carbon neutrality and calls for open ESG meeting, while Verra seeks experts to review agricultural 🚜 methodologies.
Events in August. 📅 São Paulo Climate Week (Aug 4–8), Fastmarkets Latin America Carbon Forum with keynote by Ana Toni, COP30 CEO (Aug 11), The Geological Unicorn of Ionic Clays (Aug 19) and IETA Latin America Climate Summit (Aug 26–28).
Here the details.
CARBON CREDITS
🇧🇷Brazil plans to create its own carbon credit certification body.
BNDES is leading the creation of a national carbon credit certification body to reduce dependence on international entities and adapt methodologies to Brazilian realities, such as biomes and sociocultural aspects. The initiative was announced by President Aloizio Mercadante and is aligned with the implementation of the Brazilian Emissions Trading System (SBCE), established by Law 15.042/2024. BNDES, which already operates in the voluntary market through public calls and supporting sustainable projects with resources from the Amazon Fund, launched a public consultation on the topic in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment. It is also worth remembering that in early 2024, GFANZ and BNDES joined forces in a Climate Transition Platform.
🇹🇷 📌 Turkey is moving forward with structuring its Emisyon Ticaret Sistemi (ETS).
The recently enacted Law No. 7552 – Turkey's Climate Law – officially establishes the ETS as a national carbon pricing mechanism, based on maximum emission limits and allowance trading. The law also officially establishes a Carbon Market Board. Chaired by the Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change and including representatives from seven ministries and regulatory agencies, the board will be responsible for approving national emissions allocation plans, defining the distribution of free allowances, and setting limits on the use of offset credits in the ETS. Furthermore, the Climate Change Directorate will be responsible for the operational management of the ETS, while EPİAŞ (Energy Exchange Istanbul) will handle the secondary market, registration, and allowance auctions. Companies outside the system may participate voluntarily. The Turkish ETS is mentioned in the July 9, 2025, Resmî Gazete publication and can be read here.
🌍 On the international harmonization of carbon intensity metrics.
📘 A recent report from the Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches (IFCMA), an OECD initiative with 60 countries, details global efforts to improve emissions mitigation policies based on robust data, multilateral cooperation, and advanced technical metrics. It highlights initiatives such as the development of a climate policy database, modeling to measure policy impacts on emissions, and analysis of transboundary effects such as carbon leakage. The document also advances the international harmonization of carbon intensity metrics, essential for instruments such as carbon markets and border adjustments, proposing improvements to monitoring and verification (MRV) systems. Read the OECD (2025), OECD Secretary-General Report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on the work of the Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches (South Africa, July 2025), OECD Publishing, Paris.
🌏ITMOs and Article 6 Registries: Types, Integration, Interested Countries, and the UNFCCC International Registry.
ITMOs (Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes) are units representing verified greenhouse gas emission reductions transferred between countries under cooperative agreements under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.
Once ITMOs are authorized (and transferred for the first time), they must be tracked by the country (Party) for reporting purposes under Article 6. This infrastructure is critical to operationalizing Article 6 and the carbon market. To ensure proper tracking of these transactions, each participating country must have or have access to a registry.
There are three main types of registries:
national registries, created and managed internally by the country;
international registries, operated by organizations such as the World Bank or UNDP, especially useful for countries with fewer resources or technical capacity; and
third-party registries
These registries must be interoperable, meaning they can communicate and integrate data in a standardized manner, ensuring the integrity of information and avoiding double-counting in ITMO transactions. This interoperability is essential for the systems to work synergistically and maintain the credibility of carbon markets.
Other countries, such as Brazil, have shown growing interest in participating in international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and this includes using the UNFCCC International Registry as part of their ITMO tracking infrastructure. A 2023 UNFCCC survey indicated that 27 countries would be interested in using the international registry.
For an overview of the UNFCCC International Registry and how it supports cooperative implementation, see the recent presentation from the June 2025 June Climate Meetings - SB62 in Bonn, “Article 6.2 International Registry”.
Next week we will publish a list with links to country, organization, and third-party registries.
❗️Verra, “One Year In: Building a Stronger Verra for a Stronger Market”.
A July 22nd statement signed by CEO Mandy Rambharos highlights Verra's efforts in its first year of transformation to strengthen the integrity and effectiveness of the voluntary carbon market. Despite facing financial challenges in 2024, with significant losses due to strategic investments, the organization has taken measures such as cost cutting and internal restructuring, maintaining solid reserves for 2025. Verra is focused on improving standards, digitizing processes, accelerating project reviews, and collaborating with governments and stakeholders to align voluntary and regulatory systems. Read the full statement here.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
🌍 Historic advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate cites CORSIA.
This week, the ICJ issued a landmark advisory opinion declaring that climate change poses an "urgent and existential threat" to humanity. The court affirmed that States have a legal obligation under international law to protect the climate system from emissions caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels.
The ICJ specifically cites (§ 317) CORSIA, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It also states that "the States parties … must have due regard to these obligations."
Although non-binding, the opinion carries significant legal and political weight and could influence future lawsuits and global climate policies. See the UN News article here or the document itself (140 pages, in English) below.
🇺🇳 UN raises its voice and calls on big tech to take action.
In his July 22 speech, the UN Secretary-General marked a shift in tone by stating that the global energy transition has already passed the point of no return, with record investments in clean energy and falling renewable energy costs. For the first time, he directly called on large technology companies to operate their data centers with 100% renewable energy by 2030, denounced fossil fuel subsidies as "economic sabotage," and proposed a reform of the global financial architecture to enable climate justice. With COP30 in Brazil on the horizon, the speech signals a new phase of political pressure and climate pragmatism. Read on.
📢 NDCs from Monaco and Niue. See what they say about Article 6.
Since the end of 2024, we have been monitoring and publishing updates to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) one by one. About 30 have already submitted their NDCs, while another 160 are still pending. Now, 20 days after Norway's latest, two more countries have made theirs available.
🇲🇨“La Principauté de Monaco entend atteindre ses objectifs par la mise en œuvre de politiques publiques au niveau national. Toutefois, Monaco n'exclut pas l'achat de Résultats d'atténuation transférés à l'échelle internationale (ITMO) dans le cadre des dispositions de l'article 6 de l'Accord de Paris”. In other words, Monaco does not rule out the acquisition of Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Here the MONACO NDC 2025.
🇳🇺“Niue is a large ocean state. Niue recognises that its vast marine territory holds immense ecological, cultural, and economic value to its people. … Niue is committed to contributing towards international discourse on developing voluntary markets. Based on these discussions, Niue will identify mechanisms to use international market mechanisms to achieve its NDC targets.” Here the Niue NDC 3.0.
OPPORTUNITIES
🖥️ UNFCCC Article 6.4 Mechanisms Standards - Upholding High Integrity. Broadcast live on July 22, 2025. Watch on YouTube.
🇧🇷📅 August 11th, the next virtual meeting of ABNT/CEE-256 - Special Study Commission on Environmental, Social, and Governance - is open to all interested parties! Not yet part of this initiative? Here's the full article, with a link to register. In fact, on July 18th, 2025, the ABNT NBR ISO 14068-1:2025 standard – Climate change management – Transition to net-zero emissions – Part 1: Carbon neutrality – was published.
🚜 Until August 15, Verra is soliciting proposals from independent experts to review a major revision of the VM0042 and related methodology for Improved Agricultural Land Management within the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) program. Details here.
EVENTS
🇧🇷📍August 4-8, São Paulo Climate Week. At Latin America's leading climate innovation hub, CUBO Itaú, in São Paulo, Brazil.
📢 🇧🇷 August 11, Fastmarkets Latin America Carbon Forum 2025. With keynote address by Ana Toni, COP30 CEO. At the Renaissance Hotel in São Paulo, Brazil. Use code CCM15 for a 15% discount.
🇧🇷🖥️ August 19, The Geological Unicorn of Ionic Clays in Poços de Caldas and the Regulatory Challenges of Extracting Rare Earths. By APEMI, São Paulo, Brazil.
🇧🇷📍August 26-28, IETA Latin America Climate Summit, in São Paulo, Brazil.
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Highlights from the 29th Carbon Credit Markets 2025 week.
