Japanese Developer Launches Enhanced Rock Weathering Pilot in Thailand for Carbon Credits

## OzelCarbonOS VCM Intelligence Brief — 28 September 2026 **Removals pipeline expands in Asia as ERW and policy action converge.** A Tokyo-based developer has launched an enhanced rock weathering (ERW) pilot in Thailand, aiming to tap voluntary carbon credit demand for novel carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pathways ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554894/)). Meanwhile, Hanoi has established an inter-agency task force to systematically identify carbon credit–eligible projects across the Vietnamese capital, signalling growing Southeast Asian government engagement with voluntary and Article 6 supply pipelines ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554905/)). These moves underscore continued momentum in the Asia & Global South corridor, where new methodologies and sovereign interest are converging to reshape the credit-type mix. **Integrity pressures intensify on biochar and CDR credit quality.** A new report has raised environmental and social concerns over a Brazilian biochar project and its underlying eucalyptus feedstock plantations, spotlighting the due-diligence risks that buyers face when procuring engineered-removal credits at scale ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/553825/)). Separately, a Climate Week NYC panel urged Big Tech data-centre operators to source part of their removal portfolios from local soil carbon programmes near AI infrastructure, linking procurement with community co-benefits and resilience — a demand-side signal that could channel corporate removal spend toward nature-based soil credits rather than purely technological solutions ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554859/)). Together, these stories highlight the ongoing tension between scaling CDR supply and maintaining robust safeguards — a dynamic that IC-VCM and registry standards will need to address as removal credit volumes grow. **Compliance and trade policy developments create cross-market ripples.** The WTO has agreed to convene a dispute panel on Russia's challenge to the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and Emissions Trading System (ETS), a ruling that could have far-reaching implications for how carbon pricing interacts with trade law and, indirectly, for CORSIA-eligible credit demand if compliance costs shift ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554773/)). On the regulatory front, Alberta is expected to release its TIER direct investment standard shortly, potentially opening new compliance offset supply in Canada ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554303/)), while analysts assess that Canada's climate-risk governance framework has remained broadly resilient despite US anti-ESG spillover pressures ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554724/)). **Policy outlook.** Tuvalu and Ireland announced plans to co-host a 2027 global conference focused on fossil fuel transition implementation, reinforcing multilateral ambition signals that underpin long-term carbon credit demand ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554892/)). EU methane regulations are assessed as unlikely to disrupt gas security ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554495/)), and the EU is urged to deepen energy partnerships with developing nations through green hydrogen and raw-material value chains ([Carbon Pulse](https://carbon-pulse.com/554212/)). For VCM participants, these policy threads point to a broadening regulatory architecture that should sustain — and increasingly shape — both compliance and voluntary credit flows into 2027.