Verra's Version 5 Consultation, Saudi Arabia's 30M Tonne Commitment & Article 6 Breakthrough

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Verra Proposes Stricter Rules in Version 5 Consultation

Verra launched its final consultation for VCS Version 5 (open through Aug 11), proposing game-changing updates:

• Permanence insurance as an alternative to buffer pools
• More frequent baseline updates for all project types
• Stronger safeguards with risk-based social/environmental protections

Impact: Higher development costs but significantly improved market credibility for VCS credits.

Saudi Arabia's Massive 30 Million Tonne Commitment

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund signed a landmark deal with NEOM's Enowa to deliver 30 million carbon credits by 2030. This represents the largest long-term offtake agreement to date, signaling a major shift from one-off purchases to multi-year commitments.

This unprecedented scale of demand should provide strong price support, especially for Global South projects.

Article 6 Breakthrough for Carbon Capture

Norway and Switzerland inked the first bilateral Article 6 agreement enabling cross-border CO₂ storage and credit transfers for CCS projects. This pioneering framework could unlock international trading of carbon removal credits and scale up CCS/CDR projects globally.

💰 Deal Highlights

• BECCS Expansion: Frontier Infrastructure secured 120,000 tonnes of permanent removal credits from a novel rail-based BECCS project
• Platform Funding: French startup Riverse raised €5M to expand its tech-focused carbon credit platform
• Concrete Innovation: Calgary cement tech startup secured C$25M to scale low-carbon solutions

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This newsletter synthesizes the week's most critical developments for carbon project developers.