topic: carbon

topic: carbon

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Laser scanning forests may boost carbon estimates, but credibility questions linger
- Ground-based laser scanning, called LiDAR, can be used to make detailed maps of forest structure.
- Such detail can allow for more accurate estimates of the amount of carbon stored in aboveground vegetation, which is helpful for assessing the outcomes of reforestation projects and assigning an accurate number of carbon credits.
- Carbon credits, bought and sold on the carbon market, are used by companies and other entities to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions.
- But experts caution that transparency, not estimation accuracy, remains the carbon market’s biggest challenge.

A ‘symphony’ of wildlife suggests carbon financing is working in Sierra Leone
- A study conducted in Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest National Park found that the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) financing program, set up to ensure that forests sequester carbon, also confers some benefits to the park’s animal biodiversity.
- Compared to a neighboring protected area without REDD+ funding and a bordering community-owned agroforestry area, the national park had higher soundscape saturation, a proxy for biodiversity. However, the authors also found that the agroforestry area had a higher diversity of insects than the two other study areas.
- The study emphasizes that carbon financing programs can provide benefits outside of storing carbon, but experts also highlight that it shows that on-the-ground monitoring can be cheaply, effectively added to programs like REDD+ to help better conserve forests as whole ecosystems.

Liberia’s carbon market policy nears completion amid pushback
Liberian policymakers have almost completed a framework for selling carbon credits to international buyers. But local environmental groups say they’re being shut out of a fast-tracked final review of the policy. According to Jeanine Cooper, chief executive officer of Liberia’s Carbon Market Authority, the “penultimate” draft of the policy was nearing completion last week. In […]
Cerrado’s hidden carbon highlights gaps in Brazil’s conservation policy
- Hectare for hectare, wetlands in the Brazilian Cerrado holds six times more carbon than the lowland Amazon, according to the first study to estimate carbon stocks in the biome.
- Researchers also found that these wetlands are less stable than other tropical peatlands, and thus potentially more vulnerable to changes in rainfall and groundwater levels.
- Satellite mapping suggests these wetlands may also cover as much as 16.7 million hectares (41 million acres), or 2% of Brazil’s total landmass, a far greater area than previously thought.
- Researchers say they hope that more accurate estimates of the Cerrado’s carbon storage may help change perceptions of it as an environmentally insignificant “sacrifice biome” suited for industrial agriculture.

Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest
- In recent decades, the Amazon Rainforest has repeatedly and increasingly been struck by devastating drought along with record heat due to climate change. Add to this record wildfires, rapid deforestation and land conversion for agriculture.
- Numerous field studies and modeling have found that these extreme changes are pushing the Amazon toward a tipping point and collapse of the biome — an ecological disaster that would release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
- But one research team, in a recently published study, offered up some hope: They found that little-studied low water table wetland Amazon forests — constituting up to 36% of Amazon trees — have stood up well to, and even thrived, during major droughts, with an increase in aboveground biomass.
- Those findings, the research team says, put the inevitability of an Amazon tipping point and collapse in some doubt, with the possibility that low water table forests could serve as a refugia for biodiversity. They also urge that these areas become a priority for protection and conservation as a hedge against future climate change.

Who gives up land for the world’s climate fixes?
Planting trees has become one of the most widely promoted responses to climate change. As forests grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while offering habitat for animals, plants and other organisms. The idea is straightforward: Expand forests, and the planet gains both climate mitigation and renewed biodiversity. Yet the land required to remove […]
‘Ancient’ carbon venting from lakes in the Congo Basin peatlands: Study
- A new study finds that lakes are likely releasing carbon that’s been held in the peatlands of the Congo Basin for thousands of years.
- Scientists know these lakes release carbon dioxide, which until now was thought to result from recently decayed plant matter.
- A team of researchers radiocarbon-dated carbon from water samples to show that some of the CO₂ probably has much older origins, reporting their findings in a new study.
- The authors says more work is needed to understand the implications of this ancient carbon release for carbon dynamics and climate change.

A South African reserve shows how carbon can catalyze rewilding conservation
- Managers have spent decades expanding Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in South Africa to its present 118,000-hectare (292,000-acre) size and bringing native species to the former livestock rangelands that have been incorporated into the reserve.
- In addition to providing a home for wildlife species at the high-end safari reserve, Tswalu is also measuring the impact on soil carbon stores in the dry savanna ecosystem.
- Research has shown that careful application of rewilding can potentially bring carbon benefits, effectively addressing biodiversity loss and climate change together, though the results depend on contexts and the complex dynamics of soil ecosystems.
- Tswalu has begun selling carbon credits, which it says will help fund continued conservation on the reserve.

Shipping’s biofuel gamble could deepen Africa’s land squeeze and food insecurity (commentary)
- Using crops as fuel to cut emissions from the shipping sector could cause more harm than good, the authors of a new op-ed argue.
- Next month, leaders will gather at the UN’s International Maritime Organization meeting to lay down the rules for decarbonizing shipping, and African governments must ensure that crop-based biofuels are not a part of the solution, they say.
- “African states should demand that food-based biofuels are excluded from shipping’s decarbonization targets, and insist on robust sustainability criteria to prevent the conversion of forests, peatlands, and other high-biodiversity or community-managed areas into fuel plantations,” the authors say.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Forest advocates accuse EU energy firm of Dutch biomass certification fraud
- The sustainability certification of forest biomass produced to generate industrial-scale energy has long been controversial and called into question.
- Wood pellet companies argue their product is sustainable and doesn’t cause deforestation, while governments claim biomass burning results in climate-neutral emissions, which is why they offer subsides to energy companies burning sustainability certified forest biomass.
- However, forest advocates and scientists have provided significant evidence that forest biomass production contributes to deforestation, is not sustainable and that burning wood generates more carbon emissions per unit of energy than coal.
- In an unprecedented move, Dutch law enforcement is considering a criminal investigation into RWE, one of the Netherlands’ largest energy providers, after a Dutch forest advocate alleged that the firm dodges biomass certification rules, using wood pellets imported from Malaysia sourced not from sawmill waste, but allegedly from whole trees.

Petrostates stymie effort to rein in Arctic shipping carbon emissions
- Black carbon emissions (colloquially known as soot) produced by marine shipping contribute to Earth’s warming climate and also reduce ice and snow cover. In the Arctic, those emissions are hastening regional heating and sea ice loss.
- In the 21st century, climate change has so diminished Arctic sea ice thickness and extent that transpolar crossings in summer by large numbers of commercial vessels has not only become possible but also increasingly frequent, resulting in a marked increase in black carbon emissions from dirty fossil fuels.
- In February, members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) considered a proposal by several nations to require use of cleaner polar fuels, which emit lower amounts of black carbon. But the effort was blocked and delayed by large petrostates, including the U.S., Russia and Saudi Arabia.
- Implementation of the measure is expected to be delayed by at least two years. With Arctic sea voyages forecast to soar from thousands of trips annually to tens of thousands by 2050, NGOs are calling for greater support for clean polar fuels as a quick and effective way of reducing warming pressure on the Arctic region.

New study assesses geoengineering marine ecosystem risks, knowledge gaps
- A new review study examines the current research regarding the risks that various geoengineering approaches pose to marine ecosystems.
- The study looked particularly at a range of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) methods, along with solar radiation modification (SRM) technologies, and found that some approaches carry fewer risks than others.
- Electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement and anoxic storage of terrestrial biomass in the deep ocean (utilizing crop waste, for example) carry fewer risks to marine ecosystems than some carbon dioxide removal methods, such as those that would add nutrients to seawater to promote major plankton growth.
- However, better models, increased field testing, and better geoengineering regulatory oversight are needed to fully assess potential geoengineering marine ecosystem impacts, especially if commercialization proceeds. Public fears over field testing also need to be allayed.

UN recognition is latest boost to restoring spekboom across South Africa’s semidesert Karoo
- Since 2004, the South African government has been working to restore spekboom thickets in a semiarid region of the country.
- This biome, anchored by the hardy, carbon-sequestering spekboom plant, has been massively degraded by two centuries of expanding farming and livestock herding.
- That long arc of conversion of thicket landscapes to farm and rangeland is now dying, as overgrazing, climate change and shifting markets for agricultural products take their toll.
- Dozens of private operators have joined the government in trying to restore this biome’s original thicket cover, attracted by the potential for income from carbon credits.

Thousands of peat fires flare across Indonesia despite rainy season
- More than 5,000 fire hotspots were detected across Indonesia’s peatlands in January, according to an independent watchdog — an alarming spike despite peak rainy season conditions and recent severe flooding in parts of Sumatra and Borneo.
- About a third of the hotspots were inside company concessions, mostly oil palm, reinforcing long-standing evidence that drained and degraded peatlands are highly flammable even after short dry spells, with fire risk now shaped more by hydrology than by calendar seasons.
- Provinces such as West Kalimantan and Aceh were hardest hit, with fires producing thick haze in cities like Pontianak and contributing to respiratory illness, underscoring how degraded peat amplifies both flood and fire risks.
- After a presidentially appointed peat restoration agency was allowed to lapse in 2024, watchdogs say fragmented oversight, weak monitoring and uncertainty over responsibility have created setbacks in peat protection, raising concerns ahead of potential future El Niño conditions.

Mapping underground fungal networks: Interview with SPUN’s Toby Kiers
- Mycorrhizal fungi are found in every soil system on Earth, and have symbiotic relationships with the plants whose roots they live on.
- They receive carbon dioxide from plants in exchange for nutrients, making them major carbon repositories and an important tool for carbon sequestration.
- The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) is deploying a wide range of technologies, from remote sensing to imaging robots, to map these crucial underground networks.
- “We think of these networks as one of Earth’s circulatory systems, but people are not paying attention,” SPUN co-founder Toby Kiers tells Mongabay in an interview.

‘Blew us away’: Researchers find nitrogen boost spurs faster tropical forest growth
- A new study in Panama finds that nitrogen availability limits forest growth in the early stages of regeneration.
- Nitrogen addition to newly cleared land and 10-year-old forests substantially boosted regeneration, though adding nutrients to older forests did not have the same effect
- The study also found that phosphorus availability did not limit forest growth at any stage of forest maturity.
- The researchers recommend ensuring nitrogen-fixing species are included during reforestation.

Cameroon cookstove project looks to slow forest loss
- The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) hopes new cookstoves that require less wood than traditional varieties will slow forest loss in Cameroon.
- Mongabay visited one of the villages where CIFOR’s project is taking place to talk to people who are involved in it.
- Long-term success rates for similar projects in Africa have often been low.
- CIFOR wants to break that trend by encouraging people to adopt the new cookstoves and keep using them.

World Bank carbon program risks further infringing upon rights of Indonesian Indigenous community (commentary)
- The Indigenous Dayak Bahau community of Long Isun has long fought for recognition, land rights and justice in Indonesian Borneo, and while those disputes remain unresolved, a new threat to their sovereignty has appeared: the World Bank’s carbon program.
- The bank did not create the conflict, but by moving forward with a carbon offset project on this land that is still contested, it would risk reinforcing the status quo that enabled logging companies to operate on their territory without genuine consent.
- “A genuine response from the World Bank could set an important precedent: resolving customary land disputes before launching carbon projects,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

In Brazil, planting forests for carbon credits could help ecosystem restoration
- The sale of carbon credits from forest restoration is taking off in Brazil, but the sector still needs to tackle mistrust, the complexity of ecosystem restoration and the long-term nature of the projects.
- Founded in 2021, Brazilian firm re.green commercially restores forests by selling carbon credits and has projects spanning 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest.
- The company aims to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of tropical forests across Brazil. Its work so far has been recognized through an EarthShot Prize in 2025.
- As well as restoring ecosystems to sell high-integrity carbon credits, the company also works with the community and produces data and knowledge on forest restoration.

Earth Rover Program seeks to track the world’s soil health
- Leveraging tools from seismology — the study of earthquakes and the inside of our planet — the Earth Rover Program aims to provide critical data on the health of soil.
- Humans, and terrestrial life in general, depend on the soil for nourishment.
- Yet, in many parts of the world, soils are degraded, worn out and eroding away.
- The recently founded program involves the development of inexpensive technology that farmers and scientists alike can use to better understand soil health and what can be done to improve it.

Measuring biodiversity in a world of tree-planting pledges
- The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS) is a certification scheme for forest restoration projects that show positive outcomes for biodiversity.
- Each assessment includes a field visit by experts from regional hubs, who have been trained in TGBS methodology.
- The regional hubs also offer ongoing mentoring to projects, to promote internationally recognized best practices in restoration.
- One year on, TGBS has certified six sites, and 15 regional hubs offer mentoring.

Ditches on peatland oil palm plantations are an overlooked source of methane: Study
- Ditches that drain peatlands for agriculture are significant but often-overlooked sources of greenhouse gases, including methane, according to a recent study.
- Methane doesn’t last as long as CO2 in the atmosphere, but it is many times more potent in warming the climate.
- The researchers analyzed emissions from ditches on two oil palm plantations in Malaysian Borneo and found that the ditches play an outsize role in the overall carbon emissions from converted peatlands.
- Their findings underscore the need to account for emissions from these ditches to better understand the implications of draining peatlands.

In California’s redwoods, scientists rebuild lost ecosystems high up in the canopy
- Roughly 95% of California’s old-growth redwood forests have been logged at least once, leaving mostly young trees and making the overall ecosystem less diverse.
- Fern mats — spongy masses of leather-leaf ferns and decomposed plant matter that build up high in the canopy — are an important part of that system, providing critical habitat for plants and animals in California’s redwood forests.
- Now, a pilot project is trying to restore fern mats to the canopies of particularly robust redwood trees.
- Scientists are finding that manually planting fern mats is also an effective buffer in a warming climate: they mitigate forest temperatures for salmon, birds and a host of other animals.

Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone
- In October, a wholly owned subsidiary of West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based company, signed a “blue carbon” offsetting deal with the 124 communities on the island of Sherbro in Sierre Leone.
- The agreement will reward the communities financially for conserving and restoring their mangroves, which act as a carbon sink.
- The funds will be generated by selling offsets on the voluntary carbon credit market, with revenues shared between West Africa Blue, the communities and the government of Sierra Leone.
- Though carbon offsetting projects have been subject to criticism in the past, community members on Sherbro say they’re optimistic about the improvements to their livelihoods that the project could bring.

Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map
- A state-funded survey has sampled and collected fungi species from across California, identifying hundreds of new-to-science species.
- It’s part of a statewide effort to protect biodiversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America.
- Fungi are often neglected compared to the attention given to plants and animals, yet they play an important role in maintaining ecological health by supporting plant growth and storing carbon.
- Understanding fungi’s role in nature has implications for conservation and for forest restoration as wildfires grow larger and more frequent. Other researchers in California are working on putting fungi to use cleaning up polluted areas.

Top-down projects, exotic trees, weak tenure: Congo Basin restoration misses the mark
- Despite a panoply of projects — from tree-planting drives to agroforestry schemes — a new study finds that much of what’s happening in the name of “forest restoration” in the Congo Basin may not be restoring forests at all, but largely focused on growing nonnative, commodity species.
- The research found nearly two-thirds of projects favored planting exotic species over native ones, primarily because they grow more quickly, require less care, and their seeds are easier to source.
- It also noted a lack of ecological monitoring, with few initiatives tracking tree survival rates, soil recovery or carbon storage, and most lasting less than five years — far too short to measure real ecological impact.
- Beyond agroforestry and fuelwood plantations, the study calls for approaches that promote natural regeneration, restore native biodiversity and reconnect fragmented habitats.

Boom in burning waste for fuel could put human health and environment at risk
- Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) — conglomerated waste often composed of up to 50% plastic — is being burned globally in waste-to-energy incinerators, cement kilns, paper mills, and by other industries.
- Proponents say RDF reduces fossil fuel use and produces cleaner energy, while diverting waste from landfills.
- Critics say a lack of monitoring often hides RDF’s true environmental and human health footprint, and that when burned alongside fossil fuels, the technology can significantly worsen pollution. Health issues potentially connected to RDF contaminants range from cancer to hormone disruption.
- That’s a major concern as RDF ramps up, with countries in the Global South especially starting to use and dispose of waste in this way. Burning RDF and the incineration of plastic waste has been linked to greenhouse gas emissions and also extremely toxic pollutants such as dioxins.

Assessments argue carbon offsets are failing communities and climate goals (commentary)
- A new report from the Land Matrix documents 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) of land that are subject to carbon offset deals worldwide.
- The Land Matrix data does not include what it calls “community- or farmer-based projects” as it claims that these do not contribute to land concentration and inequality — but a similar analysis sees it very differently.
- “The takeaway is that we all have to build stronger analyses of what is going on with these carbon land grabs, and put an end to offsetting as a false solution to the climate crisis,” the authors of a new op-ed argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

SE Asia forest carbon projects sidelining social, biodiversity benefits, study finds
- Across Southeast Asia, forest carbon projects intended to offset greenhouse gas emissions are falling short on social justice safeguards, according to recent research.
- The study identifies weak governance, land tenure conflicts, corruption and fragmented policies as contributing to the shortcomings.
- Well-managed forest carbon initiatives have an important role to play in global efforts to reduce emissions, the researchers say, but they must center the rights of traditional custodians of forests.
- Against the backdrop of global democratic backsliding, experts urge greater scrutiny of project accountability to uphold social and environmental standards within the carbon sector.

The valuable peatlands of Peru’s Pastaza River Fan: one of the world’s largest carbon reservoirs
- In Peru’s Datem del Marañón province, local communities are combining ancestral knowledge with scientific expertise to protect the peatlands that thrive in this part of the Amazon.
- Peatlands cover only 3% of Earth’s surface, yet can store up to five times more carbon dioxide per hectare than other tropical ecosystems.
- Although research on Peru’s peatlands remains limited, their importance lies in both their role in mitigating climate change and their socioeconomic value for local communities.
- The area that’s the focus of scientists’ research and local communities’ conservation work is part of the Pastaza River Fan, Peru’s largest wetland and the third-deepest peatland in the world.

Afro-descendant territories slash deforestation, lock in carbon, study shows
- New research documents the positive impacts that Afro-descendant populations have had on tropical ecosystems in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname.
- The study found that deforestation rates are between 29% and 55% lower in Afro-descendant lands than in protected areas.
- This is the first scientific study to employ statistical, geographical and historical data to assess the contribution of Afro-descendant communities in conservation.
- According to the researchers, Afro-descendant populations and their good practices are at risk due to a lack of legal recognition, invisibility of their contributions, and extractive activities in their territories.

Saving forests won’t be enough if fossil fuels beneath them are still extracted, experts warn
- A new analysis finds that tropical forests in 68 countries sit atop fossil fuel deposits that, if extracted, would emit 317 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases — more than the remaining 1.5°C (2.7°F) carbon budget — revealing a major blind spot in global climate policy.
- Because Brazil’s proposed Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) focuses only on stopping deforestation, researchers warn it risks missing far larger emissions from potential oil, gas and coal extraction under protected forests.
- India, China and Indonesia hold the largest fossil reserves beneath forests, with Indonesia facing acute trade-offs as most of its coal lies under forest areas where mining threatens biodiversity and Indigenous communities, including rhino habitats in Borneo.
- Experts say that compensating countries for leaving fossil fuels unextracted — through mechanisms like debt swaps or climate finance — could unlock massive climate benefits, but fossil fuel phaseout remains excluded from TFFF negotiations despite growing calls to include it.

Indonesia labeled ‘Fossil of the Day’ for echoing industry talking points at COP30
- Indonesia has been publicly rebuked at COP30 with a “Fossil of the Day” award after civil society groups accused its delegation of echoing fossil fuel and carbon industry lobbyists during negotiations on Article 6.4, the U.N.’s new carbon market mechanism.
- Observers say Indonesia’s position closely mirrors the talking points in an industry-backed letter calling for weaker safeguards under Article 6.4 — a move critics warn could undermine the integrity of global carbon markets and benefit groups with financial stakes in nature-based carbon projects.
- Indonesia denies being influenced by lobbyists, even though at least 46 representatives from fossil fuel and heavy-industry companies are accredited under its delegation — raising broader concerns about corporate access to negotiations amid a COP already flooded with a record proportion of fossil fuel lobbyists.
- Experts warn Indonesia’s push to loosen Article 6.4 rules risks weakening international oversight, aligning the mechanism with the far less transparent Article 6.2, and potentially undermining both Indonesia’s climate credibility and the robustness of the Paris Agreement’s carbon market safeguards.

As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase, critics warn of ‘hot air’
- Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit to aggressively market its carbon credits, launching daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” sessions and seeking international commitments 6 despite unresolved integrity issues in its carbon market.
- Experts warn Indonesia’s credits risk being “hot air,” since its climate targets are rated “critically insufficient,” meaning many claimed reductions may not be real, additional or permanent — especially in forest-based projects.
- Forest and land-use credits, Indonesia’s biggest selling point, are among the riskiest, with high risks of overcrediting, leakage and nonpermanence; ongoing fires and deforestation further undermine credibility.
- Environmental groups say the carbon push distracts Indonesia from securing real climate finance, enabling wealthy nations to offset rather than cut emissions, while leaving Indonesia vulnerable to climate impacts and dependent on a fragile market.

Sierra Leone communities sign carbon agreement based on carbon justice principles
- Hundreds of communities in Sierra Leone’s Bonthe district have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with the Africa Conservation Initiative targeting the protection of mangroves in the Sherbro River Estuary.
- The agreement is based on “carbon justice principles” aimed at making carbon projects fairer for communities, such as a 40-50% gross revenue share; free, prior and informed consent, including transparency of financial information and buyers; and community-led stewardship of the mangroves.
- If implemented correctly, the agreement could address “deep-rooted issues of fairness,” experts say.

‘Not good’: Ocean losing its greenness, threatening food webs
- The ocean is losing its greenness, a new study has found: Global chlorophyll concentration, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, declined over the past two decades, especially in coastal areas.
- Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web, supporting fisheries and broader ecosystems, so their decline could have far-reaching implications, experts say.
- The phytoplankton decline could hurt coastal communities that live off the sea, and affect the ocean’s ability to act as a carbon sink, the authors say.

Why Sweden’s forest policy matters to the world (commentary)
- Sweden is one of the world’s largest exporters of forest-based products: paper, timber, cardboard and biofuels travel across the globe, ending up in your packaging, your books, in your home.
- A recent government proposal encourages fertilization with nitrogen to speed up tree growth, which may work in the short term but eventually fails and is leached into waterways, altering ecosystems and being released back into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.
- “If a country with some of the world’s largest intact boreal forests chooses to double down on short-term extraction, it will not only undermine the EU’s climate goals — it will send a dangerous signal to other forest nations, from Canada to Brazil, that soil and biodiversity can be sacrificed in the name of so-called green growth,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)
- Following his earlier essay tracing possible futures for the world’s forests, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler turns from diagnosis to design—asking what concrete interventions could still avert collapse. This piece explores how governance, finance, and stewardship might evolve in a second act for tropical forests.
- The essay argues that lasting protection depends structural reform: securing Indigenous land rights, treating governance as infrastructure, and creating steady finance that outlasts election cycles and aid projects.
- Butler also examines overlooked levers—from restoring degraded lands and valuing forests’ local cooling effects to rethinking “bioeconomies” and building regional cooperation across borders. Each points toward a shift from reactive conservation to deliberate, sustained design.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Nations delay vote on shipping decarbonization rules after fierce US resistance
- The shipping sector was widely expected to become the first industry to adopt a binding set of global greenhouse gas emissions rules during an Oct. 14-17 meeting in London.
- Instead, member countries of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) committee voted to delay the decision until October 2026.
- The rules would have established emissions intensity limits that become more stringent each year, with substantial fees paid for noncompliance.
- The United States and other oil-exporting countries dominated much of the discussion in London as they sought to prevent the rules from being adopted, arguing that they amounted to an illegitimate international tax and that they would have dire economic consequences.

What fuel will ships burn as they move toward net zero?
- Spurred largely by pending global regulations, the race is on to develop low- and zero-carbon fuels for ships and scale up their use.
- There are “bridge fuels” that could be used during a transition period or in a limited way for the long term, such as biofuels, and then there are options that are more sustainable at scale, such as green methanol and green ammonia.
- Experts continue to debate the pros and cons of green methanol and green ammonia, which are generally seen as the best options in the medium to long term.
- A net-zero framework for shipping that would drive the adoption of alternative fuels is coming up for a vote in mid-October at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization in London.

Setting the record straight on Jurisdictional REDD+: The case of Brazil
- Jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD+) has been a climate finance mechanism under the UN for nearly two decades. In Brazil, JREDD+ is a public policy approach developed by Brazilian federal and state governments to promote large-scale forest conservation and climate mitigation.
- Emission reductions are measured at the jurisdictional level—not tied to individual properties or collective territories—and generate carbon credits based on verified drops in deforestation and degradation.
- Participation is voluntary and protected by safeguards and law, ensuring communities, farmers, and local actors can opt in or out while retaining land and resource rights. JREDD+ enables access to climate finance from private and public sources, with benefits distributed to rural sectors and credits issued only after independent verification.
- The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

New conservation area protects 53% of carbon in northern Peruvian Amazon
- Peru’s government has established the Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area in the Loreto region of the Amazon Rainforest.
- This new protected area holds 53% of Peru’s carbon stock, which will be conserved by preventing deforestation in the region.
- The regional conservation area covers more than 283,000 hectares of primary rainforest along the Putumayo River, which links Peru and Colombia.
- The area will benefit 16 Indigenous communities, including the Murui (Huitoto), Yagua, Ocaina, Kukama Kukamiria, Kichwa, Maijuna and Bora peoples.

With global rules pending, can the shipping industry get more carbon efficient?
- The European Union and the International Maritime Organization have advanced shipping decarbonization regulations that will raise the price of maritime fuels.
- The push could lead to increased use of efficiency measures that reduce how much fuel vessels need in the first place.
- Such measures include everything from adding sails to ships to lubricating or redesigning hulls and optimizing routes or arrival times. These are cheaper and more immediately available than alternative fuels.
- Many associations and companies, particularly in Europe, are working to make efficiency gains as fast as possible.

Warming triggers unprecedented carbon loss from tropical soils, study finds
- Tropical forests exchange more CO2 with the atmosphere than any other terrestrial biome, meaning that even a relatively small shift in the balance of carbon uptake and release there could have a big impact on global climate. Despite this, research on tropical soil responses to warming has lagged behind.
- In a field experiment in Puerto Rico, researchers used infrared heaters to warm understory plants and topsoil by 4° Celsius. Warming significantly increased soil carbon emissions, but terrain also had a major impact: A warmed plot at the top of a slope showed an unprecedented 204% increase in CO2 emissions after one year.
- Carbon emissions from plots lower on the slope increased between 42% and 59% in response to warming — in line with the results from the only other long-term tropical soil warming experiment to date. However, the upper-slope response represents the largest change in any soil warming experiment conducted globally.
- The new study results add to a growing body of evidence that tropical soils are far more sensitive to warming than previously thought. If elevated tropical soil CO2 releases persist in the long term, it could have dire consequences for Earth’s climate. But the soil biome may adjust over time, so future effects remain unclear.

The carbon market paradox: Steve Zwick on why financing forests is more complicated than it looks
- Steve Zwick’s career has traced the intersection of climate, finance, and media, from Chicago trading pits to international business reporting, Deutsche Welle, Ecosystem Marketplace, and now his Bionic Planet podcast and Carbon Paradox, where he focuses on clarifying the complexities of carbon markets and REDD+.
- He emphasizes that carbon markets are built on probabilities, not certainties, and criticizes both media and advocacy for flattening nuance into oversimplified verdicts. For him, methods evolve through revision, guardrails, and conservative accounting, with avoidance of deforestation often delivering the greatest climate impact.
- Zwick frames forest carbon as payment for services protecting a global commons, not charity, and insists that best practice must be community-led. He warns that skewed scrutiny and polarized narratives risk sidelining a tool that, while imperfect, can mobilize resources quickly until deeper emissions cuts take hold.
- Zwick was interview by Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in September 2025.

Indonesia flooding traced to corporate canals that drain peatlands: Report
- Flooding in Indonesia is increasingly traced to corporate destruction of peatlands rather than natural causes, according to a new report by NGO Pantau Gambut.
- The construction of industrial-scale canals poses a growing threat; the report found that 281,253 kilometers of canals have cut through peatland ecosystems, draining the peat and compromising its sponge-like function.
- In addition, the report concluded that peatland protection laws are deeply flawed, as they serve corporate profit interests, rather than environmental protection.

Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?
- Earth’s top 2 meters (6 feet) of soil hold 2.5 trillion metric tons of carbon — more than is held in living vegetation and the atmosphere combined. But soil carbon sinks are under threat — global warming could trigger a positive feedback loop that seriously accelerates soil emissions, just as we take steps to decarbonize society.
- The effects of elevated temperature and atmospheric CO₂ on soil carbon have been factored into climate models. But those models don’t currently capture the true complexity of the soil carbon sink, in part because scientists don’t fully understand the mechanisms that influence soil carbon gains and losses.
- Major knowledge gaps urgently need to be addressed: How are long-term soil carbon stores protected from microbial consumption (and CO₂ release)? And how will global warming alter microbial communities, deep soil carbon, and the climate sensitivity of tropical soils (which store a third of global soil carbon)?
- Improved understanding of soil carbon dynamics could offer an opportunity to better manage agricultural and forest soils for carbon sequestration. With proper management, degraded soils could sequester a billion tons of additional carbon annually, making them a key ally in the fight against climate change.

Carbon offset markets are unfair to communities in Borneo & beyond (commentary)
- Recent investigations have found that many carbon offset projects overstate their impact, ignore Indigenous rights, and fail to deliver on promised benefits.
- In tropical forest regions like Malaysian Borneo, only 1% of climate finance reaches Indigenous communities, despite the latter’s proven role in preventing deforestation: in many cases these communities’ stewardship is what makes carbon offset programs possible.
- “The communities who have fought tooth and nail to keep these forests standing are not being rewarded with handsome sums for their efforts. The carbon credits (and the cash) flow primarily to the license holders, not to the Indigenous people who protect these lands,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Waste-to-energy project could boost Brazil’s decarbonization goals
- Manaus is one of the top generators of solid waste among Brazil’s state capitals, with an average of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of garbage per resident every day. The problem affects all of Amazonas state, where use of landfills is intense, increasing the risk of soil contamination.
- Under construction, the Amazonas Waste Treatment and Processing Center (CTTR) could be one of the solutions to the city’s high waste volume. A pioneer in the state, the plant promises to convert solid waste into biomethane, known as “green gas,” for its high decarbonization potential.
- When it is fully operational — around 2031 — the CTTR will be able to produce enough biogas to supply approximately 179,000 homes, according to industry estimates.
- In addition to contributing to the pursuit of Brazil’s decarbonization goals, incorporating biomethane into Amazonas’s energy portfolio can reduce the risk of energy insecurity in smaller, remote towns that suffer from imminent supply shortages.

Sustainable biomass certification scheme is flawed, degrades forests, report finds
- The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a private certification scheme developed by the bioenergy industry to assure the sustainability of biomass for fuel. A new report alleges that SBP is certifying biomass whose production has caused forest degradation.
- The NGO-commissioned report raises questions about SBP’s certification process, especially methods for verifying wood pellet producer and supply chain sustainability claims to safeguard against deforestation and forest degradation. SBP certification is used to justify green subsidies to the industry, mostly by European nations, but increasingly in Asia.
- SBP acknowledges the concerns raised by the report and said it is open to dialogue. The organization emphasized that its standards are designed to assess “the sustainability and legality of biomass sourcing at the level of the Biomass Producer, not at the forest management unit level” and that it does not “make overarching climate impact claims.”
- The nonprofit environmental groups that commissioned the report question how SBP can assure sustainability without assessing forest management and climate impacts.

Air quality study of East Java waste-to-energy plant sparks dispute, health warnings
- Indonesia’s largest environmental group reported that air quality around Surabaya’s Benowo waste-to-energy plant frequently exceeded World Health Organization safety limits, with pollution spreading into residential areas, markets, schools and other public spaces.
- Officials and the plant’s operator disputed the findings, maintaining that government-approved monitoring shows no breaches of pollution thresholds, while refusing to release the data.
- Environmental health experts warned that fine and coarse particles from waste burning can cause respiratory illness, heart disease and cancer, urging stricter standards, better waste separation and a shift toward community-based zero-waste systems.

World’s first industry-wide climate mandate could be launched with shipping vote
- Shipping could become the first industry governed by a global treaty that sets enforceable decarbonization standards.
- In October, more than 100 nations will gather at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London to potentially adopt a “net-zero framework” for the industry.
- In 2023, the IMO, a United Nations body that regulates shipping, developed a nonbinding strategy to decarbonize “by or around” 2050; the new framework would make that vision concrete and binding. Critics from small island developing states and environmental groups say the framework falls short of fulfilling the original vision.
- Some oil-exporting countries opposed the deal, arguing that alternative fuels are costly and unproven.

Global warming is altering storms lightning, impacting tropical forests
- As climate change escalates, intense storms are becoming more common in the tropics and elsewhere, resulting in a variety of forest impacts. Those effects are generating concern among researchers over potentially diminished carbon storage and altered forest composition.
- Increasingly common short-lived convective tropical thunderstorms are a key driver of tree mortality, according to one recent study. Researchers estimate that a combination of high winds and lightning is a major, and often unrecognized, driver of tree death.
- Research suggests convective storms are increasing in the tropics; this could mean more tree death in some regions, such as Latin America. Conversely, there are conflicting data as to whether lightning may decrease or increase in the tropics under climate change, leading to uncertainty about future impacts.
- Beyond the tropics, changing lightning patterns in temperate and boreal forests are linked to increased, often large-scale wildfires that can release vast amounts of carbon dioxide and health-harming particulate matter into the atmosphere.

Indonesian palm oil company sues experts who helped secure $18m pollution ruling
- Two top Indonesian environmental experts, Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, are being sued by palm oil firm PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri for their court testimony that helped convict the company for massive fires in Borneo.
- The lawsuit is widely condemned as a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) — a legal tactic to silence critics — and raises concerns about the chilling effect on scientists who testify in environmental cases.
- Despite existing anti-SLAPP regulations in Indonesia, poor enforcement has allowed such lawsuits to proceed, with activists calling the case a form of judicial harassment and an attempt to evade responsibility for ecological damage.
- The case highlights broader issues of corporate impunity and weak enforcement of environmental rulings, as the company continues to operate and burn peatland, even after a binding court order to pay fines and restore the land.

Tropical forest roots show strain as changes aboveground filter below
- Tropical forest plant roots have not received as much research attention as aboveground vegetation. This knowledge gap affects our understanding of how rainforests adapt to change, including their ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon.
- An emerging field of research is looking at how root systems respond to global change. New evidence dramatically underlines the outsized importance of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle. Tropical forests represent one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, largely thanks to plant roots, which add carbon to soils.
- Despite the challenge of studying tiny roots hidden underground, researchers are uncovering important insights. Some tropical forests send roots deeper into the soil under dry conditions, possibly seeking moisture, which may aid in drought tolerance. Others seem unable to do this, making them more vulnerable to climate change.
- Recent plant root studies are confirming the immense stress tropical rainforests are under, with conditions changing faster than roots belowground can adapt. Knowing more precisely which forests can, and can’t, tolerate escalating climate change and other stressors could better inform management and conservation decisions.

The world’s children suffer brunt of wildfire smoke health impacts
- Around 270,000 children under the age of 5 die every year from breathing wildfire smoke, with 99% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to scientists.
- Despite a lack of extensive research on how wildfire smoke affects children’s health, recent studies have found a range of physical and mental impacts, starting in utero and continuing through adolescence. This research offers valuable evidence of a worsening global public health crisis driven by climate change-intensified wildfires.
- Researchers emphasize that children are especially susceptible to harm from wildfire smoke due to their physiology and tendency to spend more time outdoors. Also, not all smoke is the same. Combustion of different materials, ranging from plants to plastics, creates a complex mix of pollutants whose health impacts vary.
- Health experts stress that while smoke crosses borders, protections often don’t. More global research, better monitoring and action are urgently needed to protect children and other vulnerable populations from wildfire smoke.

As ocean acidification ramps up, experts call for speedy ocean protection
- Scientists have known for decades that soaring atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions are causing changes in ocean chemistry, threatening marine life and ecosystems.
- In June 2025, a study found that ocean acidification has passed a safe threshold across large swathes of the world’s marine environment, not only near the sea surface, but also up to 200 meters (656 feet) deep. The effect is especially severe in polar regions.
- Ocean acidification is an added stressor to marine life already facing pressure from multiple threats connected to climate change (including marine heatwaves and reduced oxygen levels in seawater), along with other direct human impacts including pollution, overfishing and deep-sea mining.
- Carbon emissions need to be deeply slashed and ocean protections greatly enhanced to allow ecosystems time to adapt and one day recover, say experts.

Bitcoin boom comes with huge intensifying environmental footprint
- Bitcoin is often portrayed by promoters as existing in a separate cyber universe, distinct from the biological world. This view is far from reality, say critics, who point to bitcoin’s serious and escalating environmental impacts, with its global spread also raising environmental justice concerns.
- Bitcoin mining demands huge amounts of computing power and is an energy hog. It monopolizes entire data centers that are currently multiplying globally. Most of the energy needed to mint bitcoin comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which produces significant carbon emissions, worsening climate destabilization.
- Bitcoin data centers need huge amounts of water for cooling. The semiconductors required for mining are made in a process using toxic PFAS (forever chemicals). Bitcoin equipment and processing chips at the end of life also add to global e-waste. Despite these harms, bitcoin is poised for explosive growth
- Prominent influencers, including U.S. President Donald Trump, cheerlead loudly for bitcoin. Trump has said that “America will become the world’s undisputed bitcoin mining powerhouse.” His son, Eric Trump, has debuted American Bitcoin, a bitcoin mining firm. Neither Trump has addressed bitcoin’s global environmental costs.

Nine takeaways on Brazil’s crackdown on illegal mining in Munduruku lands
Mongabay published a five-part series delving into Brazil’s ongoing operation to evict illegal gold miners from Munduruku Indigenous territories, deep in the Amazon Rainforest. While there has been some disruption to mining in the region, Munduruku organizations told Mongabay the operation is not yet completely successful, with small groups of illegal miners, or garimpeiros, still […]
Climate futures: What’s ahead for our world beyond 1.5°C of warming?
- This two-part Mongabay mini-series examines the current status of the climate emergency, how the global community is likely to respond and what lies ahead for Earth systems and humanity as the planet almost inevitably warms beyond the crucial 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) goal established in the Paris Agreement 10 years ago.
- For global average temperatures to stabilize at less than 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, humanity likely needs to achieve 43% greenhouse gas emissions cuts by 2030. But progress on climate action has stagnated in recent years, global GHG emissions are yet to peak and our remaining carbon budget is dwindling.
- Above 1.5°C of warming, we risk passing critical tipping points in natural Earth systems, triggering self-perpetuating changes that could shift the planet out of the habitable zone for humanity and life as we know it. Even with rapid, large-scale action on climate change, crossing some tipping points may now be unavoidable.
- However, analysts have identified positive social, technological and economic tipping points we can nurture to decarbonize far more rapidly. These include the decreasing cost of renewable energy, the rise of circular economy principles to reduce waste in industry and a societal shift to more plant-based diets.

Climate futures: World leaders’ failure to act is pushing Earth past 1.5°C
- This two-part Mongabay mini-series examines the current status of the climate emergency; how world leaders, scientists and the global community are responding; and what may lie ahead as the world warms beyond the crucial 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) limit established in the Paris Agreement 10 years ago.
- The unprecedented warming that began in 2023, continued through 2024 and extended into 2025 has caused surprise and alarm. Scientists still don’t fully understand the cause, but some fear it signals the global climate is transitioning into a new state of accelerated warming.
- 2024 was the first full calendar year to exceed 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. A recent projection finds it likely Earth will see a 20-year average warming of 1.5°C by as early as 2029, exceeding a key Paris accord goal and which could trigger self-perpetuating changes pushing Earth’s climate into a less habitable state.
- In January, President Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, signaling that the U.S. will not lead on climate action. To date, nearly all the world’s nations have fallen far short of what is needed to stay within 1.5°C. As countries submit new U.N. carbon commitments, some fear the U.S. reversal will ripple around the world.

Is rising CO2 really bad for the world’s drylands? Mongabay podcast probes
Increased carbon dioxide emissions since industrialization have accelerated climate change, and its widespread negative impacts have been reported worldwide. But the rising concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are also making some parts of our planet greener in what’s called the CO2 fertilization effect. Some politicians claim this effect means more atmospheric CO2 is doing […]
Carbon capture projects promise a climate fix — and a fossil fuel lifeline
- Governments across Southeast Asia are looking at carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a way to meet climate targets.
- Projects have been proposed in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, with Japanese companies involved in all three countries.
- Critics say CCS costs too much to be commercially viable, underperforms at capturing carbon, and serves as a diversion from actually reducing emissions.

Fungi are our climate allies | Against All Odds
In recent years, we’re learning more about how fungi work, what they can do, and how they can help mitigate the climate crisis. They play a crucial role in balancing ecosystems, and keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. Innovative researchers are also investigating ways fungi can replace plastic, keep toxins out of our soils, and […]
From local planting to national plan, Belize bets on mangrove recovery
- Mangroves in Belize protect coastlines, are nursery grounds for fish, and store vast amounts of carbon.
- In 2021, the government of Belize committed to restoring 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres) of mangroves, and protecting an additional 12,000 hectares (nearly 30,000 acres) within a decade, as part of its emissions reduction target under the Paris climate agreement.
- To support this restoration target, WWF Mesoamerica is developing a national mangrove restoration action plan.
- Restoration initiatives are already underway in areas like Gales Point, Placencia Caye and elsewhere.

Indigenous lands & protected areas are barely offsetting emissions from damage in the rest of the Amazon
The Amazon is often described as one of the planet’s most effective carbon regulation systems. Yet recent data suggest its ability to absorb carbon is increasingly concentrated in specific places. Between 2013 and 2022, nearly all of the forest’s net carbon uptake came not from the biome as a whole, but from the half of […]
In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation
- Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are collaborating with local communities in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, a protected Indigenous territory, to foster a ground-up reforestation strategy using native trees and carbon payments.
- The project involves about 30 plots totaling 100 hectares (247 acres) of land, giving participants full ownership of their trees.
- The approach is based on carbon-sequestration data and other scientific metrics collected from Smithsonian’s Agua Salud research site in Colón.
- The work also leans on economic analyses to ensure that reforestation projects can become reliable and sustainable livelihood strategies for Panama’s rural communities.

Brazil bets on macaúba palm to make renewable diesel and aviation biofuel
- Macaúba, a palm tree found across the Americas, is tipped as a new biofuel feedstock to decarbonize transport and aviation. The macaúba palm produces an oil when highly refined that can be made into renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
- Bolstered by hype and billions of dollars of investment, companies are planning to plant hundreds of thousands of hectares on reportedly degraded land across Brazil. Firms are also investing in major refining facilities. This macaúba gold rush was triggered by major financial incentives from the Brazilian government.
- Macaúba’s potential green attributes are similar to jatropha, a once promising biofuel feedstock that bombed a decade ago. Macaúba is widespread but currently undomesticated. Whether macaúba plantations can achieve the yield and scale needed to help satisfy the world’s sustainable energy needs remains unknown.
- Industry proponents state that it can be produced sustainably with no land-use change or deforestation. But other analysts say that very much depends on how the coming boom, in Brazil and elsewhere, pans out.

Crisis hits community-led conservation group in northern Kenya
- Since its founding in 2004, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) has attracted both admiration and criticism for its model of encouraging communities to register wildlife conservancies across northern Kenya.
- Earlier this year, a court ruled that two of its member conservancies had been set up illegally, and that same month it lost a major donor with the end of USAID funding.
- Now, a carbon credit project it manages has been suspended, and the organization’s founder, who was pushed out by its board last year, says he thinks it’s “dead.”

Republic of Congo’s gold mining boom undermines conservation efforts
The Republic of Congo has one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world, but “uncontrolled gold mining” in recent years could harm the country’s biodiversity, especially in the Sangha region, Mongabay’s Elodie Toto reported in a video published in February. Sangha, located in the country’s north, on the border with Cameroon and the Central […]
Study offers new tool to compare environmental impacts of crops
In a recently published study, researchers offer a new tool to compare how different crops affect the environment in different regions. Named PLANTdex, the tool assesses the environmental impact of a crop by considering five key indicators — greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater biodiversity loss, marine biodiversity loss, land biodiversity loss, and water resource depletion — […]
As renewable diesel surges, sustainability claims are deeply questioned
- Renewable diesel (RD), dubbed HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) by producers, is hailed by its supporters as a climate-friendly alternative to carbon-intensive fossil diesel. RD is a complex biofuel often made in retooled oil refineries from feedstocks including waste cooking oils, but also problematic animal fats and soy and palm oil.
- Renewable diesel substitutes easily for fossil diesel, so is touted as a climate-friendly transition fuel. Its use, mostly in vehicles, grew slowly in the past. Now, thanks largely to government-offered green subsidies, production is surging as firms widely expand uses to marine shipping, power plants, heating oil, and data center backup fuel.
- But critics are skeptical about industry claims of RD life-cycle greenhouse gas emission cuts of up to 95% over fossil fuel-derived diesel. They warn RD carbon releases will surge if renewable diesel sourcing is scaled up, triggering tropical deforestation as producers convert forests to energy crops, such as oil palm and soy.
- As the renewable diesel industry expands beyond Europe and the U.S., analysts warn it will be a false climate solution unworkable at scale, so production and use should be constrained. Independent monitoring is also needed to track feedstock supply chains to assure crops don’t have high carbon intensities or cause deforestation.

Science lays out framework to assess climate liability of fossil fuel majors
- In recent decades a growing number of lawsuits have been launched by states, cities and other government entities to hold fossil fuel companies financially liable for the climate harm caused by the greenhouse gas emissions their products produce.
- But those efforts often come up against challenging legal arguments made by the companies saying that their actions and emissions cannot be scientifically linked to specific climate change-driven extreme weather events.
- Now, fast-advancing attribution science is offering answers to those legal arguments. A new study has created a framework that connects the emissions over time of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies — BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Saudi Aramco and Gazprom — to rising temperatures and specific heat-related climate disasters.
- Researchers say that, in time, this framework for assigning attribution and financial damages could be extended to specific fossil fuel companies and a range of climate change-intensified extreme events such as hurricanes, flooding, sea-level rise and wildfires. The framework has yet to be tested in court.

Report shows policy gaps in safeguarding the carbon rights of forest communities
- An absence of government legal and policy reforms is impacting the rights of Indigenous, Afro-descendant peoples and local communities associated with carbon programs in 33 countries, according to a recent report.
- More than half of the reviewed countries don’t have carbon trading regulations, and nearly half have no legal provision to recognize the communities’ right to free, prior and informed consent, the report found.
- It emphasizes safeguarding carbon rights to ensure the communities’ consent and rights over decision-making as countries prepare to comply with the Paris Agreement’s market mechanism for trading high-quality carbon credits.
- Although the voluntary carbon market is faring comparatively better in ensuring these rights, researchers say there still remains much to do in terms of addressing grievances and making sure people stay informed.

New report reinforces critical role of Amazonian protected areas in climate fight
- A new report has found that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon store more aboveground carbon than the rest of the rainforest.
- Protected areas and Indigenous territories were also found to serve as significant carbon sinks between 2013 and 2022, absorbing 257 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
- Protected areas in Colombia, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana were found to be significant carbon sinks.
- The report underscores the need to protect these areas that aren’t currently threatened by deforestation as they play a critical role in offsetting emissions from other parts of the forest.

England’s flooded farmlands offer habitat, carbon storage & storm protection
When aging infrastructure failed to protect coastal farmland in southwest England from sea level rise, conservationists chose to embrace the flooding and created a new wetland reserve. Mongabay’s Leo Plunkett and Sandy Watt report in a recent Mongabay video that the newly created marsh has brought a host of benefits to the region. The Steart […]
New research finds substantial peat deposits in Colombia’s conflicted Amazon
- A new study of Colombia’s lowland forests and savannas finds that the nation may have extensive peatlands — organic wetland soils formed over thousands of years — holding as much as 70 years’ worth of Colombia’s carbon emissions. Protecting them from agricultural development is essential to preventing greenhouse gas releases.
- Researchers made peatland estimates by taking sediment cores in 100 wetlands, quantifying peat content, then building a model to predict locales for other peat-forming wetlands using satellite imaging. Peat was found in unexpected ecosystems, such as nutrient-poor white-sand forests, widespread in northern South America.
- Sampling in many locations was only possible due to the ongoing but fragile peace process between the Colombian government and armed rebel groups. In some places, security has already deteriorated and further sampling is unsafe, making this study’s scientific estimate a unique snapshot for now.
- Most Colombian peatlands are remote, but deforestation is intensifying along the base of the Andes, putting some wetlands at risk. Colombia’s existing REDD+ projects have been controversial, but opportunities may exist to combine payments for ecosystem services with peacebuilding if governance and security can be improved.

Proforestation: The case for leaving trees alone
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a quiet corner of northern New York state, the white pines of the Adirondack Forest Preserve rise like sentinels, untouched for more than 125 years. Their silence speaks volumes. These towering trees, some 150 feet (about 46 […]
122 companies responsible for a third of present day sea-level rise: Study
What’s new: Almost half of global average temperature rise and a third of sea-level rise can be attributed to the “carbon majors,” the world’s 122 largest fossil fuel and cement producers, a recent paper shows. What the study says: Research from U.S.-based science advocacy NGO Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) used climate-carbon cycle models, and […]
Betting on future forest carbon storage endangers Paris Agreement targets
- The carbon storage capacity of forests is widely recognized as a crucial factor in curbing global warming and preventing climate catastrophe.
- But a new study finds that the future potential for forest CO2 storage is being overestimated, with global forest health (along with the ability of forests to go on storing carbon) vulnerable to increasing disturbances including wildfires, disease, pests and deforestation.
- Scientists argue that the very real threat of declining forest carbon storage capacity necessitates far faster decarbonization efforts, along with urgent action to monitor and conserve forests, and prevent widespread deforestation.
- Delaying action by as little as five years could incur huge economic costs and jeopardize climate goals, researchers found.

Rethinking carbon: The climate movement needs to be a human one, says Paul Hawken
Celebrated author, thinker and entrepreneur Paul Hawken joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss his new book, Carbon: The Book of Life, and argues that the jargon and fear-based terms broadly used by the climate movement alienate the broader public and fail to communicate the nuance and complexity of the larger ecological crises that humans are causing. […]
Polar sea ice continues steep decline; but will a troubled world notice?
- Polar sea ice has reached record, and near-record, lows for this time of year, pushing the pace of global warming and alarming scientists. The just declared 2025 Arctic sea ice extent winter maximum is the lowest on record, at 14.33 million km² (5.53 million mi²). That’s 80,000 km² (31,000 mi²) below the previous low seen on March 7, 2017.
- The 2025 Antarctic sea ice extent summer minimum on March 1 tied for the second lowest on record, at 1.98 million km² (764,000 million mi²). The all time record Antarctic summer low was 1.79 million km² (691,000 million mi²) reached on February 21, 2023. Polar ice satellite records have been continuous since 1979.
- Sea ice loss is expected to continue its slide based on climate models, with scientists warning that the Arctic landscape is likely to be transformed beyond recognition within decades. Sweeping changes will devastate Indigenous polar communities, disrupt Arctic ecosystems, and ultimately lead to the demise of iconic polar wildlife.
- Inhospitable polar conditions continue challenging scientists’ ability to gather data and make precise polar forecasts vital for knowing our climate future. But it may be even more challenging to raise public awareness and political will to reduce carbon emissions and reverse polar ice loss before it passes dangerous tipping points.

Beyond reforestation, let’s try ‘proforestation’
- “Proforestation” describes the process of allowing existing forests to continue growing without human interference as they achieve their full ecological potential for carbon sequestration and biodiversity.
- Old forests sequester a higher amount of carbon than younger ones, with large, old trees containing the most carbon.
- Many species are old forest specialists, relying on ancient forests for survival. Losing these forests may mean their extinction.

With climate change, cryosphere melt scales up as a threat to planetary health
- Earth’s cryosphere — comprised of ice sheets, glaciers, permafrost and snowfall — is in a rapid state of flux due to escalating climate change, with numerous studies underlining the grave risks posed by the thaw.
- Today, that worldwide meltdown poses new threats to human lives — endangering freshwater supplies and food security while increasing the risks of natural disasters and disease outbreaks. Cryosphere loss poses immense dangers to the environment, agriculture, economy and society according to a new report.
- If emissions continue unabated, these problems will only worsen. Scientists warn of compounding risks as cryosphere melt escalates, including sea level rise, the slowing of ocean currents, and the triggering of feedbacks that will add to climate change.
- 2025 is designated the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation. Experts are calling for drastic cuts to carbon emissions because each fraction of a degree of warming avoided counts toward the preservation of the cryosphere along with the ecosystem services that ice, snow and permafrost provide.

Indigenous community calls out Cambodian REDD+ project as tensions simmer in the Cardamoms
- Indigenous Chorng communities in Cambodia allege continued land restrictions and rights violations by Wildlife Alliance, the U.S.-based NGO running the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project that includes swaths of their farmlands and forest.
- The project was reinstated last September after a 14-month suspension to review the allegations, but concerns persist over unresolved land claims, restricted access to land, and lack of financial transparency.
- Locals have complained of intimidation, threats and economic hardship after losing access to their traditional farmland and struggling to sustain their livelihoods.
- The Cambodian government and Wildlife Alliance have denied the allegations yet continue to benefit from carbon credit sales, even as Indigenous communities are left without sufficient land or decision-making power.

Only 17% of peatlands, vital to curbing climate change, are protected, study finds
- Just 17% of peatlands worldwide are protected, according to a new study, despite the fact that they hold more carbon than all the world’s forests.
- Peatlands are waterlogged accumulations of dead, partly decomposed vegetation, and are scattered widely from the northern latitudes through temperate zones to the equatorial tropics.
- The new maps show that more than 25% of peatlands overlap with Indigenous territories, an area of some 1.1 million square kilometers (about 425,000 square miles); much of that land doesn’t overlap with other forms of protection, providing an opportunity to keep peatlands intact through the strengthening of Indigenous land rights.
- Conservation scientists see targeting peatlands for protection as “low-hanging fruit” to deal with climate change because they’ve stockpiled so much carbon on only about 3% of land on Earth.

Forest communities craft recommendations for better ART TREES carbon credit standard
- Fourteen organizations representing Indigenous peoples and local communities across Central and South America submitted recommendations to Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) to demand transparent and inclusive carbon market standards at the jurisdictional level.
- The three major recommendations call for more transparency, inclusivity and accountability in jurisdictional programs of the voluntary carbon market through ensuring rights, free, prior and informed consent, and improved access to fair and equitable benefit-sharing.
- Analyzing the shortcomings of voluntary carbon markets surrounding their standards and certification, the signatories are demanding robust mechanisms that existing standards fail to meet or national legislation fails to implement.
- While opinions on voluntary carbon markets remain largely divided, Indigenous leaders and researchers say properly implementing these recommendations can help the carbon market address a $4.1 trillion gap in nature financing by 2050 and support communities.

Climate researcher fired for refusing air travel wins compensation
A climate researcher who was fired from his job for refusing to take a flight back from a work trip has been awarded compensation in court for unfair dismissal. Gianluca Grimalda has been reducing his air travel since 2010. But in 2023, his employer, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Germany, terminated […]
Pilot-turned-climate activist Todd Smith finds other ways to fly
Todd Smith says he fell in love with planes after watching an air show at age 5. “And I just thought, well, they look like they’re having fun, and that’s what I want to do,” he tells host Rachel Donald on an episode of the Mongabay Newscast, a weekly podcast by Mongabay. Smith says he […]
Brazil’s ‘innovative’ reforestation agenda discussed in Davos (commentary)
- At the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos this week, a coalition of leaders from across Brazilian sectors will discuss the integrated, pre-competitive agenda needed to scale forest restoration.
- Forest restoration is a key part of successful climate action, providing carbon removal, biodiversity protection and sustainable economic growth, but it requires immediate investment and action, the authors of a new op-ed write.
- Brazil’s coordinated approach across business, finance, and conservation sectors has resulted in approximately $528 million in restoration investments in the past 18 months, setting a global example for impactful forest restoration and climate action.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Indonesian president says palm oil expansion won’t deforest because ‘oil palms have leaves’
- Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has called for the expansion of oil palm plantations, saying any criticism that this will cause deforestation is nonsense because oil palms are trees too.
- The remarks have prompted criticism that they go against the established science showing how plantations have driven deforestation, biodiversity loss and carbon emissions.
- Experts have long called for the palm oil industry to improve yields at existing plantations rather than expand into forests and other ecosystems.
- But the main industry association has welcomed the president’s call, and even the Ministry of Forestry under Prabowo has changed its logo from a forest tree to something that resembles oil palm.

Indonesia risks carbon ‘backfire’ with massive deforestation for sugarcane
- A plan to clear 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of forest in Indonesian Papua for sugarcane plantations would nearly double Indonesia’s total greenhouse gas emissions, a new report warns.
- It says the project, affecting an area half the size of Switzerland, would worsen the global climate crisis and impact Indigenous communities in Papua.
- Local communities have long protested the project, but the government has persisted undeterred, razing their farming plots and hunting grounds in the pursuit of what it says is food security.
- However, Indigenous rights and agrarian activists have called for the project to be replaced with a restorative economic model, one that empowers local farmers and communities through sustainable livelihoods that keep the forests standing.

Electrochemical removal of ocean CO2 offers potential — and concerns
- Stripping seawater of carbon dioxide via electrochemical processes — thereby prompting oceans to draw down more greenhouse gas from the atmosphere — is a geoengineering approach under consideration for largescale CO2 removal. Several startups and existing companies are planning projects at various scales.
- Once removed from seawater, captured carbon dioxide can be stored geologically or used commercially by industry. Another electrochemical method returns alkaline seawater to the oceans, causing increased carbon dioxide absorption over time.
- In theory, these techniques could aid in carbon emission storage. But experts warn that as some companies rush to commercialize the tech and sell carbon credits, significant knowledge gaps remain, with potential ecological harm needing to be determined.
- Achieving the scale required to make a dent in climate change would require deploying huge numbers of electrochemical plants globally — a costly and environmentally risky scenario deemed unfeasible by some. One problem: the harm posed by scale-up isn’t easy to assess with modeling and small-scale projects.

Renewables won’t save us from climate catastrophe, experts warn; what will?
- Demand for renewable energy, particularly solar panels, is growing at an exponential rate. But the shift to solar, wind, EVs and other sustainable tech solutions has sparked an environmentally destructive mining boom and is itself carbon intensive.
- And even as renewables boom, we’re burning more fossil fuels than ever, setting another record for emissions in 2023. So it appears high tech alone can’t save the world from catastrophic climate change; only massive cuts in fossil fuels can do that, say experts. But even addressing the climate change planetary boundary isn’t enough.
- Five other planetary boundaries are in the danger zone, though solutions exist to reverse these negative environmental trends, say analysts. But for those solutions to happen, governments must shift trillions of dollars in “perverse subsidies” (that support fossil fuels and do environmental harm) to renewable energy.
- Without real, drastic, decisive action now, the sixth great mass extinction could be unstoppable and doom modern life as we know it. Still, there’s another way forward: Learn from Indigenous cultures, with their willingness and ability to integrate into the biosphere, and to humbly turn away from greed and overconsumption.

Illegal timber from Amazon carbon credit projects reached Europe, U.S.
- Amazon timber from carbon credit projects targeted by the Brazilian Federal Police was sold to companies in Europe and the United States.
- The group is suspected of land-grabbing and laundering timber from Indigenous territories and protected areas.
- Most of the exported timber belongs to the almost-extinct ipê species and was sent to a company in Portugal.
- The group is also suspected of using fake documents to launder cattle raised in illegally deforested areas.

Direct air capture climate solution faces harsh criticism, steep challenges
- Direct air capture — geoengineering technology that draws carbon dioxide from the air, allowing it to be stored in geologic formations or used by industry — is being heavily hyped as a climate solution.
- But as direct air capture (DAC) pilot projects an startups grow in number around the world, fueled by investment and government funding in the U.S. and elsewhere, this proposed climate solution is becoming ever more divisive.
- Critics paint DAC as a costly, ineffective distraction from drastically slashing fossil fuel extraction and emissions. The use of captured carbon by the fossil fuel industry to squeeze ever more oil from wells comes in for particularly sharp criticism.
- Though carbon dioxide removal (CDR) may be needed to help limit the worst impacts of global warming, experts say betting on direct air capture is riddled with challenges of cost and scale. Two hurdles: sourcing sufficient renewables to power DAC facilities, and minimizing carbon-intensive DAC infrastructure.

Satellites and lidar get AI boost to count forest carbon stock worldwide
- A newly launched tool combines satellite images, lidar data and artificial intelligence to estimate carbon stored in forests around the world.
- The Forest Carbon Monitoring tool, developed by Earth-imaging company Planet, trained an AI model using the organization’s archival satellite data and globally available lidar data.
- The model is now being used in conservation efforts as well as in the voluntary carbon market.

Loggers and carbon projects forge odd partnerships in the Brazilian Amazon
- Mongabay examined four REDD+ projects in Pará state and found that all were developed in partnership with sawmill owners with a long history of environmental fines.
- The projects were developed by Brazil’s largest carbon credit generator, Carbonext, a company linked to a major fraud involving REDD+ projects and illegal loggers in Amazonas state.
- According to experts, REDD+ projects may have become a new business opportunity for individuals who have profited from deforestation for decades.

Storing CO2 in rock: Carbon mineralization holds climate promise but needs scale-up
- Carbon mineralization is a process by which gaseous carbon dioxide reacts chemically with certain rock types and transforms into solid carbonate minerals. This natural process is an essential part of the long carbon cycle, which has helped regulate Earth’s temperature for millions of years.
- Mimicking this natural process, subsurface mineralization is a human-induced carbon storage technology, with CO₂ injected directly into in-situ basalt, peridotite and other rock types to accelerate mineralization. In 2012, Iceland’s CarbFix project first demonstrated subsurface mineralization and has stored more than 100,000 metric tons of CO₂ since then.
- Proponents say the technology is safe, verifiable and offers rapid permanent CO₂ storage, giving this sequestration method advantages over other options such as reforestation (where forests can be cut or burn) or conventional geologic storage in sedimentary basins (which requires long-term monitoring for leaks).
- Interest in subsurface carbon mineralization is growing: expanding in Iceland, with test projects in the U.S. and Oman, and others recently announced. But investment in field pilots is needed, plus regulatory and policy support, for scale-up. Unlike other geoengineering methods, this technique seems to pose few environmental problems.

Biodiversity credit approaches multiply as concerns cloud confidence
- In recent years, biodiversity credit projects and the methods to calculate their value have proliferated, seen by some as a way to finance the $700 billion gap in conservation funding identified in the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Credits involve payment for measurable outcomes beneficial to nature, ranging from increases in species diversity at a site to securing land rights for Indigenous communities.
- Critics of biodiversity credits have voiced concerns about comparing outcomes across ecosystems, especially if buyers will use the credits for offsetting. They also say focusing on biodiversity credits is a distraction.
- Proponents argue for bolstering biodiversity credit integrity and confidence in the markets to boost demand. Projections by the World Economic Forum suggest the market could reach $7 billion by 2030, though less than $2 million in credits have been sold so far.

Activists fear supercharged ‘business as usual’ under Indonesia’s new president
- Environmental activists say they see no letup in fossil fuel burning and environmental degradation under Indonesia’s new president, Prabowo Subianto.
- Subianto earlier this week touted the importance of the clean energy transition and sustainable agriculture in a meeting with Joe Biden at the White House, but back home has made appointments and promoted policies to the contrary.
- The new administration is set to supercharge the “food estate” program that activists warn repeats a long pattern of deforestation for little gain, and continue championing a nickel industry responsible for widespread environmental destruction and emissions.
- It’s also relying on controversial bioenergy to fuel its energy transition, which scientists largely agree isn’t carbon-neutral and which, in Indonesia’s case, threatens greater deforestation and the displacement of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities.

Mapping ‘gloop and mud’ sheds light on seabed carbon storage
- Two new reports showing the extent of carbon storage in the marine sediments around the coasts of Canada and the U.K. are helping to build the case for greater protection of the seabed, as part of efforts to mitigate climate change.
- They also highlight some of the threats to this underwater carbon sink, particularly sediment disturbance caused by bottom trawling, a fishing method.
- A new project funded by the U.K.’s Natural Environment Research Council is set to investigate whether or not continued disturbance poses the risk of turning the seabed into a source of CO₂.

Shipping emissions reduction sheds light on marine cloud geoengineering
- Unprecedented marine heat waves in the North Atlantic have been driven in part by a recent drop in shipping emissions, leading to a reduction in highly reflective marine clouds that had previously masked some of the warming from humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions, studies find.
- New limits on sulfur dioxide emissions from shipping, introduced by the International Maritime Organization in 2020, created an inadvertent “natural experiment” that is helping to improve models of the interaction between atmospheric aerosols, clouds and climate.
- The sulfur dioxide emissions reduction also provides the clearest test to date of marine cloud brightening (MCB) — a controversial geoengineering approach proposed to mitigate climate change. It shows that to be effective and avoid a dangerous termination shock, MCB would need to be continuous and sustained.
- Reducing atmospheric aerosol pollution has major benefits for human health, but will also inevitably lead to an unmasking of more dangerous climate warming. This means that improvements in air quality must simultaneously be coupled with decarbonization, experts say.

Grounded: A pilot who quit flying to help tackle climate change works to change aviation, for good
Todd Smith didn’t intend to quit his career as a commercial pilot, but a visit to the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru, which has been receding by about 60 meters, or 200 feet, per year, prompted a frank personal examination of the airline industry’s impacts on the planet. During a subsequent medical leave, he decided […]
Atmospheric methane removal: A promising but challenging climate solution
- Methane is currently responsible for about one-third of global warming. This greenhouse gas is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of its ability to heat up the climate system, though methane molecules only persist in the atmosphere for seven to 12 years before breaking down.
- Methane emissions are a major cause for concern, as they’ve been increasing at record speeds the past five years. At least two-thirds of annual methane emissions now come from human activities, including livestock, agriculture, fossil fuels, and landfills and other waste. Climate change is also increasing methane releases.
- Removing atmospheric methane is a tempting prospect as a climate change-curbing strategy. Multiple geoengineering approaches are being considered, but research remains limited and largely theoretical, while environmental impacts largely remain unknown and underexplored.
- Researchers say methane removal technologies, such as the iron salt method, should be investigated to break down atmospheric methane molecules. But scientists interviewed for this story repeatedly emphasized the most urgent need is to simultaneously make rapid deep cuts to human-caused methane emissions.

New standard for ethical palm oil faces backlash before it’s even issued
- The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is expected to issue a new standard for its member companies to abide by when it holds its annual general meeting next week.
- The new standard, an update to the existing guidelines issued in 2018, brings improvements in environmental and social safeguards, according to the RSPO.
- But advocacy groups say it introduces loopholes that could allow for greater forest loss, including a new definition of what constitutes high-carbon stock forests, a dispensation for deforestation on Indigenous lands, and allowing deforestation as long as it’s compensated for.
- The RSPO has refuted these interpretations, saying the new standard is designed to be even more stringent than the current one and that undoing the progress it’s made would be “ill-advised.”

Calls for caution as enhanced rock weathering shows carbon capture promise
- Natural rock weathering is a fundamental part of Earth’s carbon cycle but occurs over thousands of years. Enhancing this cycle by spreading fine volcanic rock on agricultural land is a form of geoengineering that could speed up this process and permanently lock away carbon dioxide within decades.
- Startups and research programs are underway across the globe to explore the effectiveness and risks of this climate solution. Spreading rocks such as basalt can sequester carbon and benefit soils, with some studies showing crop yield increases.
- If scaled up, enhanced rock weathering could store gigaton levels of carbon in the future, according to early research. But myriad challenges and uncertainties remain, not least of which is how to accurately calculate and verify how much carbon is being stored, and for how long.
- Some companies are already pushing ahead with deployment, with the idea of profiting from carbon credits, but experts caution that long-term studies are needed to ensure the technique’s efficacy, sustainability and environmental safety.

Carbon markets must recognize Indigenous ‘high forest, low deforestation’ areas (commentary)
- “We have lived in and safeguarded our forests for generations, helping maintain biodiverse ecosystems designated as high forest, low deforestation (HFLD) areas, which are regions with historically low deforestation,” two Indigenous leaders write in a new op-ed.
- Carbon markets have mostly focused on areas with pre-existing deforestation, but communities like these with historically low deforestation need financing to support their conservation work, too, so shouldn’t HFLD regions get better access to the voluntary carbon market?
- “For too long, Indigenous and local communities who have preserved forests without compensation have been excluded from financial benefits linked to forest conservation. This is not just an environmental issue, but a matter of climate justice,” they argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Study: REDD+ doesn’t work without Indigenous peoples, but fails to engage them
- Climate policies like REDD+ often fail to prioritize Indigenous peoples, undermining their effectiveness in tackling the root causes of deforestation and climate change, according to a recent study.
- The authors propose 12 principles to improve climate policies, based on themes such as supporting Indigenous territorial defense and their rights, encouraging Indigenous-led climate initiatives, and directing climate funding to these populations.
- Indigenous-led initiatives like RIA in the Amazon offer a feasible alternative to REDD+ and emphasize the importance of compensating them for their ecological services; however, they face challenges in getting adequate funding.
- Experts suggest that the lessons learned from REDD+ could be applied to the development of biodiversity credits to help make this emerging climate solution more inclusive from the get-go.

As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
- The world’s oceans could play a role in supporting the clean energy grids of the future. But that possibility hinges on the successful rollout of tidal stream and wave technology. Tidal stream energy taps into the power of run-of-river or ocean movements, while wave energy generates electricity using windblown waves.
- Years of hype and failed projects have bedeviled the tidal stream industry, which is the more progressed of the two technologies. But with demonstration projects in the U.K. seeing success, momentum is now building toward commercialization.
- Tidal stream technology — using river mouth, seabed-mounted or floating turbines — could offer reliable renewable energy for island communities, cutting their current reliance on costly imported fossil fuels. But technological, environmental and supply chain hurdles remain on the path to scaling up.
- While tidal and wave power will never dominate the global grid, they could play a valuable niche role in the global energy transition.

‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- The Brazilian state of Pará has agreed to sell millions of carbon credits to multinational corporations, including Amazon, Bayer and Walmart Foundation, but many challenges loom.
- Experts are concerned the deal is overly ambitious and worry about the state’s long history of carbon credit project scams.
- Although Indigenous, Quilombola and extractive community entities support the arrangement, other community members state they have not been consulted about the project on their lands.

Controversial US marine geoengineering test delayed until next year
- The first-ever field test of ocean alkalinity enhancement in the United States was pushed back to 2025 due to shipping issues. But the geoengineering experiment has also run into public opposition from local environmentalists, commercial fishers and others.
- The test would dump sodium hydroxide (commonly called lye) off the New England coast to study its dispersal as a potential tool for sequestering CO₂.
- Opponents allege this small-scale geoengineering test could harm local wildlife, but researchers say the material will disperse within minutes.
- The scientists say they will also continue to reach out to local communities to alleviate fears over the study.

High CO2 levels are greening the world’s drylands, but is that good news?
The increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times isn’t just driving climate change — it’s also making much of the world’s drylands greener with increased plant growth. This is known as the CO2 fertilization effect, and politicians sometimes cite it to rhetorically downplay the negative global impacts of climate change, saying it’s […]
Carbon credit land grab dispossesses Global South communities: Report
Communal lands the combined size of Portugal have been taken over by corporate interests for carbon offsetting schemes across the Global South, according to a new report that warns of a “new form of land grabbing.” The report by GRAIN, a nonprofit supporting small farmers, identified 9.1 million hectares (22.5 million acres) of land, more […]
Sumatra citizen lawsuit seeks accountability for haze-causing fires
- Three companies that manage pulpwood plantations in Indonesia are facing a citizen lawsuit over repeated fires on their concessions that have been blamed for illnesses and other disruptions.
- The companies are located in South Sumatra province and are all suppliers to Asia Pulp & Paper, the largest pulp and paper producer in Indonesia.
- In the lawsuit, residents of areas affected by haze from the fires say they want the companies to know that “what they are doing is wrong because it damages our families and the environment.”
- Citizen lawsuits are increasingly being used by communities across Indonesia to hold companies accountable for environmental damage, amid rising dissatisfaction with the inability of law enforcement to crack down on serial violators.

Will we be ready? Geoengineering policy lags far behind pace of climate change
- The history of geoengineering policymaking has been piecemeal over past decades, with U.N. bodies failing to create or implement rigorous binding international regulatory frameworks for geoengineering management, and with academia and think tanks delivering reports and recommendations that offer little definitive detailed regulatory guidance.
- Now, as climate change impacts intensify, the debate over what safe, effective national and international geoengineering policies should look like has intensified among academics, regulatory and advisory bodies and researchers.
- Meanwhile, scientists continue trying to find out if geoengineering (the deliberate altering of global atmospheric or oceanic conditions), can help cool off a dangerously warming planet without triggering harmful effects.
- Some warn geoengineering is too risky and want field research stopped. Others say research is urgently needed so decision-makers can understand geoengineering options and risks, so as to make informed choices. For now, few definitive road signs exist to guide policymaking.

Logging done sustainably doesn’t have to harm ecosystem services, study finds
- A new study finds that low-intensity logging doesn’t negatively affect a forest’s key ecosystem services such as carbon storage and food availability.
- The study, focused on a selective-logging concession in Gabon, concluded that tree removal rates weren’t high enough to make a dent in ecosystem services.
- Researchers found that while even low-intensity logging did have some impacts on plant diversity, these remained small and largely dissipated in about a decade.
- Experts says forest nations should strive to be “high forest, low deforestation” (HFLD) nations, like Gabon, for which the defined threshold is at least 50% forest cover and less than 0.22% annual deforestation rate.

Blockchain as a carbon market fix: Interview with William ten Zijthoff, Flávia De Souza Mendes & Maximilian Rösgen
- Satellite and blockchain technology could be combined to address the lack of transparency and accountability in the carbon market, according to a recently published report.
- The report suggests that while satellite imagery can provide data in real time, blockchain technology could be used to ensure that the data are accessible, transparent and not tampered with.
- The combination of the two technologies, according to the report, could also be used to improve traceability and ensure compliance with deforestation regulations.
- The complicated nature of blockchain technology, the lack of regulatory infrastructure and high energy consumption are likely causing skepticism and relatively slower uptake for its application in environmental monitoring.

Cloud brightening over oceans may stave off climate change, but with risk
- Marine cloud brightening (MCB), the spraying of sea salt aerosols or other fine particles into clouds to artificially brighten them and increase the sun’s reflectivity, is a proposed strategy to ward off the full effects of climate change.
- However, this solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering technique is highly controversial, and experts say governance of MCB field experiments and deployment is needed now at the national and international levels.
- Ongoing efforts to include marine cloud brightening under an international anti-marine pollution treaty, the London Protocol, could be one effective route to setting standards for research and field experiments.
- But if MCB is deployed on a large scale, some experts say there is the potential for serious negative effects on the global climate system. These impacts could be especially severe if deployment is uncontrolled and lacks science-based governance.

Forest degradation releases 5 times more Amazon carbon than deforestation: Study
- A study using detailed 3D imagery found that the carbon released by roads, selective logging, fires and natural disturbances in the southern Brazilian Amazon are not fully reflected in the country’s carbon emissions reporting.
- The high-resolution findings are thought to be unprecedented, offering precision insights into major land use changes that ultimately impact climate change.
- Indigenous and protected areas in the Amazon show significantly less degradation, highlighting their effectiveness in preserving carbon storage.
- Authors and experts say the new data could help policymakers rethink rainforest emission targets and plan conservation efforts.

Geoengineering gains momentum, but governance is lacking, critics say
- As the climate crisis advances, geoengineering — intentionally modifying Earth systems on a large scale to cool the planet or store additional carbon — is increasingly a hot topic. But an intense debate is raging as to how to govern research and deployment of these deeply contentious strategies.
- Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) — involving the release of sunlight-blocking particles such as sulfur dioxide into the lower atmosphere to block the sun’s rays — is at the forefront of a range of geoengineering technologies and approaches.
- Most SAI research to date involves modeling, while small-scale experimentation is foundering. SAI, though likely capable of cooling Earth’s climate, comes laden with governance challenges, myriad uncertainties and knock-on effects to the climate, ecosystems and human health.
- Projected deployment within a decade or two is cause for concern, say experts who warn that policy guidance and regulatory mechanisms at the national and international levels are now patchy at best, leaving huge gaps in oversight, transparency and monitoring of field research and potential deployment.

Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks
- New biomass power plants continue to come online in Japan, requiring an ever-greater quantity of imported fuel. The government’s feed-in tariff scheme, which has been tweaked but not canceled, incentivized these projects.
- Although understanding of forest biomass’s negative environmental and climate impacts is growing in Japan, policy advocates say operators of existing biomass power plants need to pay back construction bank loans, and the government’s refusal to admit its mistake is keeping biomass plants running.
- A major biomass fuel type is wood pellets, which in Japan is presently primarily sourced from plantation forests in Vietnam and primary forests in British Columbia, Canada. While BC ecologists have spoken out against wood pellets, and found allies in Vietnam, the biomass issue has proved challenging for Japan’s forest advocates.
- Though historically a small source of wood pellets for Japan, the growing popularity in Indonesia of pellets for both export and domestic use risks tropical forests there being cleared to make way for biomass energy plantations, NGOs warn.

Are the Amazon’s biggest trees dying? Forest coroners investigate
- As tropical forests are degraded and decline at increasing rates the world over, the fate of these forests’ largest trees remains unknown.
- Big trees store a huge amount of carbon, so assessing their current mortality rates and causes of death (especially due to escalating climate change) is vital to calculating how much tropical forest carbon sinks could decline in the future.
- The Gigante project, getting started in the Brazilian Amazon in June 2024, is initiating an innovative new protocol utilizing detailed drone surveys combined with ground truthing to evaluate tropical big tree mortality.
- The project has begun an identical survey in Panama and will conduct others in Malaysia, Cameroon and at another Amazon location. Knowledge of how tropical big trees are faring could help improve climate model accuracy. A Mongabay reporting team joined the Gigante project in Brazil at the start of this groundbreaking work.

Don’t even study it: Geoengineering research hits societal roadblocks
- As climate change accelerates, some scientists are calling for more field research into solar geoengineering concepts. However, these ideas are running into opposition from other researchers, some governments and the public.
- A series of recent setbacks has put solar geoengineering research on the back foot, attempting to figure out a way to navigate the opposition.
- Proponents of field research say it would help humanity better understand the potential and problems with solar geoengineering, while opponents argue that there are too many risks and it could take our eye off the ball: cutting carbon emissions.
- The debate has spilled into the international arena, pitting nations that support greater research against those that would like to see a solar geoengineering non-use agreement.

Biochar could play big role in Bhutan’s carbon storage — but it’s news to farmers
- A new study shows that Bhutan has the potential to sequester 68% of its greenhouse gas emissions through biochar, a carbon-rich material made from organic waste that is used to help plants grow.
- The research shows that using crop residue as mulch and biochar can significantly increase yields; however, many farmers in Bhutan do not know about biochar nor do they have access to the raw materials, such as rice husks, necessary for its production.
- While many studies note biochar’s potential for mitigating climate change, some research shows that too much biochar under certain conditions can harm soil, soil organisms and water availability and can cause soil erosion.

As New England forests are razed for solar power, experts urge smarter siting
Every year across a handful of New England states and elsewhere in the U.S., developers cut forests to build utility-scale solar energy projects. Journalist and author Judith Schwartz lives near a forest in the otherwise environmentally progressive state of Vermont, where a company plans to install an 85-acre (34-hectare) solar power project and export the […]
Sun block: The promise and peril of solar geoengineering
- Recent research and interest, especially from the U.S. government, has pushed a solar geoengineering idea known as SAI, or stratospheric aerosol injection, to the top of lists of potential ideas to cool the planet. SAI would use fleets of high-flying aircraft to disperse sunlight-reflecting particles, including sulfates, into the stratosphere.
- As climate change worsens and carbon emissions continue to rise, researchers say we must be ready with other potential tools to stave off total catastrophe, such as the disintegration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with sea-level rise that would drown coastal cities.
- But critics say any geoengineering is too unpredictable and could allow governments to lower their ambitions on cutting emissions. They also argue that there’s no global governance policy to implement geoengineering justly.
- As debate intensifies, however, some feel it’s only a matter of time, given the current and projected trajectory of warming, until the world seriously considers geoengineering deployment.

Space mission that maps forests in 3D makes an early comeback
- NASA’s GEDI mission, which maps the Earth’s forests in 3D using lasers, is back in operation from a hiatus, six months earlier than expected.
- Since 2018, GEDI has used spaceborne laser altimeters to help scientists gather data on forest structure, aboveground biomass and carbon stored in forests.
- Following resumption of operations, researchers have used GEDI data along with data from other missions as well as analysis tools to estimate the aboveground carbon stored in protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest.

‘Extinct’ trees found in Tanzania spark hope for ecosystem recovery
- Conservationists in eastern Tanzania have found two specimens of a rare tree feared to be extinct.
- Millettia sacleuxii was only known from six specimens in forest reserves that have almost disappeared.
- Thousands of seeds have been collected and seedlings raised, and these are due to be planted out as part of a reforestation project in the Nguru Mountains.
- The two surviving Millettia “mother trees” were found near an area that conservationists hope to soon turn into a wildlife corridor.

‘It is indeed our problem’: Interview with Mário Soares on Brazil’s mangroves
- Mário Soares, a professor of biological oceanography at Rio de Janeiro State University who leads the Mangrove Studies Center (NEMA), has spent more than 30 years studying Brazil’s mangroves, their role in climate change, the effects of oil spills and the importance of mangrove conservation.
- While mangroves fetch a lot of attention in conversations about carbon sequestration, Soares argues that they serve numerous purposes in mitigating climate change; they are also vulnerable to the effects of climate change and must be conserved so that they, in turn, can reduce the vulnerability of the coastal zone.
- Soares also says the carbon market doesn’t solve the problem, only the symptom, because it applies “the market logic,” which created the problem in the first place; meanwhile, we’re not reducing emissions.
- Soares recently spoke to Mongabay about the history and future of Brazil’s mangroves in a video interview.

34,000-year-old termite mounds in South Africa are still being used
- Termite mounds in Namaqualand, South Africa, are at least 34,000 years old, according to a recent study.
- The termite mounds are still used by southern harvester termites (Microhodotermes viator), making them the oldest known inhabited termite mounds by a lot.
- The discovery also unearthed organic material buried deep inside the mound, demonstrating that the termites help to store carbon at depths greater than 1 meter (3 feet).
- Scientists are planning further research to understand how much carbon is stored in these termite mounds and how fast it is accumulating.

Hydropower dams further undermine REDD+ efforts in Cambodia
- Five hydropower dams are currently being built in the Cardamom Mountains with reservoirs set to collectively span more than 15,000 hectares (37,065 acres) across protected forests.
- Three of these new dams encroach on forests where REDD+ projects are currently operating, pitting “green” energy infrastructure against conservation goals.
- Residents living nearby one of the dam sites fear that history may repeat as hydropower dams have typically been used to illegally extract valuable timber.

Large birds can boost forest carbon storage — if deforestation doesn’t interfere
- A new study shows large fruit-eating birds in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest can contribute to a 38% increase in carbon storage by regenerating tropical forest.
- Species such as the toco toucan, dusky-legged guan and curl-crested jay help transport fruit seeds to degraded areas.
- The larger the bird, the larger the seed and, consequently, the greater the biomass of the tree that grows from it — thus the greater the carbon sequestration potential.
- To ensure effective seed dispersal, however, forest fragments must not be too far apart, which is more difficult in highly fragmented areas, such as the Atlantic Forest and deforested parts of the Amazon.

Burning wood is not ‘renewable energy,’ so why do policymakers pretend it is?
- Burning wood to generate electricity — “biomass energy” — is increasingly being pursued as a renewable replacement for burning coal in nations like the U.K., Japan, and South Korea — even though its emissions aren’t carbon neutral in practice.
- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, reporter Justin Catanoso speaks with Rachel Donald about the single largest emitter of CO2 in the U.K., biomass firm Drax, which is trying to open two wood pellet plants in the state of California.
- Catanoso explains how years of investigation helped him uncover a complicated web of public relations messaging that obscures the fact that replanting trees after cutting them down and burning them is not in practice carbon neutral or renewable and severely harms global biodiversity and forests.
- “When those trees get ripped out, that carbon gets released. And that comes before we process this wood and ship it … then we burn it and don't count those emissions. This is just [an] imponderable policy,” he says on this episode.

Can iron fertilization of the oceans help solve the climate crisis? (commentary)
- In response to climate change, several carbon dioxide removal approaches involving the marine environment are being studied, with ocean iron fertilization being among those with the greatest potential, according to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences.
- The introduction of iron into ocean regions that are iron-limited stimulates the growth of phytoplankton, which play a pivotal role in carbon sequestration, and while critics have long pointed out that such fertilization could cause wide ranging ecological consequences, a number of researchers are pursuing it with new energy.
- “It is important to conduct research and hold public deliberations to explore if iron fertilization could be effectively and safely done, and whether coastal communities and rights holders might actually want it,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Water is key as study shows restoration of drained tropical peat is possible
- Rewetting of tropical peatland that was drained for agriculture can lead to the recovery of the native ecosystem, a long-term study of a former pulpwood plantation in Indonesia shows.
- Researchers studying the 4,800-hectare (11,900-acre) plot that was retired in 2015 by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) found the water table had risen, soil carbon emissions had gone down, and native trees were springing up and replacing the planted acacia pulpwoods.
- They attributed these outcomes to APP’s efforts to rewet the peat by blocking the canals previously dug to drain the waterlogged soil.
- The findings suggest that “several million” hectares of peatlands in similar condition can be restored this way, “should plantation owners aim to restore forest in parts or all of their peatlands.”

As Big Tech eyes the carbon market, will it work this time?
- Tech giants Meta, Microsoft, Google and Salesforce have announced the launch of an alliance that aims to invest in nature-based carbon removal projects.
- The Symbiosis Coalition has promised to purchase carbon credits worth 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030.
- The collaboration comes at a time when the voluntary carbon market has faced increasing scrutiny over allegations of greenwashing, human rights abuses and lack of transparency.
- The coalition says that it will focus initially on afforestation, reforestation and revegetation, and that it has worked with independent experts to establish guidelines to ensure accountability and benefit sharing with local communities.

A Brazilian city restores its mangroves to protect against climate change
- A broad coalition of organizations is working to conserve and restore mangroves in the Greater Florianópolis area on Brazil’s southern Atlantic coast.
- Mangroves are critical tropical ecosystems that dampen coastal erosion, serve as nurseries for aquatic species, and store more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests.
- These properties make mangroves a key part of coastal cities’ strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt to its consequences, such as rising sea levels.

‘Non-market’ solutions to deforestation need more support, advocates say
- In a report released May 29, three environmental groups called for a shift away from carbon markets and toward “non-market” solutions to deforestation.
- The Paris Agreement has a clause calling for such solutions, which the groups said could include financing for Indigenous groups, payment for ecosystem services, and debt relief.
- The report criticized carbon markets, saying incentives for brokers and project developers are misaligned with global environmental priorities.

Polar warning: Warming temperatures mean more than melted ice
- The Arctic and Antarctic are changing rapidly in response to global warming, with scientists striving to understand how escalating impacts on these unique regions impact the rest of the world. This story summarizes three significant recent studies.
- A new comprehensive greenhouse gas budget for Arctic terrestrial ecosystems estimates that the permafrost-covered region now emits more greenhouse gases — including carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) — than it stores. That trend is expected to accelerate if Arctic warming worsens further.
- Another recent study looked at the ice shelves edging the Antarctic continent, which act as brakes slowing the flow of glacial ice into the ocean that adds to sea-level rise. Although many factors impact the mass and stability of these shelves, a new model shows El Niño warming events help melt ice from below to increase shelf loss.
- Scientists also analyzed a record-breaking heat wave hitting Antarctica in March 2022, when temperatures soared by up to 40°C (72°F) above normal. They determined that this “black swan” event is having long-term impacts on the region’s ecosystems. The odds are that more such high-heat events will occur in future.

Are carbon credits another resource-for-cash grab? Interview with Alondra Cerdes Morales & Samuel Nguiffo
- Indigenous and traditional communities around the world are increasingly being recognized for their stewardship of forests.
- That’s led to their lands being seen as prime targets for carbon credit projects, the idea being that the carbon sequestered here can be sold to offset emissions elsewhere.
- While some Indigenous communities have welcomed these projects and the funds they bring in, others say they’re just another example of the monetization of natural resources that’s driving the climate crisis in the first place.
- Mongabay interviewed two leading Indigenous voices on both sides of the debate, who say the issue is a deeply nuanced one that carries implications for Indigenous land rights, culture and sustainability.

Report ranks 60+ ideas, including geoengineering, to save the Arctic
- Given that the serious impacts of climate change are rapidly escalating, some scientists, backed up increasingly by governments, are looking into extreme measures such as geoengineering to slow the rate of change.
- A new report examines 61 climate mitigation ideas for the Arctic, including geoengineering.
- The report ranked tried and true measures, like restoring peatlands, the highest, but some geoengineering ideas, such as solar geoengineering, also ranked high.
- Researchers say, however, that while geoengineering ideas may be worth studying, the goal right now must be to aggressively cut emissions. Some also fear that geoengineering will become a costly distraction, diverting attention from the need for fossil fuel companies to cut production, and for decarbonization of the economy.

Research shows the Caatinga is Brazil’s most efficient carbon capture biome
- Studies found that for every 100 metric tons of CO2 absorbed by dried-out forests in the semiarid area of Brazil’s northeasern region, 45-60 metric tons do not return to the atmosphere; in the Amazon Rainforest, the balance between carbon absorption and release ranges from 2-11%, compared with 23% in the Cerrado biome.
- According to researchers, the Caatinga’s vegetation stores 8,677 metric tons of carbon per square mile [3,350 per square kilometer], which can be released in the event of deforestation — a problem that increased by 2,500% from 2019 to2022, making the Caatinga Brazil’s third-most deforested biome.
- The solutions suggested to preserve the Caatinga include social carbon credit programs, new conservation units, and degraded areas recovered through agroecology.

Indonesian company defies order, still clearing peatlands in orangutan habitat
- Indonesian Pulpwood producer PT Mayawana Persada is continuing to clear peatlands on critical Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) habitat, despite a government order to stop clearing.
- An NGO coalition analysis found that 30,296 hectares (74,900 acres) of peatland, including 15,560 hectares (38,400 acres) of protected lands, had been converted as of March; 15,643 hectares (38,700 acres) of known Bornean orangutan habitat were cleared between 2016 and 2022.
- Conservationists are calling on the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to revoke the company’s permits.

UK’s Drax targets California forests for two major wood pellet plants
- Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a California state-funded nonprofit focused on rural economic development, along with the U.K.’s Drax, a global maker of biomass for energy, have signed an agreement to move ahead on a California project to build two of the biggest wood pellet mills in the United States.
- The mills, if approved by the state, would produce 1 million tons of pellets for export annually to Japan and South Korea, where they would be burned in converted coal power plants. The pellet mills would represent a major expansion of U.S. biomass production outside the U.S. Southeast, where most pellet making has been centered.
- GSNR promotes the pellet mills as providing jobs, preventing wildfires and reducing carbon emissions. California forest advocates say that cutting trees to make pellets —partly within eight national forests — will achieve none of those goals.
- Opponents note that the U.S. pellet industry is highly automated and offers few jobs, while the mills pollute rural communities. Clear-cutting trees, which is largely the model U.S. biomass firms use, does little to prevent fires and reduces carbon storage. Pellet burning also produces more emissions than coal per unit of energy produced.

AI model maps global tree canopy heights in hi-res, with carbon counting in mind
- Scientists have used high-resolution satellite images to create a map of global canopy heights, and to also develop an AI model that can predict canopy heights.
- Tech company Meta collaborated with nonprofit organization World Resources Institute to develop the open-source map and model.
- While the map aims to establish and serve as a baseline for conservation initiatives, the AI model could be used to predict canopy heights in areas where high-quality data aren’t available.
- Canopy height is an important indicator of forest biomass and aboveground carbon stock, and is used to measure the progress of forest restoration efforts.

Circular solutions vital to curb enviro harm from cement and concrete
- Concrete is ubiquitous in the modern world, but building cities, roads and other infrastructure and more comes with an environmental cost. Cement and concrete production is responsible for significant pollution, human health impacts and vast amounts of climate-fueling emissions.
- Manufacturing cement is particularly problematic as the chemical process used to make it produces nearly 8% of global carbon emissions. Experts also underline that demand for the mined and quarried aggregate materials used to make concrete, such as sand, is responsible for biodiversity and ecosystem harm.
- Demand for cement and concrete is set to grow, especially in developing countries to improve infrastructure and living standards. Experts say that solutions reigning in the sector’s environmental footprint are vital, especially curbing greenhouse gas emissions that could absorb a major chunk of our remaining carbon budget.
- Solutions to address these challenges include a suite of technological advances, material changes, improved resource efficiency, and circular economy approaches. Some specifics: electrifying cement kilns, low-carbon concrete, carbon capture, and bio-architecture utilizing natural building materials.

Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- The South Korean auto company Hyundai has ended its 2022 agreement for procuring aluminum for its electric vehicles from Adaro Minerals, which plans to build 2.2 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants to power its aluminum smelter.
- The decision follows campaigns coordinated by Kpop4Planet, a climate movement led by K-pop fans who protested Hyundai’s business with Adaro.
- Climate group Market Forces has estimated Adaro’s coal plants would emit 5.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, and activists say Hyundai would be pushed further from reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.
- The campaign collected more than 11,000 petition signatures from K-pop fans in 68 countries.

As fires ravaged Indonesia in 2023, some positive trends emerged, data show
- Indonesia’s 2023 fire season saw 1.16 million hectares (2.87 million acres) of land and forest go up in flames, and while this was five times higher than in 2022, experts highlight a positive trend.
- The fires were exacerbated by an intense El Niño weather system, unlike in 2022; the last time similar conditions prevailed, in 2019, the area affected by fires was much larger, suggesting fire mitigation efforts may be working.
- Most of the burning occurred in scrubland and areas of degraded forest rather than in intact forests, meaning greenhouse gas emissions from the burning were also much lower than in 2023.
- But a worrying trend highlighted by the numbers is that severe fires are now occurring in four-year cycles, intensified and exacerbated by the impacts of a changing climate.

Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
- The overall rate of primary forest loss across the tropics remained stubbornly high in 2023, putting the world well off track from its net-zero deforestation target by 2030, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute.
- The few bright spots were Brazil and Colombia, where changes in political leadership helped drive down deforestation rates in the Amazon.
- Elsewhere, however, several countries hit record-high rates of forest loss, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia and Laos, driven largely by agriculture, mining and fires.
- The report authors call for “bold global mechanisms and unique local initiatives … to achieve enduring reductions in deforestation across all tropical front countries.”

Enviva bankruptcy fallout ripples through biomass industry, U.S. and EU
- In March, Enviva, the world’s largest woody biomass producer for industrial energy, declared bankruptcy. That cataclysmic collapse triggered a rush of political and economic maneuvering in the U.S. (a key wood pellet producing nation), and in Europe (a primary industrial biomass energy user in converted coal plants).
- While Enviva publicly claims it will survive the bankruptcy, a whistleblower in touch with sources inside the company says it will continue failing to meet its wood pellet contract obligations, and that its production facilities — plagued by chronic systemic manufacturing problems — will continue underperforming.
- Enviva and the forestry industry appear now to be lobbying the Biden administration, hoping to tap into millions in renewable energy credits under the Inflation Reduction Act — a move environmentalists are resisting. In March, federal officials made a fact-finding trip to an Enviva facility and local communities who say the firm is a major polluter.
- Meanwhile, some EU nations are scrambling to find new sources of wood pellets to meet their sustainable energy pledges under the Paris agreement. The UK’s Drax, an Enviva pellet user (and also a major pellet producer), is positioning itself to greatly increase its pellet production in the U.S. South and maybe benefit from IRA subsidies.

Report links pulpwood estate clearing Bornean orangutan habitat to RGE Group
- NGOs have accused PT Mayawana Persada, a company with a massive pulpwood concession in Indonesian Borneo, of extensive deforestation that threatens both Indigenous lands and orangutan habitat.
- In a recent report, the NGOs also highlighted links that they say tie the company to Singapore-based paper and palm oil conglomerate Royal Golden Eagle (RGE).
- RGE has denied any affiliation with Mayawana Persada, despite findings of shared key personnel, operational management connections, and supply chain links.
- The report also suggests the Mayawana Persada plantation is gearing up to supply pulpwood in time for a massive production boost by RGE, which is expanding its flagship mill in Sumatra and building a new mill in Borneo.

Are biodiversity credits just another business-as-usual finance scheme?
- There’s a new emerging innovative finance scheme to support biodiversity conservation: voluntary biodiversity credits. These are meant to be purely voluntary, “positive investment” in nature by the private sector and, in theory, should not be used to offset damage elsewhere.
- But several Indigenous and environmental groups and researchers worry that, like the voluntary carbon credit market, a voluntary biodiversity market could end up being used for offsets, allowing companies and governments to continue business as usual.
- Critics also say there is lack of a clear demand for such credits from the private sector, and a voluntary biodiversity credit market won’t be a sustainable solution at a global scale.
- Indigenous and local communities have the potential to financially benefit from these biodiversity credit projects, which are likely to target their lands. But experts point out the need to first fix several fundamental problems that have already emerged in the carbon credit market, from the lack of land rights among Indigenous communities to unscrupulous middlemen, unjust contracts and dilution of funds.

UN probes controversial forest carbon agreement in Malaysian Borneo
- The government of Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo will continue to move forward with an opaque nature conservation agreement despite concerns raised by the United Nations.
- In a letter, the U.N. calls in question the transparency of the agreement and the state’s approach to the human rights law principle of free, prior and informed consent.
- The agreement was signed by state officials and a representative of a Singaporean company in 2021. Shortly after news of the deal became public, some Indigenous groups in the state said they hadn’t been consulted or informed about the deal covering 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of the state’s forests.
- The U.N. letter was written by a group of “special procedures experts” with mandates established by the U.N. Human Rights Council, including the special rapporteurs on the rights of Indigenous peoples, on human rights and the environment, and on the right to development.

Toilet paper: Environmentally impactful, but alternatives are rolling out
- While toilet paper use is ubiquitous in China, North America, parts of the EU and Australia, its environmental impact is rarely discussed. Environmentalists recently began urging people to be more aware of the real price paid for each roll — especially for luxury soft, extra-absorbent TP made from virgin tree pulp.
- Though not the global primary source of tissue pulp, large tracts of old-growth forest in Canada and Indonesia are being felled today for paper and tissue products, impacting biodiversity and Indigenous communities. Eucalyptus plantations to provide pulp for TP are mostly ecological deserts, and put a strain on water supplies.
- The environmental impacts of toilet paper occur all along its supply chain. Making TP is an energy- and water-intensive process, and also requires toxic PFAS and other chemicals. Upon disposal, toilet paper can become an insoluble pollutant that resists wastewater treatment and adds bulk and chemicals to sewage sludge.
- Many large tissue makers are investing in improved technologies to lighten this impact. But emerging markets in the developing world, beyond the reach of environmental watchdogs, are raising alarms. Bidets, recycled paper, bamboo, sugarcane and other alternative pulp sources offer more environmentally friendly options.

Palm oil deforestation persists in Indonesia’s Leuser amid new mills, plantations
- Deforestation for palm oil persists in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, including inside a national park that’s supposed to be off-limits to plantation activity, a new investigation has found.
- The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) characterizes the current deforestation trend as a “death by a thousand cuts,” with a large number of small operators hacking away at the ecosystem, in contrast to past deforestation carried out by a small number of large concession holders.
- RAN’s investigation also identified two new palm oil processing mills near the deforesting concessions, indicating that the presence of the mills, which need a constant supply of palm fruit, may be a driver of the ongoing deforestation.
- There’s a high risk that mills in the area may ultimately be supplying deforestation-linked palm oil to major global consumer products companies, including those with stated no-deforestation policies.

New report details rights abuses in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom REDD+ project
- Human Rights Watch has detailed forced evictions, property destruction and violence against Indigenous communities living within a REDD+ carbon offset project area in southwest Cambodia.
- Trade of carbon credits from the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project were suspended last year amid similar allegations, and the project’s carbon certifier recently announced it’s expanding its ongoing investigation.
- Residents told Mongabay that Wildlife Alliance, the NGO that manages the project, has effectively outlawed their traditional methods of farming and livelihood, including restricting their access to sustainable forest products.
- Wildlife Alliance has denied the allegations, suggesting HRW has an agenda against carbon offsetting projects, but says it’s making improvements in response to the allegations.

Breadfruit’s low carbon storage could be offset by fast growth, study finds
- Breadfruit, a perennial tropical tree that produces large, carbohydrate-rich fruit, has been put forward by advocates as a climate solution as well as a way to strengthen food security; but the carbon storage potential of breadfruit has never before been investigated.
- In a new study, researchers from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa found that in orchards, breadfruit’s carbon storage abilities are relatively low compared with other broadleaf trees in wet environments.
- However, the authors say breadfruit compensates for this with a fast growth rate and may be better served as building blocks for agroforestry plots that can sequester even more CO₂; more research is required to understand the full potential of breadfruits in a sustainable system.

Freeze on Russian collaboration disrupts urgently needed permafrost data flow
- Accelerating Arctic warming threatens to thaw more and more carbon-rich permafrost and release vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere, but scientists don’t know when such a tipping point event might occur.
- The potential for large and abrupt permafrost emissions adds urgency to better understanding the factors that could turn permafrost from a carbon sink into a carbon source.
- However, more than half of all Arctic permafrost lies under Russian soil, and a two-year freeze on collaborations between Russian scientists and the international scientific community — prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 — is disrupting data flows and hamstringing the polar research community.
- Despite an uncertain geopolitical landscape, scientists are determined to close the data gap with work-arounds such as pivoting to “proxy” field sites, ramping up remote sensing with AI, and mining archived data for new insights. But reintegrating Russian research with other Arctic research is a priority of the scientific community.

Palm oil deforestation makes comeback in Indonesia after decade-long slump
- Deforestation for oil palm plantations has increased for the second year in a row in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, bucking a decade-long decline in forest loss.
- A third of the 2023 deforestation occurred on carbon-rich peatlands, raising the potential for massive greenhouse gas emissions as these areas are cleared and drained in preparation for planting.
- Historically, deforestation for plantations in Indonesia was concentrated on the island of Sumatra, but the surge in the past two years has been mostly on the islands of Indonesian Borneo and Papua.

Freeing trees of their liana load can boost carbon sequestration in tropical forests
- Lianas are woody, vining plants, many of which thrive in areas where forest has been disturbed — often to the detriment of the trees they use to climb towards the sun.
- New research shows that liana cutting is a low-cost natural climate solution that can boost the amount of carbon absorbed by a tree.
- The study’s results indicate that freeing just five trees per hectare of their liana load could remove 800 million tons of C02 from the atmosphere over a 30 year period if applied across 250 million hectares of managed forest.
- Liana cutting is also seen as a way for foresters and conservationists to work together, improving both the forest’s power to sequester carbon and the quality of the timber that is being logged, as well as a way to generate income for local communities.

How much carbon does ocean trawling put into the atmosphere?
- New research suggests that bottom trawling stirs up large amounts of carbon from the seabed and releases 55-60% of this carbon into the atmosphere within nine years.
- This amount of carbon is nearly double the annual emissions from the combustion of fuel by the entire global fishing fleet of about 4 million vessels, the study suggests.
- The authors say that the remaining 40-45% of the carbon would remain dissolved in the water, contributing to ocean acidification.
- However, this study has drawn criticism for potentially overestimating the amount of seabed carbon that trawling releases.

Study: Burning wood pellets for energy endangers local communities’ health
- A new peer-reviewed study quantifies broadly for the first time the air pollution and public health impacts across the United States from both manufacturing wood pellets and burning them for energy.
- The study, said to be far more extensive than any research by the US Environmental Protection Agency, finds that U.S. biomass-burning facilities emit on average 2.8 times the amount of pollution of power plants that burn coal, oil or natural gas.
- Wood pellet manufacturers maintain that the harvest of forest wood for the purpose of making wood pellets to burn for energy remains a climate-friendly solution. But a host of studies undermine those claims.
- The Southern Environmental Law Center says the study provides new and rigorous science that could become a useful tool in arguing against the expansion of the wood pellet industry in the United States.

Markets and forests: 7 takeaways from our series on the forest carbon trade
This is the wrap-up article for our five-part series on forest carbon credits and the voluntary market. Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five. Mongabay recently published a five-part series on the carbon trade and its use as a tool to address climate change. The exchange of carbon credits, typically […]
Indonesian palm oil firm fined for fires sues expert a second time over testimony
- Environmental law experts say palm oil company PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa (JJP) is attempting to shirk its liability and fines for a forest fire by suing an expert witness who testified against it.
- The lawsuit is the second that JJP has filed against Bambang Hero Saharjo, an expert on fire forensics at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB); the company dropped its previous lawsuit against him in 2018.
- The company blames Bambang, who testified about the extent of the fire damage on JJP’s concession, for the high amount that it was fined, saying his testimony was “false and exaggerated.”
- Bambang and fellow experts refute this, saying JJP’s repeated lawsuits are a frivolous attempt to avoid having to take responsibility or to pay; to date, the company hasn’t paid any of the $36.7 million that it was fined for the fire.

The future of forest carbon credits and voluntary markets
- Observers predicted that 2023 would be a “make-or-break” year for voluntary carbon markets and “an inflection point” for their role in addressing climate change and global deforestation.
- Amid criticisms around carbon accounting, carbon neutrality claims, and issues with forest communities, governance bodies say they’ve worked to increase consistency and “integrity” for the voluntary carbon market and specifically the forest conservation strategy known as REDD+.
- Concerns remain from a variety of observers, including those who say the focus of credit-buying companies should be on eliminating their carbon emissions from across their entire suite of operations.
- But proponents of markets say that while decarbonizing is absolutely necessary to minimize the rise in global temperatures, the carbon trade allows for the mitigation of pesky residual emissions that it’s either impossible or too expensive to get rid of at this point.

Leveraging the hypothetical: The uncertain world of carbon credit calculations
- Criticisms of the voluntary carbon trade and forest conservation strategies like REDD+ have centered largely on the carbon accounting methods used to calculate credits.
- Each credit traded on voluntary markets is supposed to represent the reduction, avoidance or removal of 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- But recent science has raised questions about how REDD+ and other types of project figure out the number of tons of emissions saved.
- The process relies on establishing a baseline rate of deforestation against which a project’s emissions-reducing or -removing success is measured. But critics say the process can be faulty and that the conflicts of interest of the parties involved in setting the baseline have not been addressed until recently.

2023 fires increase fivefold in Indonesia amid El Niño
- Nearly 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres, an area 15 times the size of Jakarta) burned in Indonesia between January and October 2023, according to environment and forest ministry data; El Niño and burning for new plantations contributed to this.
- 2023 was the worst fire season since 2019, when that year’s El Niño brought a prolonged dry season and fires so severe, they sent billowing smoke across Malaysia and Singapore.
- In the absence of local jobs, some people burn abandoned farmlands and turn them into new plantations as a way to make a living and survive.

‘Cowboys’ and intermediaries thrive in Wild West of the carbon market
- A host of different players have crowded into the voluntary carbon trade as its value has grown.
- Motivated by the potential for profit, a concern for climate change or some combination of the two, these companies and organizations link the credits generated by projects, such as those that fit in the forest conservation scheme known as REDD+, with buyers, often companies and individuals in the Global North looking to compensate for their climate impacts.
- Some groups say they help shoulder the burden of tasks like marketing so that the communities and project staff on the ground can focus on the “change-making work.”
- But others, sometimes called “carbon cowboys,” seem interested in the money to be made from trading carbon. Some have faced allegations that they don’t bring the necessary expertise to their work, or that they don’t adequately inform local communities about the intended projects and the potential pitfalls.

Reversing progress, Indonesia pulp & paper drives up deforestation rates again
- Reversing years of progress, deforestation caused by Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry is on the rise, increasing fivefold between 2017 and 2022, according to a new analysis.
- The increase in deforestation follows dramatic declines that occurred after major wood pulp and paper companies adopted zero-deforestation commitments due to public pressure.
- In addition to deforestation, the pulp and paper industry is linked to land and forest fires and peat subsidence, which contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that speed up global warming.

Do carbon credits really help communities that keep forests standing?
- Communities play a critical role in REDD+, a forest conservation strategy that aims to reduce emissions that can be sold as credits to raise money for forest protection.
- REDD+ projects often include components for the benefit of the communities, such as a focus on alternative livelihoods and provision of health care and education.
- But reports that REDD+ communities have faced abuses and rights violations have emerged recently in connection with high-profile REDD+ projects.
- Several Indigenous-led organizations have voiced their support for REDD+ because, they say, it provides an avenue to fund their climate-related conservation work, while other groups say it’s not the answer.

Forest carbon credits and the voluntary market: A solution or a distraction?
- Voluntary carbon markets and forest carbon credits have faced widespread criticism that reached a zenith in 2023.
- Media reports detailed concerns about their dubious climate benefits, respect for communities and land rights, and their use by Global North companies to avoid the difficult task of decarbonizing their operations.
- Supporters of forest conservation strategies like REDD+ say that they can and should play a role, as healthy forests can absorb a significant amount of atmospheric carbon. They also say REDD+ brings much-needed funding to protect and restore forests, not only for their carbon, but because of the biodiversity and communities they support.
- As 2023 draws to a close, and with it the U.N. climate conference in Dubai (COP28), proponents of the voluntary carbon trade are working to increase the “integrity” of markets in ways they hope make them a viable tool to deal with climate change.

Indigenous-led coalition calls for moratorium on terrestrial carbon trade
- The Pathways Alliance for Change and Transformation (PACT), a coalition of Indigenous, community and nonprofit organizations, published a paper in September 2023 calling for a moratorium on the forest carbon trade out of concern for the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
- PACT says a pause in selling carbon credits is needed until protections for the land rights of these communities are laid out “explicitly, proactively, and comprehensively.”
- In December at the U.N. climate conference in Dubai, carbon markets experienced a setback after negotiators failed to agree on texts to articles in the 2015 Paris climate agreement meant to guide the carbon trade.

The year in rainforests: 2023
- The following is Mongabay’s annual recap of major tropical rainforest storylines.
- While the data is still preliminary, it appears that deforestation declined across the tropics as a whole in 2023 due to developments in the Amazon, which has more than half the world’s remaining primary tropical forests.
- Some of the other big storylines for the year: Lula prioritizes the Amazon; droughts in the Amazon and Indonsia; Indonesia holds the line on deforestation despite el Niño; regulation on imports of forest-risk commodities; an eventful year in the forest carbon market; rainforests and Indigenous peoples; and rampant illegality.

COP28 ‘breakthrough’ elevates litigation as vital route to climate action
- In the past three decades, the United Nations has sponsored 28 annual climate summits. But that process has failed to provide a legally binding path to significant carbon emission reductions or to the phaseout of fossil fuels responsible for the climate crisis.
- The just concluded COP28 summit, held in Dubai and largely controlled by fossil fuel interests, has pledged “transitioning away from fossil fuels” but that deal is also voluntary. Now, with the world on track for catastrophic global warming, litigation is increasingly being used to force governments to regulate fossil fuels and enforce existing laws.
- Thousands of climate-related lawsuits are underway to reduce emissions, stop drilling or gain compensation for the Indigenous and traditional peoples who are the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
- But despite some court wins for the environment, the litigation process is slow and unlikely to achieve major results in time to staunch fast-moving warming. Even when lawyers do win climate suits, there is no guarantee governments or corporations will obey judicial decisions.

New tool aims to make nature-based solutions projects in SE Asia a better sell
- A coalition of conservation NGOs has introduced a new tool aimed at helping local communities in Southeast Asia apply more effectively for funding for nature-based solutions projects.
- The group, which includes Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, says the region has massive potential for projects to absorb carbon and protect wildlife, but that access to funding remains a huge gap.
- The new NbS tool is designed to help project managers put together project documentation that includes data analysis that should make it easier for donors to immediately identify the benefits from the projects being proposed.
- The tool isn’t limited to helping package nature-based solutions projects; proponents say it can also be used to put together the paperwork needed for other community-led initiatives that require data documentation and analysis.

Tropical deforestation increases even as a few hotspots see respite, new data shows
- Emissions from deforestation in tropical forests rose by 5% in 2022, even as temperate forests strengthened their role as carbon sinks, according to data from a carbon mapping tool developed by nonprofit CTrees.
- According to the data, emissions from deforestation saw a dip in Indonesia and the Congo Basin in 2022; in Brazil, however, emissions continued to rise through 2022, and only started dropping this year.
- The JMRV platform uses satellite imagery and machine learning to map forests and non-forest lands around the world to monitor forest cover, carbon stocks and emissions.
- In addition to broader global data, the tool can also help local jurisdictions monitor and verify their carbon stocks to keep track of their emissions-reduction progress under the Paris climate agreement.

Indonesia pushes carbon-intensive ‘false solutions’ in its energy transition
- Indonesia’s newly revised plan for a $20 billion clean energy transition has come under criticism for offering “false solutions” that would effectively cancel out any gains it promises.
- One of its most controversial proposals is to not count emissions from off-grid coal-fired power plants that supply industrial users without feeding into the grid.
- Emissions from these so-called captive plants alone would exceed any emissions reductions projected under the rest of the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
- The plan also puts a heavy emphasis on “false” renewables solutions such as biomass cofiring and replacing diesel generators with natural gas ones.

Do tree-planting projects on grasslands increase fire risk?
- Global tree-planting initiatives, aimed at storing carbon from the atmosphere, could include plantations in fire-prone African savannas.
- 58% of tree plantations grown in South African grasslands between 1980 and 2019 burned, polluting water and releasing carbon dioxide back into the air.
- As efforts to plant trees for carbon storage in Africa expand, researchers suggest cutting fossil-fuel emissions would be a better approach — but scientists are hotly debating the issue.

Can impermanent carbon credits really offset forever emissions?
- A team of researchers has put forth a method that they say makes it possible to compare credits for carbon from forests projects against more permanent storage solutions.
- The carbon emissions that these credits are meant to offset can last for hundreds, if not thousands, of years in the atmosphere. Forests, by comparison, are subject to fires, disease and deforestation, meaning that their climate benefits can be more temporary than longer-term solutions, such as direct air carbon capture.
- By “discounting” the credits from forest carbon projects based on conservative upfront estimates of how long a forest will safeguard or sequester carbon, the authors say that “like-for-like” comparisons would be possible.
- The team published their work Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Enviva, the world’s largest biomass energy company, is near collapse
- The forest biomass energy industry took a major hit this month, as Enviva, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets — burned in former coal power plants to make energy on an industrial scale — saw catastrophic third quarter losses. Enviva’s stock tanked, its CEO was replaced and the company seems near collapse.
- Founded in 2004, Enviva harvests forests in the U.S. Southeast, with its 10 plants key providers of wood pellets to large power plants in the EU, U.K., Japan and South Korea — nations that use a scientifically suspect carbon accounting loophole to count the burning of forest wood as a renewable resource.
- A former manager and whistleblower at Enviva told Mongabay in 2022 that the company’s green claims were fraudulent. Last week, he said that much of Enviva’s downfall is based on its cheaply built factories equipped with faulty machinery and on large-scale fiscal miscalculations regarding wood-procurement costs.
- How the firm’s downfall will impact the global biomass for energy market, and worldwide pellet supply, is unknown. European and Asian nations rely on Enviva pellets to supply their power plants and to meet climate change goals, with the burning of forests to make energy erroneously claimed as producing zero emissions.

Jurisdictional REDD+ ready to fund forest-positive, socially-inclusive development in the Amazon and beyond (commentary)
- Jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD) is designed to fund regional transitions to forest-positive, socially-inclusive rural development. It is fundamentally different than private forest carbon projects, which have come under scrutiny for overstating their climate benefits.
- JREDD rewards forest carbon emissions reductions already achieved across entire jurisdictions–states and nations–and provides a platform for the full participation of Indigenous peoples, local communities and farmers; it features a leadership role for governments that are becoming more transparent and inclusive in the process.
- The steep decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon means that several states are poised to issue a large volume of high-integrity, verified JREDD credits from 2024 onward. If the demand for these credits is sufficient, sales revenues could help states tame extensive forest frontiers with transparency and accountability, inspiring other regions to do the same.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Control of Africa’s forests must not be sold to carbon offset companies (commentary)
- A forest carbon deal between Blue Carbon and the nation of Liberia would give the company exclusive rights to control 10% of the nation’s land mass for 30 years.
- Blue Carbon has also signed MOUs for similar deals with Tanzania and Zambia (and others) and combined with the Liberia deal, the land controlled by the company in these three African nations represents an area the size of the whole of the United Kingdom.
- “Carbon colonialism is a false solution to the climate crisis,” a new op-ed states. “The only real answer is to end our fossil fuel addiction by dramatically reducing our emissions, while financially supporting countries and local communities to protect their forests, rather than wrest control of them.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Carbon counting without the guesswork: Q&A with FCL proponent Jerry Toth
- REDD+ projects aim to incentivize efforts that maintain standing forests, rather than cutting them down, by providing payments based on the carbon emissions kept out of the atmosphere.
- But REDD+, which is short for “reducing deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries,” has been widely criticized lately, in part because skeptics say that the accounting methods are open to manipulation by developers aiming to sell more credits — credits that many not represent a verifiable climate benefit.
- One alternative is the forest carbon ledger (FCL). FCL seeks to value the total amount of carbon in a forest and would provide payments based on how well that storage is maintained over time.
- Mongabay spoke with Jerry Toth, co-founder of a conservation group working to protect and restore the last remaining remnants of the Pacific Forest of Ecuador called the Third Millennium Alliance (TMA). Toth said FCL may provide a more robust alternative to REDD+ carbon accounting.

Is ocean iron fertilization back from the dead as a CO₂ removal tool?
- After a hiatus of more than 10 years, a new round of research into ocean iron fertilization is set to begin, with scientists saying the controversial geoengineering approach has the potential to remove “gigatons per year” of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere.
- The idea behind ocean iron fertilization is that dumping iron into parts of the ocean where it’s scarce could spark massive blooms of phytoplankton, which, when they die, can sink to the bottom of the sea, carrying the CO₂ absorbed during photosynthesis to be sequestered in the seabed for decades to millennia.
- So far, proof that this could work as a climate-change solution has remained elusive, while questions abound over its potential ecological impacts.
- Scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, U.S., recently received $2 million in funding from the U.S. government that will enable computer modeling research that could pave the way for eventual in-ocean testing, effectively reviving research into ocean iron fertilization.

Forests hold massive carbon storage potential — if we cut emissions
- A new study finds forests could potentially store 226 billion metric tons of carbon if protected and restored, or about one-third of excess emissions since industrialization.
- Nearly two-thirds of this potential lies in conserving and letting existing forests mature.
- The authors say that restoring deforested areas through community-driven approaches such as agroforestry and payments for ecosystem services is essential.
- Planting trees can’t replace cutting fossil fuel emissions, as climate change threatens forests’ carbon uptake.

Can carbon markets solve Africa’s climate finance woes?
- The African Carbon Markets Initiative, a consortium of Global North donors, corporate representatives, conservation groups and energy lobbyists, is pushing to expand carbon markets on the continent.
- The effort has gained the vocal support of Kenyan President William Ruto, along with a number of other African heads of state, who see carbon markets as a way to generate badly needed climate finance.
- But African environmental groups have sharply criticized carbon markets, saying they represent a “false solution” to the climate crisis and will mostly enrich bankers and traders based outside the continent.
- The drive to scale up carbon markets in Africa and elsewhere is set to be a major agenda item at this month’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

Critical questions remain as carbon credit deal in Sabah presses forward
- Details around a secretive “nature conservation agreement” signed in 2021 between a Singaporean company and the government of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, remain elusive.
- Several internationally known companies that work in climate mitigation have said they’re not affiliated with the agreement, despite implications by Jeffrey Kitingan, a deputy chief minister and the deal’s primary backer, that they are involved.
- Kitingan also revealed that Hoch Standard, the Singaporean company, is controlled by a single director through another company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
- Kitingan said the project is moving forward, leading to renewed calls from civil society, Indigenous and research organizations for the release of more details about the agreement.

For 1st time, Indonesia government recognizes ancestral forests in Aceh — but only some
- The Indonesian government has recognized 22,549 hectares (55,700 acres) of ancestral forests in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra — the first time for the region.
- In total, Indigenous communities in Aceh seek recognition of 144,497 hectares (357,060 acres) of customary forests, and thus activists are calling for the government to recognize the rest of the forests.
- The communities welcome the recognition, saying it will give them legal protection to manage their forests in a sustainable manner.

Indonesia opens carbon trading market to both skepticism and hope
- Environmentalists have criticized Indonesia’s carbon trading mechanism, which had its first day of trading Sept. 26.
- The government touts the mechanism as a way to curb emissions and attract climate funding, but critics call carbon trading a false solution to climate change and a greenwashing attempt.
- Environmentalists say carbon trading could discourage companies from outright reducing emissions, enabling a “business as usual” attitude in which people and companies could buy carbon credits to continue polluting instead of changing their behaviors.
- A recent analysis by The Guardian and researchers from Corporate Accountability found that most of the top 50 emission offset projects — those that have sold the most carbon credits in the global market — were likely junk or worthless.

Beyond ‘no,’ more positive visions for conservation need communication (commentary)
- “I have become increasingly concerned that [environmentalists’] ongoing failures stem at least partially from really bad messaging,” a new op-ed states.
- “We are so focused on being against things that we keep missing an opportunity to be for something…We desperately need new climate-friendly visions for our economies and governance systems that we can all get behind, not just a laundry list of what not to do,” the Cambridge scholar continues.
- Some environmentalists are starting to push more positive communications and the development of transformative visions for conservation, such as developing “socio-bioeconomies” to replace existing economic models.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Indonesia’s peatland restoration claims in question as fires flare up
- The Indonesian government says companies have restored 3.7 million hectares (9.1 million acres) of peatland — an area larger than Belgium — in an effort to prevent the annual peat fires.
- But this claim has come into question following an increase in the number of hotspots in peatlands, including inside oil palm concessions that had burned in past years and went up in flames again this year.
- An investigation by The Gecko Project found the government appeared to have inflated the figure of 3.7 million hectares, with the actual figure derived from the government’s own methodology closer to 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres).
- Fires on carbon-rich peatlands are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions from Indonesia, which in turn is one of the world’s biggest emitters.

Revealed: Why the UN is not climate neutral
- The UN has long championed the need for urgent climate solutions. It has claimed to be at least 95% “climate neutral” every year since 2018, largely through the use of carbon credits.
- The New Humanitarian teamed up with Mongabay to investigate the UN’s claims of climate neutrality. In an investigation that took a year and spanned multiple countries, reporters obtained details about carbon credits purchased by 33 UN entities, representing more than 75% of its reported offset portfolio since 2012.
- More than a dozen of the projects that issued the UN’s carbon credits were linked to reports of environmental damage, displacement, or health concerns. Others were deemed worthless by a number of leading climate experts.

‘The forest is so much more than money’: Q&A with Fijian carbon project ranger Jerry Lotawa
- Jerry Lotawa grew up in Drawa village in the forested highlands of Fiji’s largest island, and is now putting his ecological knowledge to use as lead ranger for the country’s first verified forest carbon project.
- The Indigenous-led project protects 4,120 hectares (10,181 acres) of rainforest that’s under threat from logging and clearing for agriculture, through a 30-year conservation lease that stretches across land belonging to eight mataqali (clans).
- The project has been selling carbon credits since 2018, with the proceeds distributed to the mataqali according to the amount of land they set aside for conservation, and each clan then choosing whether to share the money equally among its members or to hold it collectively for larger projects such as education and infrastructure.
- According to Lotawa, the project has helped locals to better understand the importance of their forest in maintaining their lives and livelihoods, and to pursue economic activities that don’t negatively impact the ecosystem.

Photos: Fiji’s first Indigenous-owned carbon credit project
- Fiji’s first verified forest carbon credit project is based in the Drawa rainforest on the country’s largest island, and has been earning income for its Indigenous landowners for five years now, in exchange for keeping their forests standing amid pressure from logging companies to fell its ancient trees.
- To make sure the project offers a compelling alternative to quick cash from logging permits, alternative livelihood opportunities are important ways to provide day-to-day income for individuals, alongside the cash from carbon credits that’s disbursed to mataqali (clans) on a quarterly basis and often used for collective projects.
- A number of local young men have been trained as rangers to monitor the protected areas, while other villagers, mostly women, are benefiting from their roles in a growing rainforest honey business — though scaling up the business to a more lucrative level remains a challenge.

El Niño hurts carbon storage in South America’s tropical forests, study says
- Climate change and El Niño are the main forces behind spiking temperatures across South America, raising questions about countries’ preparedness for extreme climate events as well as about the damage being done to the environment.
- A new study published this month in Nature revealed that, during extremely hot and dry conditions, tropical forests in South America stop acting as carbon sinks.
- But the study also found that tropical forests aren’t becoming more sensitive to drought, so conserving them can still be used to fight climate change.

REDD+ projects falling far short of claimed carbon cuts, study finds
- New research reveals that forest carbon credits are not offsetting the vast majority of emissions that providers claim.
- A team of scientists looked at 26 REDD+ deforestation-prevention project sites on three continents, leading to questions about how the developers calculate the impact of their projects.
- The researchers found that about 94% of the credits from these projects don’t represent real reductions in carbon emissions.
- Verra, the world’s largest carbon credit certifier, said the methods the team used to arrive at that conclusion were flawed, but also added it was in the process of overhauling its own REDD+ standards.

Tropical lakes are carbon super sinks, even more than forests, study shows
- Research shows that Amazonian water bodies capture 39% more carbon per unit area than the rainforest itself.
- The research also revealed that lakes and rivers located in tropical regions with preserved forests sequester 10% of the carbon in these locations.
- The study shows the importance of preserving wetlands against climate change, the researchers say.

Have coal, will use it: Indonesia’s climate stance raises questions
- Experts have questioned Indonesia’s climate commitments after recent pushback from top officials to calls to speed up the retirement of the country’s coal-fired power plants.
- Indonesia also rejected a target to triple renewable energy capacity, even though the country’s development of renewable energy remains sluggish.
- “If we have coal, then we should use it,” the country’s finance minister said recently, further fueling concerns that the country has little intention of transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Macron touts forest conservation while promoting gas project on PNG visit
- During a recent visit to Papua New Guinea, French President Emmanuel Macron spent time with both fossil fuel executives and conservationists.
- Macron attended a presentation on the Managalas Conservation Area, which is supported by France as well as other European countries, and praised Indigenous peoples’ protection of the forest.
- During Macron’s visit, French firm TotalEnergies voted to undertake construction of a $10 billion liquefied natural gas project that will release an estimated 220 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Massive carbon offset deal with Dubai-based firm draws fire in Liberia
- According to a draft contract seen by Mongabay, Liberia may sign away the rights to nearly 10% of its total land mass to a United Arab Emirates-based firm for carbon offset development.
- The firm is owned by Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the youngest member of Dubai’s royal family and an investor in energy projects across Africa and the Middle East.
- Environmental groups in Liberia say the deal could violate multiple laws, including those meant to protect community land rights.
- The deal comes as the UAE prepares to host the COP28 climate conference, where rulemaking around carbon markets will be a hot agenda item.

Sulawesi sea nomads who inspired Avatar movie chart new course saving forests
- Umar Pasandre, a member of the seafaring Bajo people, has spent more than two decades protecting mangroves in Indonesia’s Gorontalo province.
- The Bajo people were first recorded by 16th-century explorers and inspired James Cameron’s sequel to “Avatar.”
- Umar leads local mangrove-replanting initiatives and has confronted those seeking to convert the forests for aquaculture production.

Forest campaign group renews charge that carbon credit verification schemes are flawed
- A new assessment conducted by Rainforest Foundation UK raises fresh concerns about the validity of carbon offsetting schemes.
- The campaign group claims that all the leading carbon credit verification schemes have allowed millions of credits to enter the voluntary carbon market which do not accurately represent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
- RFUK is calling for a shift in emphasis to measures like global carbon levies and debt relief for poor countries, which it says would address root causes of emissions.
- Verra and several REDD+ project managers told Mongabay RFUK’s analysis is ideologically motivated, insisting that while verifying credits is not perfect, it is producing genuine, positive results.

‘What we need to protect and why’: 20-year Amazon research hints at fate of tropics
- In its bold outlines, many informed people understand that climate change is reducing tropical biodiversity and thereby degrading the functionality and ecoservices of tropical forests. But what are the specific mechanisms by which these forests are being diminished over long time frames?
- One project on the slopes of the Peruvian Amazon has tried to make exactly that type of assessment, via a 20-year ongoing research project that meticulously observes a narrow transect of rainforest stretching from the Amazon lowlands near sea level to the Andean highlands above 3,352 meters (11,000 feet).
- The international team conducting this work, the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG), is painstakingly observing changes in more than 1,000 tree species, birds, frogs, snakes and more to determine not only how much climate change is affecting them, but untangling how the change process works.
- This type of in-depth research is vital to conserving tropical rainforest diversity, the carbon storage capacity it offers, and its assistance in maintaining long-persisting regional and global precipitation patterns vital to agriculture and other water needs. Mongabay contributor Justin Catanoso traveled to Peru to observe ABERG at work.

Why should funding Amazon forest sustainability be the world’s top priority? (commentary)
- In this opinion piece, Jonah Wittkamper, Mariana Senna, and Ricardo Politi argue that donors should urgently scale up support for the development of an Amazon bioeconomy based around protecting the world’s largest rainforest.
- Without such intervention, there is a risk of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem collapsing, a development that would destabilize regional rainfall, unleash massive carbon emissions, and drive large-scale species extinction.
- “Jumpstarting the region’s bioeconomy could create a permanent solution by shifting local financial incentives away from deforestation,” they write. “Philanthropy for Amazon bioeconomy development could only be necessary for several years. Catalytic funding could enable the economies of forest protection and regeneration to outcompete the economies of deforestation,” the op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Aviation’s climate conundrum: More than sustainable fuels needed
- Critics and researchers caution that pinning aviation’s carbon-cutting hopes on sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) is problematic. These fuels, derived from liquid biofuels, along with synthetic fuel options such as green hydrogen, have been produced in only miniscule amounts at high cost compared to what’s needed.
- Scaling SAFs up to cover all of the aviation industry’s carbon-reduction goals while avoiding environmental harm will be a mammoth technological and economic challenge, and may not be achievable in the time available as climate change rapidly escalates, say experts.
- Other solutions will almost assuredly be required: Hydrogen-powered or electric planes may be on the horizon for private or short-haul flights. But reducing emissions from commercial, long-haul flights remains a far greater challenge.
- A mixture of technological solutions, increased efficiencies in airplane design, better airport management, and new innovative policies, including controversial ideas to curb customer demand for air travel, are likely needed to cap and significantly bring down commercial aviation’s emissions fast.

Sustainable aviation fuels: Potential lagging behind reality
- The aviation sector is booming, with the number of flights in 2023 expected to outstrip the industry’s 2019 peak. Commercial aviation is already responsible for 2-3% of global carbon emissions. With the renewed surge in air travel, those emissions are only likely to increase in coming years.
- Current efforts to reduce aviation carbon emissions focus on the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which include both liquid biofuels (made from algae, food crops and food waste) and synthetic options (such as green hydrogen or synthetic kerosene).
- SAFs, while they emit equivalent carbon as fossil fuels when burned in flight, offer a potential means for reducing emissions due to their far greener life cycle as compared to fossil fuels, say experts. But SAFs come with myriad caveats: risks of environmental harm, high costs, and currently limited supply.
- Ramping up SAF production while reducing environmental harm to ensure these fuels are truly sustainable is the goal. However, most experts agree that even if SAF production is scaled up, the most promising biofuels in current scenarios won’t likely provide enough emissions savings to stem aviation’s climate impacts.

From cardamom to carbon: Bold new Tanzanian project is regrowing a rainforest
- Farmers in eastern Tanzania are regrowing rainforest trees on part of their land.
- The farmers receive payments from the sale of carbon credits to supplement their incomes and to compensate them for loss of land and cash crops.
- So far, close to 270,000 trees have been planted on 200 hectares (494 acres) of farms located on the flanks of the Nguru Mountains.
- Nguru’s forests, home to a wealth of unique animal and plant species, are under increasing pressure from farmers who fell trees to grow crops, including valuable cardamom spice.

Timber harvests to meet global wood demand will bring soaring emissions: Study
- At a time when the world desperately needs to reduce its carbon emissions, global timber harvests to meet soaring demand for wood products — including paper and biomass for energy — could produce more than 10% of total global carbon emissions over coming decades, a new groundbreaking study finds.
- Global wood consumption could grow by 54% between 2010 and 2050, creating a demand for timber that would result in a “clear-cut equivalent” in area roughly the size of the continental U.S., adding 3.5 to 4.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere annually for years to come.
- The study scientists warn that flawed national climate policies and faulty carbon accounting are failing to accurately forecast these potential carbon emissions resulting from the cutting of natural forests.
- The researchers point out that less natural forests need to be cut to meet the rising global demand for wood products. That demand could partially be met by increasing wood production in already existing plantation forests.

Microbes play leading role in soil carbon capture, study shows
- Soil is a significant carbon reservoir, storing more carbon than all plants, animals and the atmosphere combined, making it crucial for addressing the climate crisis.
- Microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, are the primary drivers of carbon storage in soil, surpassing other soil processes by a factor of four, according to a new study in Nature.
- The efficiency of microbial metabolism plays a vital role in determining the amount of organic carbon stored in soils worldwide, according to the research, which also calls for improved soil carbon models for effective policies and climate solutions.
- Enhancing microbial efficiency can lead to increased carbon storage in soils, but further research is needed to understand how to achieve this.

Seas of grass may be dark horse candidate to fuel the planet — or not
- Several kinds of grasses and woody shrubs, such as poplar and willow, have undergone U.S. testing for years to see if they can achieve high productivity as cellulose-based liquid biofuels for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the global transportation sector. Some of these grasses also would have value as cover crops.
- While these experiments showed promise, the challenges for scaling up production of grass and woody shrub-derived biofuels over the next few decades remain significant. And time is short, as climate change is rapidly accelerating.
- Another roadblock to large-scale production: Millions of acres of land in the U.S. Southeast and Great Plains states would need to be earmarked for grass cultivation to make it economically and commercially viable as a biofuel.
- If many of those millions of acres required conversion of natural lands to agriculture, then deforestation and biodiversity loss due to biofuel monoculture crop expansion could be a major problem. On the plus side, grass biofuel crops likely wouldn’t directly displace food crops, unlike corn to make ethanol, or soy to make biodiesel.

Mycorrhizal fungi hold CO2 equivalent to a third of global fossil fuel emissions
- A recent study estimates that more than 13 billion metric tons of CO2 from terrestrial plants are passed on to mycorrhizal fungi each year, equivalent to about 36% of global fossil fuel emissions.
- The study highlights the overlooked role of mycorrhizal fungi in storing and transporting carbon underground through their extensive fungal networks
- Researchers analyzed nearly 200 data sets from various studies that traced carbon flow and found that plants allocate between 1% and 13% of their carbon to mycorrhizal fungi.
- Understanding the role of mycorrhizal fungi is essential for conservation and restoration efforts, as soil degradation and the disruption of soil communities pose significant threats to ecosystems and plant productivity.

New digital tool maps blue carbon ecosystems in high resolution
- The Blue Carbon Explorer, a digital tool developed by the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and the Earth-imaging company Planet, combines satellite imagery, drone footage and fieldwork to map mangroves and seagrass in the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
- The tool aims to help scientists, conservationists and governments gauge mangrove health and identify areas in need of restoration.
- The Blue Carbon Explorer comes at a time of growing interest in blue carbon ecosystems as potential nature-based solutions for climate change.

U.S. conservation investment routed to eucalyptus expansion in Brazil’s Cerrado
- The Timberland Investment Group (TIG), owned by investment bank BTG Pactual, is expanding its planted forest operations in the Cerrado. Its newest office is next door to the world’s soon-to-be largest paper and pulp factory, under construction.
- U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $50 million toward the initiative, claiming it would help conserve Latin America’s most critical ecosystems. The funds have not yet been released, but TIG has already started acquiring new land.
- From 2018-22, BTG Pactual financed $1.67 billion in forest-risky products including soy, beef, timber and pulp and paper, according to Forests & Finance data analyzed by Mongabay.
- The planted forest industry advertises environmental benefits and is increasingly joining bids for green finance. Critics say stored carbon is released after harvest and these monoculture plantations are distracting funds and attention away from real biome conservation.

Soil carbon in urban parks important in fighting climate change, study shows
- A recent study shows that urban parks and green spaces throughout the world have a similar amount of carbon stored in their soils as in natural regions close to cities, which means urban green spaces can be important to global carbon sequestration and mitigating the potential effects of climate change.
- Soil microbes in urban green spaces play a vital role in carbon storage, but that carbon is also vulnerable to loss through microbial respiration in an increasingly warmer world; researchers emphasize the need for greater understanding of the soil microbiome in urban policies and planning.
- For context, Suriname has 93% forest cover nationwide and is often referred to as the world’s “greenest” country — but the capital city, Paramaribo, lacks a structural approach to urban greenery.
- Researchers conducted a project to promote a greener and more livable Paramaribo, with the aim of mitigating the effects of climate change and raising awareness among citizens.

Peatlands, Indonesia’s carbon trove, are mostly unprotected, study finds
- A new study finds that less than 16% of Indonesia’s peatlands in need of conservation measures are currently protected.
- The remainder, covering a combined area nearly twice the size of Belgium, are located outside of protected areas.
- This indicates that current conservation and restoration efforts aren’t sufficient and need to be increased, researchers say.
- They offer their study as a tool for policymakers to precisely identify peat areas where different types of interventions should be prioritized.

Protected areas store a year’s worth of CO₂ emissions, study reveals
- Researchers analyzed never-before-used satellite data to calculate how much carbon is stored in protected areas worldwide.
- The Amazon Rainforest’s protected areas accounted for the highest rate of carbon stock, according to the unprecedented study.
- The results can help policymakers and conservationists assess areas for protection to fight climate change — and not just forests.

Financial downturn at Enviva could mean trouble for biomass energy
- Enviva harvests trees to manufacture millions of tons of wood pellets annually in the U.S. Southeast to supply the biomass energy demands of nations in the EU, U.K., Japan and South Korea. But a host of operational, legal and public relations problems have led to greater-than-expected revenue losses and a drastic fall in stock price.
- These concerns (some of which Mongabay has reported on in the past) raise questions as to whether Enviva can double its projected pellet production from 6 million metric tons annually today to 13 million metric tons by 2027 to meet its contract obligations. Enviva says its problems pose only short-term setbacks.
- While it isn’t possible to connect Enviva’s stock decline, or the company’s downgrading by a top credit ratings agency, with any specific cause, some analysts say that investors may be getting educated as to the financial risk they could face if the EU or other large-scale biomass users eliminate their subsidies to the industry.
- “The financial risk is there, maybe not today, but in the future, where countries may say, ‘This massive [biomass carbon accounting] loophole is making the climate crisis worse. Let’s close it.’ When that happens, Enviva and all other pellet manufacturers are out of business,” and investors would suffer, according to one industry expert.

Head of Verra, top carbon credit certifier, to leave in June
- David Antonioli is the founding CEO of Verra, the world’s most prominent carbon credit standards organization.
- Antonioli will leave the post in June amid increasing scrutiny of carbon markets and credits, as well as the methodologies by which they are certified to ensure they provide climate benefits that do not come at the expense of communities.
- Indigenous groups and forest communities are often key participants in restoration and protection efforts to boost carbon sequestration.
- But they say that little of the financing for climate mitigation flows directly to them, and they also want a more prominent role in the discussions about climate change mitigation projects and the future of mechanisms like carbon credits and markets.

Overlooked and underfoot, mosses play a mighty role for climate and soil
- Mosses cover a China-size area of the globe and have a significant impact on ecosystems and climate change, according to a new study.
- Researchers conducted the most comprehensive global field study of mosses to date to quantify how soil moss influences soil and ecosystem services in different environments on all seven continents.
- Soil mosses can potentially add 6.43 billion metric tons of carbon to the soil globally, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.68 billion cars.
- Moss-covered soil offers several other benefits, including cycling of essential nutrients, facilitating faster decomposition, and reducing harmful plant pathogens.

As Exxon bows out, industry takes step toward sustainable algae biofuels
- In February, ExxonMobil gave up its decade-long attempt to cultivate algae as a profitable and scalable feedstock for biofuel — a liquid alternative energy source needed to power aviation, ocean-going ships, and long-distance trucking, while also combating climate change.
- That corporate setback was offset by advances elsewhere in the industry: California-based algae biofuel company Viridos, which lost ExxonMobil as its partner, raised $25 million this year as it gained United Airlines, Chevron and Breakthrough Energy Ventures as investors to keep its algae project moving toward commercialization.
- Also, this year, the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) funded four major algae biofuel and biomass projects to chart scalable production processes and achieve low-carbon intensity efficiency.
- Several of these algae initiatives are now moving from basic R&D into pilot programs, with scaled-up commercial production possibly just a few years away, according to industry experts. Environmentalists are concerned about future land, energy and fertilizer impacts during production, though say it is too early to assess potential commercialization effects.

Indigenous groups voice support for REDD+, despite flaws
- A letter published May 9 and signed by a group of Indigenous-led organizations backs a mechanism for providing compensation in return for forest protection efforts known as REDD+, which is short for “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.”
- The aim of REDD+ is to provide results-based funding for economic development tied to those protection efforts, with financing coming from credits sold to companies and individuals to account for their carbon emissions.
- But critics question how carbon credits are calculated, and others have concerns about the lack of consent and participation by Indigenous and local communities most affected by REDD+ work.
- The letter argues that REDD+, in despite its shortcomings, is one of the few direct funding flows to communities for climate-related work, and they call for greater inclusion in the broader conversation about REDD+ and carbon credits and offsets.

Return of the GEDI: Space-based, forest carbon-mapping laser array saved
- Since 2018, the GEDI mission has been firing lasers from the International Space Station to measure aboveground biomass on Earth.
- The information gleaned from it has been crucial for scientists to understand how deforestation contributes to worsening climate change.
- The mission was supposed to be decommissioned earlier this year, with the lasers fated to be jettisoned from the ISS and burned up in the atmosphere.
- However, NASA made a last-minute decision to extend the mission after a push from the scientists involved in it: the GEDI equipment will be put into storage for 18 months, then reinstated to resume operations for as long as the ISS continues to run.

Jatropha: The biofuel that bombed seeks a path to redemption
- Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a “miracle” biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
- A jatropha rush ensued, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields led to plantation failures nearly everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
- Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is dependent on cracking the yield problem and addressing the harmful land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.
- The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world’s experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.

Do tiger-dense habitats also help save carbon stock? It’s complicated
- A new study centered on Nepal’s Chitwan National Park attempts to identify whether there’s a relationship between successful tiger conservation and habitats with high levels of carbon locked away in the vegetation.
- It found that within protected areas, high-density mixed forests had the most carbon stock sequestered in vegetation; however, tiger density was highest in riverine forests.
- This represents a trade-off that conservation planners need to tackle between tiger and carbon conservation.
- Researchers have cautioned against generalizing the findings, saying that more studies and data are needed to better understand the issue.

Newly published carbon market standards aim to increase integrity, confidence
- The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), an independent governance body, released a set of core carbon principles (CCPs) intended to provide a “threshold standard” for quality in the global carbon market.
- To earn the CCP label, projects must address governance issues such as verification and transparency, ensure that the emissions reductions and removals of carbon actually happen at claimed levels above what would have been accomplished under the business-as-usual scenario, and adhere to strict guidelines intended to ensure that projects don’t harm communities or the environment, according to the ICVCM’s statement.
- The global voluntary carbon market sits at a pivotal crossroads, as several investigations have raised concerns about how much the projects supported by the purchase of carbon credits actually protect or restore forests as a climate change-mitigation strategy.

Deforestation drives fire risk in Borneo amid a warming climate, study finds
- Annual peatland fires in Indonesia affect ecology, air quality, nutrient distribution of the soil, and human health.
- A modeling study finds that under current climate change projections and with rapid deforestation in Borneo, fire risk increases by the end of the century.
- The findings show that deforestation is a significant factor in fire risk.
- While local governments can’t control global climate change, they work to stem forest lost and invest in reforestation of tropical forests and revitalization of peatlands to mitigate fire risks in the future, researchers say.

Tropical forest regeneration offsets 26% of carbon emissions from deforestation
- A new study published in the journal Nature analyzed satellite images from three major regions of tropical forest on Earth — Amazon, Central Africa and Borneo — and showed recovering forests offset just 26% of carbon emissions from new tropical deforestation and forest degradation in the past three decades.
- Secondary forests have a good potential to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and could be an ally in addressing the climate crisis, but emissions generated from deforestation and forests lost or damaged due to human activity currently far outpace regrowth.
- The study provides information to guide debates and decisions around the recovery of secondary forests and degraded areas of the Brazilian Amazon — around 17% of the ecosystem is in various stages of degradation and another 17% is already deforested.
- Since Brazil’s new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office, projects to curb deforestation are in place, but plans to protect recovering areas remain unclear.

Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
- Libero Copper, a Canadian company, plans to mine copper, molybdenum and other metals in the richly biodiverse Andean-Amazon Piedmont, which has led to strong divisions within Indigenous and local communities.
- The copper and molybdenum project is framed as a green project that could contribute much-needed minerals for the country’s energy transition, a proposal that aligns with the goals of the new left-wing government of Gustavo Petro.
- However, some communities and environmental activists oppose the mining project over concerns of deforestation, landslides and loss of forest-based livelihoods in the region.
- Others support the clean energy transition and the company’s promise of jobs in the historically neglected region.

Carbon credits from award-winning Kenyan offset suspended by Verra
- The carbon offset certifier Verra told Mongabay it had initiated a “quality control review” of the Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project, which claims to store carbon by managing Indigenous livestock grazing routes.
- The project has been a darling of carbon market supporters, winning a series of awards at COP27 last year, where it was described as “exemplary” by Kenyan President William Ruto.
- A new report by the advocacy group Survival International said the offset was altering long-standing Indigenous herding practices and couldn’t accurately account for how much carbon it was removing from the atmosphere.
- Purchasers of carbon credits generated by the product include Netflix, Meta and NatWest.

A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts
- Liquid biofuels are routinely included in national policy pathways to cut carbon emissions and transition to “net-zero.” Biofuels are particularly tasked with reducing emissions from “hard-to-decarbonize” sectors, such as aviation.
- Three generations of biofuel sources — corn, soy, palm oil, organic waste, grasses and other perennial cellulose crops, algae, and more — have been funded, researched and tested as avenues to viable low-carbon liquid fuels. But technological and upscaling challenges have repeatedly frustrated their widespread use.
- Producing biofuels can do major environmental harm, including deforestation and biodiversity loss due to needed cropland expansion, with biofuel crops sometimes displacing important food crops, say critics. In some instances, land use change for biofuels can add to carbon emissions rather than curbing them.
- Some experts suggest that the holy grail of an efficient biofuel is still obtainable, with much to be learned from past experiments. Others say we would be better off abandoning this techno fix, investing instead in electrifying the transportation grid to save energy, and rewilding former biofuel croplands to store more carbon.

Companies eye ‘carbon insetting’ as winning climate solution, but critics are wary
- A tool that wields the techniques of carbon offsets is surging among companies claiming that it reduces their carbon footprints. The tool, known by some as “insetting,” had simmered for more than a decade on the fringes of climate action among brands that rely on agriculture, but is now expanding to other sectors.
- Insetting is defined as company projects to reduce or remove emissions within their own internal supply chains. Proponents say it is valuable for agriculture-based firms struggling to address indirect emissions from land that has already been deforested. Like offsets, insetting can bring social and economic benefits to communities.
- Some oppose the tool outright, saying it is subject to the same problems as offsets (including lack of permanence and enforceable standards), but can also be worse as it can lead to double-counting climate benefits and can have weaker oversight.
- Having now become popular with major corporations such as Nestlé and PepsiCo, insetting as a climate tool is poised to see increased scrutiny as companies and researchers figure out its place in corporate action and reckon with the urgency to reduce emissions from agriculture.

Scientists map nearly 10 billion trees, stored carbon, in Africa’s drylands
- A recent study has mapped the locations of 9.9 billion trees across Africa’s drylands, a region below the Sahara Desert and north of the equator.
- The research, which combined satellite mapping, machine learning and field measurements, led to an estimate of 840 million metric tons of carbon contained in the trees.
- This figure is much lower than the amount of carbon held in Africa’s tropical rainforests.
- However, these trees provide critical biodiversity habitat and help boost agricultural productivity, and this method provides a tool to track both degradation and tree-planting efforts in the region.

Indonesia’s mangrove restoration will run out of land well short of target, study warns
- The Indonesian government’s mangrove restoration plan faces a major hurdle, according to a new study: less than a third of the target area is actually viable for restoration.
- The finding isn’t all bad news; the researchers have been invited to collaborate with the national mangrove restoration agency on “fine-tuning where these areas are, and what kind of priority they need.”
- The study found the most promising sites for restoration are on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, which largely match the government’s own priority areas.
- Successful mangrove restoration across Indonesia could secure healthy fisheries for coastal communities and improve fisheries-based economies, thereby reducing poverty and hunger, and improving health and well-being for 74 million people.

Conservationists decry palm oil giants’ exit from HCSA forest protection group
- Palm oil giants Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) and IOI Corporation Berhad have withdrawn from the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), a mechanism that helps companies reach zero deforestation targets by distinguishing forest lands that should be protected from degraded lands that can be developed.
- The companies’ exit brings the total number of firms quitting the HCSA to four, with Wilmar International and Sime Darby Plantation stepping away from the committee in 2020.
- Environmentalists say this points to a startling industry trend in which industry giants are shirking responsibility for their harmful business practices.
- Both GAR and IOI say they remain committed to using the HCSA toolkit.

Carbon market intermediaries act with little transparency, according to report
- A new report reveals that few of the brokers, resellers and cryptocurrency vendors that act as intermediaries in the voluntary carbon market reveal the commissions and markups on the credits they buy and sell.
- This lack of transparency makes it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately assess how much money from these purchases is finding its way to climate mitigation efforts.
- The report calls on intermediaries to disclose their fees and on supporting organizations to share more information about these transactions, with the goal of illuminating the true potential impact of the voluntary carbon market on climate change.

Carbon uptake in tropical forests withers in drier future: Study
- A new study incorporating satellite data on organic material, or biomass, in tropical forests with experimental data about the effects of temperature and precipitation suggests that forests may lose substantial amounts of carbon by the end of the 21st century.
- Even with low continued carbon emissions, tropical forests, especially those in the southern Amazon, could lose between 6.8 and 12% of their aboveground carbon. With higher emissions, they could lose 13.3 to 20.1% of their carbon stores.
- The results highlight the need to reduce global temperatures rapidly to maintain the healthy forests best able to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
- The team reported their findings Feb. 6 in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Updated guide gives practical advice for buyers of tropical forest carbon credits
- An updated guide written by eight conservation and Indigenous organizations offers a detailed path forward for companies that want to compensate for their carbon emissions in addition to decarbonizing their supply chains.
- Though the carbon market faces criticism over the true value it brings to climate change mitigation, proponents say it can complement earnest efforts to decarbonize supply chains if used properly.
- The updated Tropical Forest Credit Integrity guide calls for due diligence on the part of companies to ensure the credits they purchase will result in climate gains.
- The authors of the guide also stress the importance of including Indigenous peoples and local communities in decisions about offset efforts.

Peatland restoration in temperate nations could be carbon storage bonanza
- Much maligned and undervalued over the centuries, temperate peatlands have seen a lot damage in that time — drained for agriculture, planted with trees, mined for horticulture and fuel. But in an age of escalating climate change, people are now turning to restoration.
- As potent carbon sequesters, peatlands have only recently been given new attention, with active restoration taking place in many nations around the world. This story focuses on groundbreaking temperate peatland restoration efforts in the U.S. Southeast, Scotland and Canada.
- Every temperate peatland is different, making each restoration project unique, but the goal is almost always the same: restore the natural hydrology of the peatland so it can maximize carbon storage and native biodiversity, and improve its resilience in the face of climate change and increasingly common fires in a warming world.

Forest carbon offsets are a tool, not a silver bullet (commentary)
- The Guardian recently published an article questioning the effectiveness of forest carbon offsets, immediately followed by another in Die Zeit about ‘phantom offsets.’
- These criticisms are not without precedent: carbon offsetting is often presented either as a panacea or as corporate greenwashing that distracts from the difficult task of reducing actual greenhouse gas emissions.
- But as two leaders from CIFOR-ICRAF argue in a new commentary, “It is neither one nor the other. It is a tool. No particular policy instrument stands out as a ‘silver bullet,’ but improving the coherence and complementarity of the policy mix across government levels can enhance the effectiveness of policies.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Forest modeling misses the water for the carbon: Q&A with Antonio Nobre & Anastassia Makarieva
- An expanded understanding of forests’ role in moisture transport and heat regulation raises the stakes on the health of the Amazon Rainforest and the need to stop cutting trees.
- The biotic pump theory, conceived by scientists Anastassia Makarieva and the late Victor Gorshkov, suggests that forests’ impact on hydrology and cooling exceeds the role of carbon embodied in trees.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Makarieva and Brazilian scientist Antonio Nobre explain how the theory makes the case for a more urgent approach by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to protect the Amazon.

Amazonian countries must act together to reverse rainforest loss, experts say
- A group of researchers from the Science Panel for the Amazon, an initiative dedicated to the region, says reversing the destruction of the rainforest needs to be done through large-scale restoration.
- They prescribe tailored action that unlocks different benefits in areas with high deforestation rates and forest degradation, and those experiencing climate change impacts.
- So-called arcs of reforestation would need to be created across Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Brazil, while conservation work would seek to stop further deforestation.
- According to the experts, with the exception of Brazil, Amazonian countries lack forest data for effectively running restoration actions.

Temperature extremes, plus ecological marginalization, raise species risk: Studies
- In a business-as-usual carbon emissions scenario — humanity’s current trajectory — two in five land vertebrates could be exposed to temperatures equal to, or exceeding, the hottest temperatures of the past decades across at least half of their range by 2099. If warming could be kept well below 2°C (3.6°F), that number drops to 6%, according to a new study.
- More than one in eight mammal species have already lost part of their former geographical range. In many cases, this means those species no longer have access to some (or sometimes any) of their core habitat, making it much more difficult to survive in a warming world.
- When animal populations continue to decline in an area even after it has been protected, one possible explanation may be that the conserved habitat is marginal compared to that found in the species’ historical range.
- In the light of recent pledges to protect 30% of the planet’s surface, it is important to prioritize the right areas. The focus should be on conserving core habitat — which is often highly productive and already intensively used by humans — while respecting the rights and needs of Indigenous people, many of whom have also been pushed to the margins.

Carbon markets entice, but confuse, corporations: Report
- A new report from the environmental nonprofit Conservation International and the We Mean Business Coalition, a partnership of climate NGOs, found that many corporations are interested in using carbon markets to address their emissions.
- The report, released Jan. 12, drew from the responses of 502 managers in charge of sustainability at companies in the U.S., U.K. and Europe.
- Carbon markets, which allow businesses and individuals to offset their emissions by supporting projects aimed at, say, reducing tropical deforestation, are seen by some as a necessary step to reducing carbon emissions globally.
- However, others see carbon markets and the credits they sell as a tool that allows companies to continue releasing carbon with little benefit to the overall climate.

Elephants promote jumbo trees, boosting the carbon stores in Africa’s forests
- The dietary habits of African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) promote the survival of large, high wood density trees better at storing carbon.
- New research finds that forest-dwelling elephants browse on trees with low wood density, making space for bigger, heftier carbon-rich trees.
- The elephants also act as seed dispersers for these larger trees.
- Cautioning that determining exactly what role local elephant extinctions have played in changing forest composition is tricky, the researchers argue that elephants may boost above-ground carbon storage in Central African forests by 6-9%.

Re-carbonizing the sea: Scientists to start testing a big ocean carbon idea
- Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) involves releasing certain minerals into the ocean, sparking a chemical reaction that enables the seawater to trap more CO₂ from the air and mitigating, albeit temporarily, ocean acidification.
- Some scientists believe OAE could be a vital tool for drawing down and securely storing some of the excess CO₂ humanity has added to the atmosphere that is now fueling climate change.
- Yet many questions about OAE remain, including most prominently how it would impact marine life and ecosystems.
- Several programs are aiming to spark the research needed to answer these questions, including field tests in the ocean.

Even in recovery, previously logged tropical forests are carbon sources: Study
- Logging of tropical forests may result in more carbon being released into the atmosphere than previously thought, according to new research.
- The study conducted in Malaysian Borneo demonstrates that logged tropical forests are a significant and persistent net source of carbon emissions for at least one decade after disturbance.
- The study authors say the amount of carbon being sequestered across the world’s tropical forests may be considerably lower than currently estimated and recommend a shift toward more sustainable logging practices and better accounting of carbon emissions and uptake.
- As the body of evidence expands demonstrating how human activity is impacting the capacity of forests to mitigate climate change, experts say reducing fossil fuel emissions is paramount.

The EU banned Russian wood pellet imports; South Korea took them all
- In July 2022, the European Union responded to the war in Ukraine by banning the import of Russian woody biomass used to make energy. At roughly the same time, South Korea drastically upped its Russian woody biomass imports, becoming the sole official importer of Russian wood pellets for industrial energy use.
- The EU has reportedly replaced its Russian supplies of woody biomass by importing wood pellets from the U.S. and Eastern Europe. But others say that trade data and paper trails indicate a violation of the EU ban, with laundered Russian wood pellets possibly flowing through Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to multiple EU nations.
- EU pellet imports from Turkey grew from 2,200 tons monthly last spring to 16,000 tons in September. Imports from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan reportedly rose too, even though neither has a forest industry. A large body of scientific evidence shows that woody biomass adds significantly to climate change and biodiversity loss.
- Enviva, the world’s largest woody biomass producer, which operates chiefly in the Southeast U.S., may be the big winner in the Russian biomass ban. Since the war began, Enviva has upped EU shipments, and also announced a 10-year contract with an unnamed European customer to deliver 800,000 metric tons of pellets annually by 2027.

Dollars and chainsaws: Can timber production help fund global reforestation?
- As global reforestation commitments grow, how will companies, governments and communities pay to restore forest ecosystems and help sequester carbon over the long-term?
- One option: Grow and sell timber on the same plots of land where reforestation work is underway, as exemplified by pioneering restoration projects in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, where a single harvest of fast-growing eucalyptus grows up amid restored native trees. Eucalyptus sales then help pay for long-term restoration.
- Another approach is to concurrently grow tree plantations and forest restorations on separate, often adjacent, plots of land, with a large portion of the profits from timber harvests going to support the long-term management of the reforestation projects.
- But some scientists and forest advocates worry that projects or businesses that become overreliant on timber revenues to finance restoration could undermine an initiative’s environmental benefits, and lock in unintended harvesting within native ecosystems. Experts ask: Can we truly pay for new trees by cutting others down?

The Netherlands to stop paying subsidies to ‘untruthful’ biomass firms
- On December 5, 2022, Mongabay featured a story by journalist Justin Catanoso in which the first ever biomass industry insider came forward as a whistleblower and discredited the green sustainability claims made by Enviva — the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for energy.
- On December 15, citing that article and recent scientific evidence that Enviva contributes to deforestation in the U.S. Southeast, The Netherlands decided it will stop paying subsidies to any biomass company found to be untruthful in its wood pellet production methods. The Netherlands currently offers sizable subsidies to Enviva.
- Precisely how The Netherlands decision will impact biomass subsidies in the long run is unclear. Nor is it known how this decision may impact the EU’s Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) certification process, which critics say is inherently weak and unreliable.
- Also in December, Australia became the first major nation to reverse its designation of forest biomass as a renewable energy source, raising questions about how parties to the UN Paris agreement can support opposing renewable energy policies, especially regarding biomass — a problem for COP28 negotiators to resolve in 2023.

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