Carbon trading gains ground across emerging markets

Carbon market infrastructure is taking shape across new emerging markets, as Kazakhstan, Ecuador, and Madagascar each move to formalise how carbon credits are created, traded, and sold abroad under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The Astana International Exchange (AIX) has launched carbon credit trading for units verified under the Verified Carbon Standard, administered by US-based Verra. Unveiled at the Astana Finance Days 2026 forum, the launch makes AIX the first exchange in Central Asia to operate its own infrastructure for trading these credits, giving regional developers a domestic venue to reach international buyers and raise capital.

London-based Valor Carbon supplied the first credits, with trades cleared through Standard International Market, one of the exchange’s brokers. Part of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), AIX now lists carbon credits alongside International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs), its second environmental product. The launch also expands the AIFC’s Carbon Platform, which connects project developers, investors, and other market participants across the region.

“Carbon projects are increasingly emerging in Central Asia, and attracting financing remains a key issue for their development,” AIFC chairman Bakhtiyar Tleubekov said. “The AIFC’s role is to build infrastructure that gives such projects access to capital.”

“The launch of exchange-based carbon credit trading is a practical step in this direction,” Tleubekov said.

The focus on Verra-certified units follows a memorandum of understanding AIX signed with US-based standard BCarbon in December to host its credits and explore pilot projects in Kazakhstan. In August, the country published its first detailed operating manual for Article 6, setting out procedures for project applications, credit authorisations, and developer timelines.

Read more: Kazakhstan's Article 6 rules put forestry centre stage

Ecuador has embedded carbon markets into national law. President Daniel Noboa signed the “Law Reforming the Organic Environmental Code,” a reform that cleared Congress last month and authorises the country to sell credits abroad under Article 6. The law lets developers take part in regulated and voluntary carbon trading, pursue cooperative approaches for transferring mitigation results abroad, and engage in non-market mechanisms. The reform requires a national carbon registry to underpin future credit exports.

In parallel, Madagascar has set out its Article 6 priorities in an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) recently submitted to the UN. Already a major supplier of Eligible Emissions Units to the UN-backed CORSIA aviation market, the country named forests, energy efficiency, environmentally-smart agriculture, waste, and blue carbon as the sectors most likely to gain authorisation.

These moves point to a busy agenda at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, in November, where emerging nations will press for a larger share of grant-based funding under the climate finance mechanism agreed in principle at COP29 in Baku.

Read more: Want a simpler way to buy carbon credits? Discover our carbon marketplace

As governments and standards move to formally recognise carbon credits as tradable instruments, demand for credible supply will grow alongside them. Businesses preparing for this shift need a dependable supply they can stand behind: credits that are verified, traceable, and backed by real environmental results. Green Earth provides that supply. Through our customer-friendly carbon marketplace, we give businesses access to high-integrity carbon credits from nature-based carbon projects that restore ecosystems and support local communities, so you can meet rising expectations for quality with confidence.