Legislation for Britain’s new publicly-owned energy company has passed through parliament, formally establishing Great British Energy.

A US-headquartered global investor specialising in regenerative agriculture and forestry announced on Thursday that its assets under management grew by 24% last year.

Growth in China’s clean power generation has led to a decline in the country's CO2 output, but changes in global trade dynamics and domestic renewables policy could complicate the emissions outlook, according to a report published Thursday.

Staff shakeup - RMI, a Colorado-based clean energy think tank formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute, announced Tuesday it would lay off 10% of its staff, citing increased uncertainty around revenue sources, E&E News reported. In an email to employees, CEO Jon Creyts said that while RMI had grown rapidly in recent years, the external landscape had shifted. The organisation also stated that the Trump administration recently terminated two US DOE grants worth $5.3 mln and $1.5 mln, but stated that these represented only a small part of its budget and were not the cause of the layoffs.

A Canadian direct air capture (DAC) company specialising in tech tailored for cold, dry climates is set to have its first facility up and running this year, projecting plans to scale globally.

A ratings agency praised a new afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) methodology for the novel way in which it required projects to employ local ecologists to fine-tune restoration plans, but noted a critical shortcoming in the protocol's carbon accounting method.

Maritime moves - Aptamus Carbon Solutions, a subsidiary of US-based Overseas Shipholding Group, has selected the consultancy arm of Norway-based Aker Solutions, Entr, to conduct front-end engineering and design for a temporary CO2 storage and liquefaction terminal at Port Tampa Bay, Florida, and a discharge and regasification terminal at LBC Tank Terminals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The infrastructure seeks to support Aptamus' Carbon Ocean and Storage Transport 20 (COAST20) programme, aimed at developing maritime CO2 transport and storage solutions.

Expanding grid interconnectedness across Southeast Asia could speed up the energy transition and offer hundreds of thousands of jobs, a report from a think tank said Thursday.

Some 60% of companies are satisfied with the EU’s sustainability reporting rules, and half are dissatisfied with the European Commission's proposals to chop up the legislation, a business survey revealed on Thursday.

Poland backs Article 6 for EU – Poland’s deputy energy minister, Chris Bolesta, has backed international carbon credits delivered under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to count towards the EU’s upcoming 2040 climate target. The European Commission has committed to put forward a 90% emissions reduction goal for 2040 compared to 1990, and is due to present the proposal before the summer. But many EU member states are sceptical, Bolesta told Bloomberg News in an interview. “It’s about the costs of the goal and there is a large group of member states who think the 90% domestic target is excessive,” Bolesta said. “I’m convinced the discussion about international carbon credits is now about how and not anymore if to allow them in the EU.” According to the Polish minister, Brussels should consider both the option of allowing Article 6 credits for compliance under the EU ETS and in sectors outside the bloc’s carbon market. (Bloomberg News)

Marathon mark-up – After marathon overnight deliberations, the US House Ways & Means Committee voted 26-14 (R-D) along party lines to pass proposed 2025 budget reconciliation provisions that extend clean fuel production tax credits but recommend termination for a slew of clean energy and efficiency incentives. Meanwhile, the chamber’s Energy & Commerce Committee similarly passed along party lines 30-24 (R-D) proposals to slash billions in IRA funding towards emissions reductions projects. The compiled budget reconciliation legislative package with all outstanding committee markups will proceed to the Senate after clearing through a House floor vote.

Dairy deal - Aemetis Biogas, a subsidiary of California-based renewable fuels company Aemetis, signed a $27 mln equipment agreement with Centuri Holdings, a utility infrastructure services provider, to build gas cleanup systems for 15 dairy digesters. The deal is expected to support Aemetis Biogas’ expansion plans to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from 50 dairies near Modesto, California, where it already operates a central RNG facility and pipeline network. The companies stated that future collaboration could include construction management as well as additional energy and carbon sequestration projects.

Tough times – Washington DC-based non-profit the Ocean Conservancy informed 21 employees last week that their positions were being terminated, E&E reported. The layoffs are the result of factors including significant shifts in the policy and fundraising environment, heightened volatility, and increased pressure on the philanthropic sector, the group’s CEO said in an internal email.

See US later – US President Donald Trump is showing multiple signs of quitting the UNFCCC, the world’s oldest climate treaty, E&E reported. First, the administration flouted the deadline to submit an annual GHG inventory to the UN in April, only releasing that after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Second, Secretary of State Marco Rubio eliminated the Office of Global Change, which oversees US participation in annual UN climate conferences. Finally, the EPA has indicated its intention to shutter the GHG Reporting Program (GHGRP), which provides data to the emissions inventory. In an April webinar, a Biden-era State Department official said the second Trump administration was so far showing a stronger shift away from international climate action in its diplomatic efforts.

The 1.5C global warming target is now out of reach amid rising fossil fuel demand and GHG emissions, an analyst said at a conference Wednesday.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D) released plans Wednesday to extend California’s market-based emissions trading scheme past its current 2030 sunset date in a revised budget proposal, sparking a brief spike in California Carbon Allowance (CCA) futures.

A Canadian-headquartered carbon credit financing company significantly narrowed its financial losses during the first quarter of 2025 amid aggressive cost-cutting and a renewed strategic focus.

Content comeback - The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) informed the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday that it will restore climate change-related web content that was removed after President Trump's inauguration, addressing concerns in a lawsuit levied by environmental organisations. In a letter, the Department of Justice stated that the restoration process for the webpages and interactive tools identified in the plaintiffs' complaint is underway and expected to be completed within two weeks. The USDA also committed to follow relevant public access laws for future postings. In light of this commitment, the parties requested to adjourn the evidentiary hearing and oral argument on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and proposed submitting a joint status report 21 days later to update the court.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) has authorised temporary enforcement flexibility for automakers struggling to meet new zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales mandates in the state.

ETS2 on track – Nearly all fuel suppliers in the Netherlands met their first ETS2 deadline. More than 93% of companies covered by the new ETS2 for road transport, buildings and other sectors reported their CO2 emissions for the first time at the end of April, said the Dutch Emissions Authority on Wednesday. The companies reported how much CO2 was released during consumption of the fuels they supplied in 2024. The Apr. 30 deadline marked the start of annual emissions reporting for these companies in the Netherlands. Verification of the emissions data will be mandatory from next year, ahead of the ETS2 officially launching in 2027 and companies having to surrender allowances based on their emissions from 2028.

Floating wind benefits - The 1-GW floating wind consortium in the UK known as the Aspen project will support more than 1,000 jobs including 100 apprenticeships, leading developer Cerulean Winds announced. The project will see £10.9 biln total investment over its project lifetime and £4.1 bln in gross value added (GVA) to the UK. Consortium partners – NOV, Siemens Energy, Bilfinger and Ocean Installer alongside Haventus, anticipate £1 bln in direct UK spend and nearly £1 bln of inward investment.

European carbon prices fell for the fourth time in five days on Wednesday amid a general slide across energy commodity and financial markets, and despite exchange data that showed investment funds had continued to slowly build net long positions last week, while UK Allowances dropped by the most in two months ahead of next week's UK-EU summit even after funds had set a new record net long position.

Verra has issued an update to its VM0047 afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) methodology, incorporating stakeholder feedback received during a public consultation.

Most livestock farms in the UK could become energy independent by capturing methane emissions from their slurry stores and converting it into vehicle fuel or electricity, with potential to sell the excess and also generate carbon credits, according to a technology developer.

Partnered up - Eni has selected ABB as the main automation contractor for the transport and storage of CO2 at HyNet, the industrial decarbonisation cluster in the northwest of England. HyNet aims to reduce the cluster's emissions by a quarter and ABB will provide automation, telecoms, and cyber security solutions for operations there, the companies announced in a release Wednesday. The project aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 10 mln tons a year by 2030, the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road.

Signed, sealed ... - Domestic & General (D&G),  provider of appliance care protection solutions, announced that its near-term emissions reduction targets have been officially validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), in a release Wednesday. The approved targets are to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 42% FY2030 from a FY2024 base year, and to reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and distribution, business travel, and employee commuting by 51.6% per million GBP value added in the same timeframe. Last month the group appointed Kelly Perry as global head of sustainability, coming from trading platform CMC Markets.

Sharing is caring - A new open access repository for preprints and data related to carbon removals has been launched by CarbonPlan to help interested parties freely share and discover new CDR research from any discipline. The repository CDRXIV allows researchers to share their work before it goes through the formal peer review process, and helps new findings reach more researchers faster, with the aim of accelerating scientific research. It welcomes submissions from anyone generating new research on CDR and once accepted, the submission will be posted publicly. More details here.

Eligible carbon credits for the current phase of the UN's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) could reach $14-16 per tonne by 2027, new analysis shows.

CO2 storage - Equinor has completed two appraisal wells in the Norwegian North Sea that show suitable conditions for carbon storage, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate said. Drilled in the Gamma and Alpha areas using the Deepsea Stavanger rig, the wells are part of the Smeaheia project, which aims to store up to 20 MtCO₂ annually from 2030. Preliminary injection tests were positive, and the results will inform future investment decisions. (Offshore Energy)

The European Commission's proposal to cut the red tape for agriculture quickly drew criticism from environmental advocates on Wednesday, who warned the new Omnibus measures could significantly weaken environmental protections and further erode the European Green Deal.

The European Commission has attracted a record number of project applications for two Innovation Fund calls, which use revenues of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to support the deployment of pioneering net-zero technologies and electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing.

As new chair of the Arctic Council, Denmark must take a "strong and ambitious lead" on accelerating reductions of methane and black carbon from all sectors including shipping before 2030, urged a non-profit coalition seeking to protect the region from shipping impacts.

What's their beef? - Britain's Court of Appeal has ruled that environmental charity Global Feedback Limited’s (GFL) challenge to UK regulations implementing the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement does not qualify as an Aarhus Convention claim and is therefore not eligible for automatic costs protection under the Civil Procedure Rules. The case centred on whether the government's alleged failure to assess carbon leakage from increased Australian beef imports breached a provision of national law "relating to the environment". The Court held that while the Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act 2018 requires regard to international obligations, it is fundamentally trade and taxation legislation, not environmental law. It concluded that Aarhus protections apply only when specific legal provisions aimed at environmental protection are contravened, and general public law errors or indirect environmental impacts do not meet that threshold.

Funding for trees - Nature tech platform veritree has secured $6.5 mln in a Series A round and reached its pledged goal of 100 mln trees planted, from Kenya to Canada. The company that aims to plant 1 bln trees by 2030 received the funding from Pender Ventures, with participation from Garage Capital, Northside Ventures, and Diagram. Veritree's platforms uses a combination of on-the-ground monitoring, sensors, and above-ground GIS tools to monitor and report on tree growth. The company will use the funding for efforts including rolling out its AI monitoring and analysis features, and testing and deploying the platform across new ecosystems in South America and Asia.

A direct air capture startup said this week it will reduce its workforce and delay a facility under development in the US amid macroeconomic uncertainty and changing policy priorities.

Carbon Destroyer launch - The first European-built offshore CO2 carrier was launched Wednesday by Ineos Energy and Royal Wagenborg to enable carbon capture storage across Europe. The launch and naming of 'Carbon Destroyer 1' marks a defining moment in the development of Denmark's Project Greensand and the EU's first commercial-scale CCS value chain, stated the release. The vessel has been specially adapted for handling CO₂ under pressure and at low temperatures, and shall connect emitters with permanent, commercial-scale offshore CO2 storage.

A Munich-headquartered startup announced on Wednesday that it has raised €37 million in Series B funding to advance its technology for wildfire management and risk assessment.

A Dutch environmental group has launched a new climate lawsuit against Shell, seeking to block the development of over 700 new oil and gas fields the company is reportedly planning, it announced Tuesday.

Clean foam - London-based biotech startup Carbon Cell has raised £1.2 mln of pre-seed funding for a plastic-free foam with a low or even negative carbon footprint, it announced on Tuesday. Carbon Cell's biochar-based foam could replace polymer-based foams, helping to decarbonise materials such as packaging and insulation. The pre-seed round was led by Green Angel Ventures and Counteract, and included participation from Hermesa, RCA Design and Innovation S/EIS Fund, and One Planet Capital. Over 10 mln tonnes of expanded polystyrene were produced last year - enough to cover the European continent 50 mm thick. The market is worth over $109 bln. The funding will help Carbon cell scale up from batch processing to continuous production, and carry out manufacturing trials to ensure the material can be used in plastics.

A widely used method for counting carbon has been massively overestimating indirect Scope 3 emissions, according to research published on Wednesday.

Converting food waste to carbon-rich biochar in the UK could deliver 93,000 tonnes of carbon removals annually by 2030, helping the country towards achieving its mid-century goal of net zero.

Voluntary carbon market (VCM) retirements have dropped 17% year-on-year, but the overall numbers of buyers are rising, and they are favouring higher-rated products, a report published on Wednesday has found.  

The world’s largest soil carbon project, which was still allowed to issue credits in April despite a court declaring part of it unconstitutional, has been placed on hold by Verra, suspending further issuance.  

A clean cookstove manufacturer has received a $5 million investment from EDFI management company through the EU funded Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI).  

On the right track - European companies are increasingly lobbying for strong climate action, showing that a large, quiet majority support decarbonisation despite the vocal opponents that achieve outsized importance in the public sphere. The share of companies whose corporate lobbying aligns with pathways to meet global climate goals rose from 3% in 2019 to 23% in 2025, according to analysis of 200 of the largest European companies by InfluenceMap, while the share of companies who were deemed misaligned fell from 34% to 14%. The analysis found over half of the companies were at least partially aligned with pathways to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5C above preindustrial levels. (the Guardian)

Article 6 reviews - The first batch of technical expert review reports for cooperative approaches under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement have been finalised and published. Those signed between Switzerland and the countries of Ghana, Thailand, and Vanuatu are now available to view here via the links on LinkedIn.

The UK’s carbon credit industry could generate £1 billion in tax revenue by 2035, research by a carbon ratings agency has found.

An Ankara-based firm has developed a cold plasma system it says can remove nearly all carbon and pollutants from industrial flue gas — an invention it says could be a game changer for the heavy emitting sectors' decarbonisation, according to a presentation at the Carbon Forward Turkiye conference last week.

Plants could sequester around a third more CO2 using new biotechnology being developed by a consortium of universities, which builds on the molecular nature of algae that is particularly efficient at CO2 uptake.

Growing pipeline - Tokyo-based developer Green Carbon has added another initiative to its project pipeline in the Philippines, it announced Wednesday. Green Carbon said it has secured an MoU to start a carbon credit project in Leyte province, where the company will work to reduce emissions from rice cultivation by following a methodology under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM). The project, to be launched in June, will initially cover around 1,000 ha of rice paddies and create roughly 1 mln carbon credits over the next 10 years.

Power of tech - Japan's Shin-Idemitsu Real Estate has teamed up with climate startup DeepForest to generate  J-Credits on around 50 ha of the forest it owns, according to a statement released Wednesday. The offset project, supported by DeepForest's drones and measurement solutions, is expected to generate 1,400 credits over 10 years. Meanwhile, vehicle supplier Musashi Seimitsu Industry, which is expanding its e-mobility business, has announced its plans to promote electric motorcycles in Kenya. The company said it will visualise the emissions reduction effect through carbon credits, without specifying a target.

Financing new-build LNG carriers that will have a 30-year lifespan and increase the consumption of natural gas is incompatible with banks’ net zero goals, a South Korean group said Wednesday.

A strong Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is key to keeping steel production in the EU, but if that fails, a slower phaseout of free EU carbon allowances would help the sector cope with rising decarbonisation costs, ArcelorMittal’s head of climate told Carbon Pulse.

Biogas target – The EU should set a binding target of 100 bcm of biogases by 2040, said the European Biogas Association (EBA) on Tuesday. This would avoid over 483 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Moreover, biogases production could capture and reuse up to 89 million tonnes of biogenic CO2 by 2040, the EBA added. It said the EU’s roadmap last week to exit Russian fossil fuels completely by 2027 “recognised the strategic importance of biogases”. Legislative proposals should follow in June. The European Commission estimates that total EU gas consumption will be 105-155 Mtoe in 2040. The European biogas sector currently provides 22 bcm of biogases, or 7% of the EU’s natural gas consumption in 2023.

The UK’s state-owned clean power company has launched a £4 million funding scheme aimed at boosting community-led renewable energy projects across Scotland, the government announced on Wednesday.

An Australian-based green hydrogen hopeful has announced results from its latest testing could lower initial spending costs by 10% and improve energy efficiency similarly.

Cookstove projects that adhere to realistic levels of stringency under updated methodologies are not being rewarded with prices high enough to make the projects financially worthwhile, according to a report published by a carbon market intelligence platform on Wednesday.

The independent environment disclosure group CDP is carrying out a strategic restructuring in a way that streamlines the way companies report on their footprints, and makes the organisation's data more accessible, it announced on Wednesday.

Electrifry - Kenyan clean cookstove maker BURN has secured a $5-mln investment from the EU-funded Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI) to scale electric cooking access. The funding will help deploy over 100,000 IoT-enabled induction stoves across Kenyan households, potentially cutting fuel costs by up to 60% and avoiding 1.4 MtCO2, the company said, adding it has distributed over 5 mln cookstoves across 11 African countries to date. The Kenyan government has set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 35% by 2035, 80% of which will be achieved by carbon credits and international support.

Funding for the controversial practice of solar geoengineering has surged to record levels and will climb in the coming years, albeit from a concentrated number of sources, a non-profit said Wednesday.

China’s overseas power plant portfolio has shifted to cleaner energy sources, but the overall stock is still heavily concentrated in fossil fuel projects, according to a recent report.

A US-based timberland investment portfolio firm has signed what is claimed to be the country’s first ever offtake agreement for voluntary biodiversity credits, from a project in Louisiana.

Price discovery - Indian construction firm Larsen and Toubro’s subsidiary on Wednesday won a bid to build a 10,000 tonne per annum green hydrogen plant for Indian Oil Corp, according to local media. The tender has discovered a price of $4.67 per kilogram of green hydrogen. India last month launched a green hydrogen certificate as it aims to export derivatives of the clean fuel to Japan and Singapore. The country has deals to supply 412,000 tonnes of green hydrogen derivatives.

Heating up - Indonesia last week secured over $499 million in funding from the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) to develop an 88 MW geothermal power plant in West Sumatra, with commercial operations targeted for 2027, as per media reports. An additional 60 MW expansion is planned for 2033, as part of a broader basket of AZEC-backed projects including the Sarulla geothermal plant, SAF production, and Legok Nangka waste-to-energy facility. Late last year, Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company signed a deal to sell a third tranche of carbon credits generated from geothermal plants on the nation's domestic carbon exchange. The country has massive geothermal potential as it lies on the volcanically active ‘Ring of Fire’.

Synergies - Chinese green tech firm Envision Energy has partnered with Brazil to develop an industrial park focused on producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), green hydrogen and green ammonia. The project, announced during Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s state visit to China, will establish a green fuel value chain using Brazil’s renewable power and biomass resources. Lula touted some R$27 billion ($4.8 bln) in new investments by Chinese companies in Brazil during his visit.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) sees an upward trajectory for electric vehicles across most regions save the US, where it has severely downgraded its outlook for growth to 2030 based on recent events compared to last year’s more bullish EV report.

Indonesia’s forests absorbed more carbon than they emitted in 2022, turning net negative as deforestation has slowed over the years, but efforts to expand forest cover may be stalling as croplands emerge as the biggest emitter for land use.

New Zealand’s Green Party has proposed changes it would make to the country’s ETS which could boost revenue by NZ$10 billion ($5.9 bln) by 2029.  

When it's ready - Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said in a press conference the country would release its 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "well-and-truly before" COP30 in November. Bowen noted the government still needed to receive formal advice from the Climate Change Authority on the 2035 target. He also said Australia remained committed to hosting COP31 in partnership with the Pacific. He described hosting the talks as a significant opportunity to understand the decarbonisation journey of a country that's traditionally been a large supplier of fossil fuels, and to elevate the concerns and issues for Pacific partners. Australia is still vying with Turkiye to hold the UN talks. It was Bowen's first conference since returning to government following the May 3. election result.

Checkout climate costs – Climate change is pushing up the cost of groceries and leading to shortages of essentials such as fruits, vegetables, and grains, said Australia’s Farmers for Climate Action on Wednesday as it released a new report into the cost of climate change at the checkout. Polling for the industry group in April found that 65% of respondents agreed that climate change was making some fruit and vegetables more expensive, 72% that worsening droughts, floods, and fires threaten farming, and 61% supported the rollout of clean energy. The group called for deep emissions cuts this decade to prevent further price shocks and for investment in climate-smart farming. It also called for the government to embed climate risk assessment and emissions reductions in its food, trade, and agriculture policies.

An Australian energy firm is set to appear in the Federal Court Wednesday over its “carbon neutral” claims it made through the use of the government’s Climate Active scheme.

An Australian airport has taken delivery of what it describes as the largest sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) import to the country to date, as industry stakeholders seek to demonstrate and scale the use of cleaner fuel.

An executive agency and environmental groups in a Tuesday hearing in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court challenged a lower court’s declaration of the state’s RGGI participation as an illegal tax, while justices questioned appellants on wider constitutional issues involved.