March 2025 VCM Updates: Section A

This article is an automatically translated version of the original Japanese article. Please refer to the Japanese version for the most accurate information.

This is a newsletter from Sustainacraft Inc. This article is Section A (Market Trends) of VCM Updates (Voluntary Carbon Market Updates).

«VCM Updates Structure»

A. Voluntary Carbon Credit Market Trends ← This article's focus

1. Credit Issuance, Retirement, and Investment Trend Analysis
2. Project Pipeline Analysis
3. Detailed Explanation Section

B. Trends in Major Overseas Regulations

Introduction

Credit Issuance, Retirement, Investment Trends, and Project Pipeline Trends

Regarding Credit Issuance, the total issuance volume in February was 23.80 million units, showing no significant change compared to the same month last year, but the issuance volume for nature-based Credits is increasing annually. Notably, issuances from the ART registry account for a large portion.

Regarding Retirement, the Credit Retirement volume in February was 20.20 million units, a slight increase compared to the same month last year. Approximately 30% of this was the Retirement of nature-based Credits, with the majority coming from VCS.

While Credit Issuance shows diversification across registries, the trend for Retirement continues to be largely dominated by VCS, which has a high number of legacy projects.

Regarding Investment Trends, this month we introduce 9 significant investments in nature-based and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) projects. This includes international players like Frontier, Google, and United Airlines, as well as initiatives related to Japanese companies such as Sumitomo Forestry's U.S.-based Eastwood Forests, NYK Line, and Mitsui & Co.

As for new project Pipelines, the number of nature-based projects increased in February, with a significant number of applications from Laos (7 projects) and India (13 projects).

A. Voluntary Carbon Credit Market Trends (Verra)

A-1: Credit Issuance, Retirement, and Investment Trend Analysis

- Analysis Target Registries: VCS (Verra), GS (Gold Standard), CAR (Climate Action Reserve), ACR (American Carbon Registry), Puro (Puro.earth), Isometric
- Target Period: February 2025
- Notes: Please note that companies are not obligated to register their real names for Credit Retirement with the registries, and therefore accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Also, please be aware that there may be a delay in reflection to the registries, so the number of projects or status changes for this target period may vary in the future.

Issuance and Retirement performance for the target period is as follows (figures in parentheses indicate year-on-year change):

• Issuance Volume: 23.82 million (-6%), of which nature-based: 11.45 million (+28%)
• Retirement Volume: 20.23 million (+13%), of which nature-based: 6.58 million (+4%)

<Issued Project List>

Below are the top 10 projects for which Credits were issued during the target period.

<Retired Project List>

Below is a list of the top 10 nature-based projects with the highest Retirement volumes during the target period.

<Retiring Companies List>

The top 10 companies that retired nature-based project Credits during the target period are as follows:

<Investment Trends in Nature-based Projects>

- Target Period: February 2025
- Notes: This section highlights investments in nature restoration, REDD+, and nature-based CDR projects. Please note that "Credit volume" and "Investment amount" may be future projected values.

In February, there were 9 significant investments in nature-based and CDR projects.

A-2: Project Pipeline Analysis

- Analysis Target Registries: VCS (Verra), GS (Gold Standard)
- Target Period: February 2025
- Notes: Please note that there may be a slight time lag for reflection to the registries, so the number of projects or status changes for this target period may vary in the future.
- Terminology: Annual ER refers to the annual Emission Reduction / Sequestration volume (tCO₂e).

This section first introduces new Pipeline projects and then reviews significant changes in last month's Pipeline that were not reflected in the previous newsletter.

<This Month's Pipeline>

The pipeline for nature-based projects includes the following 33 projects.

<Significant Changes in Previous Month's Pipeline>

In last month's newsletter, the January pipeline included a total of 2 projects. However, it has since been updated and now includes a total of 8 projects.

A-3: Detailed Explanation Section

This section provides a more detailed explanation of the investment projects mentioned above.

<Investment Trends in Nature-based Projects>

This section introduces information regarding investments in nature-based projects announced last month.