This report, published by the World Resources Institute in February 2025, considers the potential of nature-based solutions to deliver for Sub-Saharan Africa. It considers different funding strategies to scale up investments in nature-based solutions, including voluntary carbon markets, debt-for-nature swaps and risk-sharing instruments.
This report, released in February 2025 by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, explores scaling up carbon dioxide removals (CDR) in the EU. It outlines governance, policy, and funding needs for long-term CO₂ removal and storage. It is sceptical how big a role voluntary carbon markets will play in the scaling of CDR but acknowledges the markets have, so far, been the main source of funding for the removal sector. It also discusses EU climate neutrality targets, extended emitter responsibility and NDCs.
Published in January 2025 by UNEP, the Annual Report 2024 outlines key environmental efforts, including developments in the voluntary carbon market. At COP29, nations agreed on international carbon market standards, boosting transparency and credibility. UNEP also supported forest-based carbon trading under UN-REDD, aiding countries in accessing finance. The report covers nature conservation, NDCs, plastics, gender, and plastic pollution, emphasising global collaboration for sustainability.
Nature-based solutions produce better outcomes than tech-based solutions in the livestock sector, a report by FAIRR has found. Published in January 2025, this study compares the effectiveness of 22 nature and tech climate solutions that are commonly used to mitigate the impacts of livestock farming across the nine planetary boundaries within which humans can live safely. The study found nature-based solutions had more of a positive impact on six of the boundaries, including GHG reductions and removals, biodiversity and freshwater use. Tech-based solutions performed better on only three.
In January 2025, BirdLife International released a report considering the carbon storage potential of Europe’s ecosystems. If these ecosystems were fully restored, they could collectively restore 13.22 billion tonnes of carbon. It explains how the successful restoration of Europe’s natural carbon sinks could allow the bloc to meet its 2030 sequestration target.
Published in January 2025, weADAPT has conducted a systematic review of 66 reviews on the economic impacts of nature-based solutions. It suggests that despite the myriad co-benefits nature-based projects offer, including recovering from natural disasters, these projects are not typically factored into economic recovery plans. It acknowledges that the current data is skewed towards projects based in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
In January 2025, Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) shared a case study about Guyana. It explains how the country is successfully taking a jurisdictional approach to REDD+, using ART’s TREES carbon crediting pathway. It shares how ART issued 7.14 million credits to Guyana in 2024 and Guyana’s government were the first to report a corresponding adjustment to the UNFCCC for the associated emission reductions.
Abatable published a report, considering the future of the voluntary carbon market, in February 2025. It finds that the VCM is shifting towards integrity, compliance and long-term funding, with airlines driving demand through CORSIA. Integrity now seems to define market value as companies move away from “carbon neutral” claims. This means high-quality credits are in demand and also a growing divide between low- and high-integrity credits.
Sylvera, the carbon data provider, reviewed the state of carbon credits in 2024. Published in January 2025, this report highlighted the differing perspectives of market participants during the previous year. Some players were excited by Article 6 progress and new methodological approvals from the ICVCM. Others remained unconfident both in credit quality and in the likelihood of future demand. However, it concludes that the carbon markets are going through a gradual but significant time of change.
In January 2025, AlliedOffsets reviewed the trends observed in the voluntary carbon market over the past twelve months. It reported rising interest in engineered removal credits and more offtakes of nature-based solutions. It also found there has been a 33% drop in low-quality credit retirements since 2020.