1. The U.S. government laid out guidelines for using carbon offsets to advance a high-integrity carbon market.

For the first time, the U.S. government took a strong stance and affirmed the role of a high-integrity, well-functioning voluntary carbon market in accelerating decarbonization through delivering steady, reliable revenue streams to climate projects. The commitment was significant as the carbon market navigates quality concerns from legacy credits.

Chiefs of six federal offices, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, signed the “Joint Statement of Policy and new Principles for Responsible Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs)” that codify the U.S. government’s approach to advance high-integrity carbon market. 

The Joint Statement outlines seven new federal guidelines that govern integrity on both supply and demand side, ensuring protections regarding climate and environmental justice and credible credit use on top of internal emissions reductions respectively. The guidelines also include market-level integrity that facilitates efficient market participation and lower transaction costs. 

“We applaud companies that finance decarbonization through purchasing high-quality carbon credits. We want this market to succeed, but that requires a widespread commitment to integrity that instills market trust.”— Secretary Yellen

This is exactly NetaCarbon’s vision to support corporate companies investing in carbon projects in a high-integrity and trustworthy way. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to us and we are happy to share more about what we are doing! 

2. Symbiosis Coalition, formed by tech giants, pledged to contract up to 20 million tons of nature-based carbon credits by 2030.

Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce came together and pledged to contract up to 20 million tons of high-quality nature-based credits by 2030, equivalent to the 2030 carbon removal goals of California. Symbiosis Coalition was formed to represent these buyers in identifying and sourcing these offset opportunities.

Symbiosis is structured as an advance market commitment (AMC), which sends a strong demand signal by pooling together demand from individual firms. This approach first gained success in vaccine development by fuelling the growth of medical innovation with high upfront costs. Symbiosis is replicating this model in nature-based carbon development, following other efforts like the Frontier Consortium that already pulls together a $228 million demand for technology-based carbon removals. 

Symbiosis plans to issue its first request for proposal (RFP) later this year, focusing on afforestation projects. For project developers, access to multiple buyers and offtake agreements can lead to lower-cost financing. The coalition also intends to educate project investors on its quality standards to de-risk projects.

We are excited about this announcement as a huge boost to the demand for high-quality carbon credits. While companies might be at different stages of their sustainability journey–and not everyone is ready to make big commitments yet, there is a carbon strategy that is applicable to each company. Reach out to us here so we can help you figure out what works best for you! 

3. ICVCM announces its first 27 million CCP-labelled high-integrity carbon credits.

On June 6th, The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) announced the first seven carbon-crediting methodologies that meet its high-integrity Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), allowing the CCP label to be used on an estimated 27 million carbon credits for the first time. The CCP label is designed to help buyers identify carbon credits that meet rigorous standards for integrity. 

The CCP-Approved methodologies include three for Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) projects and four for Landfill Gas (LFG) projects, covering an estimated 12 million and 15 million carbon credits respectively. This announcement is part of an ongoing assessment process, with 27 additional categories of carbon credits still under active evaluation. 

To receive the CCP label, credits must come from CCP-Eligible programs and use CCP-Approved methodologies. In April, we covered the four verifiers approved as CCP-Eligible programs, including ACR, Climate Action Reserve (CAR), Gold Standard, and Verra (VCS). We also analyzed the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles in detail in an earlier blog post.

Another 27 categories of carbon credits remain under active assessment. The categories include popular offset types such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and clean cookstoves, representing over 50% of the carbon market. 

We are excited that the hard work of ICVCM finally comes to fruition, raising the standard of the carbon credit supply and building trust in the voluntary carbon market. As the Council evaluates more methodologies, we continue to believe that the important step is to build broad recognition of the labels among buyers in parallel and effectively differentiate high-integrity credits in the procurement process. 

4. A new ISO standard for credible corporate net-zero targets is being developed and expected to be launched in Nov 2025

On June 27th, the British Standards Institution (BSI) initiated an 18-month process to develop a new, independently verifiable global standard for credible net-zero targets. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard aims to bring clarity, credibility, and trust to the net-zero transition process for businesses and organizations worldwide.

The standard is expected to launch at COP30 in Brazil in 2025 and aims to provide clarity on the use of offsets and the definition of "residual emissions". The development is a joint effort between BSI and ICONTEC, Colombia's national standards body. This initiative comes at a crucial time, as the EU is considering banning unverified net-zero claims through its Green Claims Directive.

While it is encouraging that the process aims to engage national standards bodies of over 170 countries and the public, November 2025 is a long time, and corporate companies need more clarity sooner than later. A unified standard would be a huge boost for companies to confidently engage the carbon market as part of their climate commitment.

5. Natura Cosmetics became the first emerging market business to achieve a Carbon Integrity Platinum Claim.

On June 10th, Natura Cosmetics achieved a Carbon Integrity Platinum Claim from the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), meaning it has retired high-quality carbon credits equal to or greater than 100% of its remaining emissions, going beyond its science-aligned decarbonization efforts. 

The announcement makes Natura Cosmetics the second company (and first in Latin America) to achieve this status. This is an important precedent showing that Carbon Integrity Claims are attainable for companies across emerging economies and diverse sectors. Bain & Company was the first company to achieve platinum status, which we covered in our blog post in March.

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Footnotes:

1  The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) is a multi-stakeholder-led independent governance body. In July 2023, the ICVCM developed the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), which serve as a global benchmark for high-integrity carbon credits. Since then, it has assessed a range of carbon-crediting programs and methodologies and issued “CCP-labels” to approve high-integrity credits.

2 The Voluntary Carbon Market Initiative (VCMI) is a non-profit organization that provides guidance on how organizations can credibly make voluntary use of carbon credits as part of their climate commitments. The VCMI issues silver, gold, and platinum claims based on the percentage of residual emissions offset by carbon credits. For example, a platinum claim requires an organization to purchase and retire carbon credits representing over 100% of a company’s remaining emissions.

3 Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) projects refer to carbon projects that destroy high global warming potential ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). These are harmful greenhouse gases that accelerate climate change and deplete the ozone layer. While many of these substances have been banned from production globally, there has been no regulation around how to collect and destroy them. Carbon credits provide a source of revenue for project developers to responsibly destroy these substances.

4 Landfill gas (LFG) projects refer to carbon projects that generate energy and reduce methane emissions producing positive outcomes for local communities and the environment. It is estimated that an LFG energy project will capture roughly 60 to 90 percent of the methane emitted from the landfill, based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.