40th Week Carbon Credit Markets 2025. Emission reversal; Carbon Data Protocol; BNDES voluntary market; CONAREDD+; 162 delegations & prince at COP30? NDCs; Laudato Si’; Chemistry Nobel; +narratives
- Art Dam
- Oct 12
- 8 min read
Monday, 13 October 2025.
Highlights from the 40th Carbon Credit Markets 2025 week.
- Carbon Credits. UN Body defines new rules for dealing with emissions reversal; CDOP launches protocol to standardize market data; BNDES releases results of public consultation on the voluntary market; and CONAREDD+ establishes guidelines for socio-environmental safeguards in REDD+ projects in Brazil.
- Other Highlights. UNFCCC confirms 162 accredited delegations at COP30; NDCs continue at a slow pace, with 62 officially communicated and 125 expected by the end of the year; and Laudato Si’, reinforced by Pope Leo XIV, inspires an integral ecology that unites social justice, spirituality, and environmental responsibility.
- Mind Sparks. The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards applicable solutions in carbon capture and clean technologies; COP30 releases its official schedule; British royalty reinforces support for COP30 and the Earthshot Prize in Brazil; PNMC enters public consultation to review Brazilian climate policy; and Spencer Glendon, in the Probable Futures essay, proposes that climate transformation will come through narratives that touch human values, not just economic metrics.
- Events. Webinar Gold Standard on soil organic carbon, the Forest Sciences Symposium, Carbon Data Open Protocol, MSCI 3Q 2025 Global Carbon Credit Market in Review, Singapore Carbon Market & Investor Forum, Carbon Markets Africa Summit, Natural Climate Solutions from Brazil, Gold Standard - Paris Agreement Alignment, Expectations for COP30, IIFRS Sustainability Symposium.
CARBON CREDITS
🇺🇳 UN Sets Rules to Address Emission Reversal Risks in Carbon Market.
On October 10, 2025, the supervisory body of Article 6.4 of the UN, responsible for implementing the international carbon market under the Paris Agreement, approved rules to manage the risks of emission reversals. These guidelines address situations where credited greenhouse gas removals may later be lost. The new reversal standard, based on COP29 decisions, introduces requirements for continuous monitoring, incentives for risk management, and options such as insurance guarantees or upfront compensations.
Additionally, the body approved a common practice analysis tool, which assesses whether a type of project is already widely adopted in a given region, ensuring that credits are granted only to truly additional initiatives. Four new independent auditors—also known as Designated Operational Entities (DOEs)—were accredited to validate and verify projects. The group’s next meeting will be held virtually on October 29 and 30, with expectations to adopt the first official methodology for the Paris Agreement’s crediting mechanism.
🌱 Have you heard of the Carbon Data Open Protocol (CDOP)?
It's an international coalition that began forming in mid-March 2025, aiming to address data fragmentation in carbon credit markets.
Now in September 2025, during New York Climate Week, version 1.0 of the protocol was officially launched, considered a milestone in standardizing carbon market data and facilitating its scalability.
Technically, the model:
- Harmonizes more than 15 distinct schemas, with over 1,600 fields in the "location" category alone.
- Is compatible with initiatives such as the CCCDM (G20 model), CAD Trust, and UNFCCC (Article 6).
- Has been tested with real data and is available as open source, with public documentation.
- Initially focuses on the pre-issuance phase, but will be expanded to cover the entire carbon credit lifecycle.
According to the press release, CDOP is an initiative currently supported by 52 organizations from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, based on collaborations with:
* Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust)
* ICVCM’s Continuous Improvement Work Program
* World Bank’s Carbon Market Infrastructure Working Group (CMIWG)
The official website does not specify a physical headquarters, however, as the CDOP V1 launch will be discussed in a webinar on October 15, with timing based on the UK and US, these Global North countries are likely the main hubs for coordination.
🇧🇷 Results of the Public Consultation on the Voluntary Carbon Market in Brazil.
Last Thursday, October 9th, BNDES released the results of the public consultation held between March and April, which gathered 147 contributions from various sectors. Participants highlighted:
* Standardization of methodologies for credit certification.
* Governance and legal certainty to attract investment.
* Nature-based solutions, with a focus on the Legal Amazon.
* Affordable financing for small producers.
* Integration with public policies such as the SBCE (Brazilian Emissions Trading System) and the Climate Plan.
* Environmental integrity and social inclusion, with the leadership of traditional communities.
Challenges such as the risk of double counting, lack of technical training, and the absence of a national registration platform were also highlighted.
The contributions will guide the creation of a regulatory framework and the development of institutional infrastructure, with support from BNDES and the federal government. Next steps include the consolidation of guidelines, publication of a final document, and new technical workshops.
🇧🇷 Guidelines for REDD+ Safeguards in Brazil.
Published on August 1, 2025, Resolution No. 19 by CONAREDD+ establishes guidelines for implementing jurisdictional REDD+ programs and forest carbon credit projects on public lands and collective territories in Brazil. The document emphasizes the importance of socio-environmental safeguards, focusing on the protection of territorial, cultural, and economic rights of Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, traditional populations, and family farmers. Actions must respect existing management plans, ensure access to natural resources, and guarantee Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), in accordance with ILO Convention 169.
The resolution also mandates the creation of community ombudsman offices, transparent contracts adapted to local realities, and the inclusion of women, youth, and elders in decision-making processes. Additionally, it outlines monitoring mechanisms, partnerships with civil society, and protection protocols for human rights defenders.
All this content is detailed in the CONAREDD+ Handbook — available below for download (in Portuguese) — developed under the coordination of the CONAREDD+ Executive Secretariat with support from government institutions, civil society organizations, and international bodies, ensuring transparency, representation, and respect for local knowledge.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
🇧🇷COP30 with 162 delegations accredited to the UNFCCC.
With less than 30 days to go until COP30, last Friday, October 10th, conference president André Corrêa do Lago confirmed in a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that 162 countries have already accredited. The event also addressed the logistical challenges of Belém, the absence of major emitters, the delay in the submission of NDCs by relevant players, and recalled the decision made at COP28 in Dubai: "triple global renewable energy capacity, double the energy efficiency rate by 2030, and promote a just transition to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels."
🚨Has your country already updated its NDCs? Will we reach 101 by COP30 and 125 by the end of 2025?
No new NDCs have been formalized in recent days, maintaining the same status reported by Carbon Credit Markets last week. Large emitters such as the European Union (negotiation by consensus), China (despite the announcement), India, Indonesia, Iran, and Mexico, as well as many other large fossil fuel producers and exporters, island nations, and those already suffering serious impacts from climate change, are still formally delayed.
But last Friday, October 10th, COP30 CEO Ana Toni confirmed the following data on NDCs:
- 62 already officially communicated
- 101 pledged by COP30
- 125 pledged by the end of 2025
Ana Toni also commented that Brazil is helping more than 70 countries develop their NDCs in a sector-specific manner, that is, a qualitative and collaborative effort.
🕊️Our common home: "For humans, there is no such thing as 'throwing away.' Everything that is thrown away is on the planet, not outside it."
The encyclical Laudato Si', published by Pope Francis in 2015, had already proposed an integral ecology that unites environmental care with social justice and spirituality, denouncing the throwaway culture and warning that "there is no such thing as throwing away," because everything remains on Earth, our common home. It addresses topics such as climate change, biodiversity loss, the water crisis, human ecology, intergenerational justice, and ecological spirituality, inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi. Continuing this legacy, Pope Leo XIV, on October 2, 2025, during the Raising Hope for Climate Justice conference, reinforced the urgency of ecological conversion, urging leaders to listen to the cries of the Earth and the poor, promoting climate justice with faith, hope, and collective responsibility.
MIND SPARKS
🏆 The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the creators of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), highly porous crystalline structures that allow the capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the removal of contaminants from water, the storage of hydrogen at high density, and even the extraction of water vapor from the air in arid regions—an innovation with critical applications in climate mitigation and clean technologies.
🇺🇳 Preliminary schedule for COP30 (Blue Zone) released by the UNFCCC. It foresees a busy agenda from November 3 to 21, 2025, in Belém, focusing on energy transition, bioeconomy, artificial intelligence, climate justice, green finance, and the participation of Indigenous peoples and youth.
🇬🇧British royalty at COP30? King Charles III and Prince William marked the countdown to COP30 with an event at the iconic Natural History Museum in London, highlighting the UK's climate leadership and its collaboration with Brazil. It's worth noting that the Earthshot Prize ceremony takes place in Rio de Janeiro, from November 3rd to 5th, before COP30, with Prince William as its founder and chief patron.
🇧🇷 Draft Bill to revise the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC). Participate in the public consultation and contribute by December 1st to strengthen climate action in Brazil toward net-zero emissions by 2050.
🌍 In the September 2025 essay "Equinox Greetings: What Is It Worth to You?", Spencer Glendon, founder of Probable Futures, criticizes reducing the climate crisis to economic numbers and argues that true change will come through persuasion—not through spreadsheets, but through stories that connect human values and real experiences. Quoting Carl Sagan and John Kenneth Galbraith, he shows how the economy has always been shaped by narratives, and that understanding the world we are choosing is essential to transforming it before it's too late. (🎓It's no wonder we quote Madame Marie Curie on the Carbon Credit Markets homepage)
EVENTS
🖥️ October 14, Gold Standard Webinar on Soil Organic Carbon. Focused on the new guidelines for the organic carbon model, with experts in nature-based solutions, agricultural consulting, and data innovation discussing the model’s advancements and practical applications.
🇧🇷 October 14-16, Carbon Market: The Benefits for the Forestry Sector - 5th Symposium on Forest Sciences of Espírito Santo, Brazil. By the Federal University of Espírito Santo. Registration here.
🇬🇧 15 de outubro. Carbon Data Open Protocol. Webinar.
🇸🇬 October 16-17, Singapore Carbon Market & Investor Forum. By the Carbon Market Institute.
🇿🇦 October 21-23, Carbon Markets Africa Summit, “Preparing governments to become carbon market ready” in partnership with UNDP. Johannesburg, South Africa.
🇧🇷 Nature at Work: Natural Climate Solutions from Brazil. Natural Climate Solutions Alliance (NCSA) webinar series. Among them, Restoration and the Carbon Market: New Paths for Valuing Forest Assets in Brazil (Oct 22), Carbon in Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Production in Brazil (Oct 22), and Private Projects and the Brazilian Emissions Trading System: Scale, Integrity, and Impact (Oct 23)
🇨🇭October 28. Gold Standard - Paris Agreement Alignment. Webinar.
🇧🇷 October 28. Expectations for COP30: Brazil at the Center of the Climate Transition. Live especial. In Portuguese.
🇬🇧 October 30, IFRS Sustainability Symposium ‘Pathways to adoption’. Online or in person at Convene Sancroft, St. Paul’s, London.
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