Poorer rural people are not excluded from the carbon credit scheme because of their lack of formal land rights, but there are also risks to the approach, which gives state officials power to define what activities are incentivized.

Brazil is better positioned than any other nation to lead the pathway to the low-carbon economy. Its 7+ billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions that have been avoided through Brazil’s enormous and successful effort to slow Amazon deforestation are now poised to be monetized.

Recently demand for offsets has risen fast, and could rise faster if federal or state climate legislation created compliance markets for them. Voluntary carbon markets are relatively small, and voluntary carbon offsets cut less than two tenths of a percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions — but in a larger compliance market, where offsets help meet climate policy requirements, they could cut orders of magnitude more.

The Nature Conservancy will manage the land, known as the Cumberland Forest Project, for a decade, and will provide investors financial returns from three sources: revenue from certified sustainable timber sales, carbon offset credits and the eventual sale of the land, at the end of the period, with long-term or permanent management restrictions in place.

Only part of the land will be logged. The Forest Stewardship Council, a nonprofit group, will make sure the logging operations meet environmental and safety measures. And cutting down trees is only one way the forest can make money. Thanks to California's climate change rules, forest owners can profit from their trees' carbon-absorbing powers.

“We offer practical guidance on how funders can advance conservation outcomes by being intentional about considering climate change in their funding strategies, and embracing rather than resisting changes that are underway or imminent.”

The objective of the Framework is to promote the integration of climate change analysis in the management of large, long-term and diversified asset pools. Building on current industry best practice, the Framework aims to foster a shared understanding among long-term asset owners with regard to key principles, as well as methodologies, and indicators related to climate issues.

In just one week, farmers have pledged more than 700,000 acres to Indigo Ag’s new carbon sequestration initiative. The program, which launched on June 12, will pay farmers to use regenerative farming practices and remove carbon from the atmosphere.

This bond for low-carbon development and sustainable water management will finance, among other things, natural infrastructure solutions in the Netherlands that are crucial for protecting one of the world's lowest-lying countries from floods and sea-level rise.

The Nature Conservancy program, called Working Woodlands, has enrolled 92,000 acres through 13 projects in four states — Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee and Michigan — since the nonprofit launched the initiative a decade ago.