Standard Chartered Acts as Exclusive Seller of Amazon Rainforest Carbon Credits

Standard Chartered has signed a five-year agreement with the government of Brazil's State of Acre to act as exclusive seller of jurisdictional forest protection carbon credits on its behalf. The deal is described as one of the first instances of a major international bank partnering with a sub-national government to support forest conservation through carbon markets.

Under the agreement, Standard Chartered will market jurisdictional forest carbon credits — which cover an entire government jurisdiction rather than individual projects — to buyers globally, with the potential for 5 million credits to come to market in 2026. The credits are to be registered in the ART TREES registry, a recognised standard for verifying emissions reductions from deforestation. The State of Acre is located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and the credits are designed to create financial incentives for preserving standing forests.

The deal allocates 72% of credit sale proceeds to indigenous and local communities for activities including sustainable livestock farming, secondary forest reforestation, and community-based tourism. The remaining 28% funds project governance, forest monitoring, and emergency response to extreme weather. For Standard Chartered, the agreement leverages its global network and carbon market expertise to demonstrate that major banks can serve as intermediaries between carbon-rich jurisdictions in the global south and corporate buyers seeking high-integrity offsets.

Standard Chartered positions the deal as a scalable model for jurisdiction-wide deforestation reduction, addressing the core market failure whereby short-term economic incentives for clearing forests outweigh the perceived value of standing trees. The bank notes that without new market mechanisms, forest protection is unlikely to be financially viable. The arrangement also supports the voluntary carbon market's integrity by using the ART TREES verified methodology for greenhouse gas emissions quantification and verification.

Key figure — 5 million carbon credits potentially coming to market in 2026