Corporate entities can start planning for data granularity in their emissions reporting based on the drafts and discussions happening around updates for the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and GHG Protocol reporting standards, experts said on a Tuesday webinar.

A US-based non-profit carbon removal (CDR) buyer revealed Tuesday the launch of a new fund aimed at recycling revenue from the sale of credits into further purchases, in a bid to help scale the nascent market.

Only five of the world’s largest asset managers have set robust interim targets to cut portfolio emissions by 50% by 2030, and more than half fail to meet a single biodiversity standard, according to a benchmark report released Wednesday.

Scotland should aim to cut its emissions by nearly 70% by 2035, from 1990 levels, using more renewable energy to power the spread of heat pumps and electric vehicles, the UK's independent climate change advisor said in a report released on Wednesday.

The EU's imports of six key food commodities face significant environmental risks as they largely depend on climate-vulnerable countries with limited resources to adapt, according to a report released Wednesday.

A US federal appeals court on Monday heard oral arguments over the US EPA's termination of $20 billion in climate infrastructure grants, a move that grantees argued was unlawful.

Export era - The US DOE finalised its Response to Comments on the 2024 LNG Export Study, clearing the way for resumption of LNG export permitting after a pause the Biden administration had imposed. The study claimed that expanding US LNG exports would support the domestic economy, improve trade balances, strengthen global and national security, and have minimal effects on global GHG emissions. The DOE stated it will begin issuing final orders on pending LNG export applications to non-free trade agreement countries.

Blue states, green problems - A ProPublica investigation published earlier this month showed how two states with some of the nation’s most aggressive clean energy policies – Oregon and Washington – were lagging behind the nation in renewable generation. The primary barrier to green energy deployment, the investigation found, was the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). A federal agency, the BPA owns most of the transmission lines connecting the region’s windy rural areas to its population centres – a setup that is unique to the Northwest. Its bureaucracy is fully federally appointed with no local representation, and it operates as a self-funded business. However, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the BPA has slow-rolled expansion of its infrastructure. Of the 469 large renewable projects that have applied to connect to the grid since 2015, only one has been approved, the investigation found.

Sam & the ox - One Exchange Corp. (OX) and Stephen Avenue Marketing Inc. (SAM) have officially launched OX CO2, a new carbon trading platform designed to improve transparency, liquidity, and accessibility in both compliance and voluntary carbon markets. The platform combines advanced technology with decades of market experience to simplify trading and provide users with greater confidence and agility. OX President and CEO Perry Undseth described the platform as a tool to demystify the carbon space, while SAM Managing Director Logan Downing highlighted its integration of human expertise with digital tools to support informed and strategic transactions. OX CO2 is positioned as a next-generation solution for traders, compliance buyers, and sustainability-focused organisations looking for a clearer and more efficient way to participate in carbon markets.

Para policy - The state government of Para, Brazil, has introduced a new policy to combine environmental conservation with sustainable land use through Decree No. 4,613, which regulates the Environmental Protection Quota (Cota de Protecao Ambiental – CPA). The measure enables individuals and companies to financially support the preservation of forests by purchasing titles linked to state conservation units, with each title representing one hectare of protected land. Funds raised will go toward maintaining conservation areas, developing management plans, funding preservation projects, and supporting environmental enforcement. Governor Helder Barbalho hailed the CPA as an innovative tool to support both forest protection and the legal regularisation of rural properties. Producers can use CPA credits to offset legal reserve deficits on lands cleared before July 22, 2008, as permitted under Brazil’s Forest Code. However, the titles do not confer land ownership or usage rights and may only be held by one person or entity at a time to ensure transparency and traceability. Currently, conservation areas are funded through state resources. The CPA is intended to broaden societal involvement in biodiversity protection by enabling voluntary contributions from citizens and businesses. State officials described the initiative as a way to turn Para’s natural wealth into conservation assets and strengthen decentralised environmental financing.

Crypto crew - Data utility platform Tolam Earth has completed the first large-scale bundled sale of Digital Environmental Assets (DEAs) to a unnamed Fortune 500 company. The DEAs, paired with voluntary carbon credits, contain embedded MRV data to enhance trust, transparency, and usability for enterprise carbon accounting. The bundled transaction included reforestation credits from ALLCOT in Brazil, concrete-related credits from CarbonCure via CarbonX, and biochar credits from Regeniam. These were issued through standard registries and made trade-ready via Tolam’s platform, which operates on the low-energy Hedera network. Tolam's infrastructure links environmental outcomes to enterprise-grade financial instruments by combining registry-issued credits with digital MRV structures, offering legal clarity, clear title, and transaction certainty. Tolam plans to expand in 2025 with a focus on legal clarity and auditability in carbon markets.

Unpopular in Quebec - The majority of Quebecers are in favour of their province scrapping its carbon tax on fuel, City News has reported. Citing a poll by Leger-Le-Journal-TV, the outlet wrote 56% of Quebec survey respondents want the Legault government to end the tax on gasoline, while only 28% said they want to keep it. City News said the carbon tax on fuel currently amounted to about C$0.10 (7 cents) per litre in the province. The consumer facing carbon tax has been removed in the rest of the country. 

A think tank is urging the US EPA to alter the way it evaluates regulations for repeal in order to better factor in net benefits certain climate and environmental policies deliver to the US economy.

A growing family - A US programme for small landowner improved forest management carbon projects reached a historic milestone. On Tuesday, the American Forest Foundation’s (AFF) Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) announced that it had enrolled 1,000 small-acreage landowners in its conservation programme. The FFCP, jointly launched in 2020 with environmental group The Nature Conservancy, is designed to encourage family forest owners to adopt sustainable forest management practices and increase their forests’ carbon storage capacity by giving them access to the voluntary carbon market. However, AFF's inaugural carbon credit auction ended in March with no bids.

A growing wave of climate and nature finance swept through Latin America last week, signalling increased interest in land-based climate mitigation despite continued challenges related to Indigenous rights, legal uncertainties, and equity.

A pair of companies have entered a 10-year exclusive partnership to commercialise a low-carbon asphalt technology across the US.

Japan should see a growing demand for carbon credits after its emissions trading scheme moves into the next phase, but policy and price uncertainties still weigh on overall interest at the moment, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Big, windy apple - Energy giant Equinor has resumed work on its New York-based offshore Empire Wind project after the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management lifted its stop work order. The 2.1GW wind farm project, off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, is expected to power 500,000 homes as early as 2027. Equinor said it's about a third of the way done. Doug Burgum, US interior secretary, directed the bureau to halt work on the project in April "until further review of information that suggested the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis". The decision was a part of President Donald Trump's call for comprehensive reviews of federal wind projects and wind leasing, Burgum had said at the time. 

A New York agency on Tuesday announced $10 million in funding available to support commercial and industrial clean energy projects in the state.

The US House passed a bill Monday that could require the US DOE to improve oversight on awards granted to clean energy projects.

A major US bank has signed an offtake agreement with a CO2 removal (CDR) project developer for the purchase of nearly a half-million tonnes of CO2e over a 13-year period, according to an announcement.

The UK's Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) and Peatland Carbon Code (PCC) could soon adopt digital systems such as remote sensing and an online management platform to improve the carbon verification process, making things easier for developers and building greater trust with buyers, a webinar heard on Tuesday.

Gold Standard clarified updates on Tuesday to its crediting framework, concerning cookstoves project developers using the fraction of non-renewable biomass (fNRB), new requirements for those looking to secure CCP labels, and its planned alignment with Article 6. 

Carbon-negative cement - UAE industrial group Exeed Industries has signed a MoU with Partanna Oasis, a subsidiary of sustainable building innovator Partanna, they announced in a release Tuesday. The MoU will seek to introduce carbon-negative cement technologies in the UAE, with a plan for the establishment of such facilities in Abu Dhabi to locally produce Partanna's next-gen cement alternatives. Partanna claims its carbon negative building materials actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and the goal is for them to be integrated into Exeed’s precast and concrete operations.

EU CDR funding - The European Commission has announced €30 million in funding for direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) and marine carbon removals, through its flagship R&D Horizon Europe programme. The first call seeks to finance two projects with around €6 mln each focused on scientific assessments of ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) and monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) for marine CDR more broadly, with a deadline of Sep. 16. The second call will fund three projects also with around €6 mln each focused on next-generation direct air and point source capture technologies, specifically those that reduce energy/water usage. The second call shall open on Sep. 16 and close Feb. 17, 2026.

European carbon prices unwound most of their losses from the previous two sessions, catching an updraft from strongly firmer natural gas after US President Donald Trump appeared to step back from efforts to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end, while UK Allowance prices advanced to yet more multi-year highs as traders digested Monday's EU-UK linking agreement.

Clean cement - UK-based cement maker Ecocem is investing €170 mln in the construction of four new production lines in France, and accelerating the delivery of its low-carbon cement technology to the market, it announced on Tuesday. The company will work closely with the French government in the coming months to identify operational and financial solutions for its expansion plan, it said. The investment comes in addition to the €50 mln that Ecocem is putting into its Dunkirk facility, for the first production line of its technology, ACT. At full capacity, Ecocem expects to produce 1.9 Mt per year in France, reducing CO2 emissions by 80,000 tonnes per year.

Pay-to-play - Republicans have axed provisions from their budget megabill that would’ve allowed pipeline developers to pay for accelerated permitting, E&E News reported. The package does still include similar measures for natural gas exports and National Environmental Policy Act reviews. 

Tax the polluters - UK PM Keir Starmer came under pressure on Tuesday to set an ambitious fourth round of UK international climate finance by fairly taxing the largest polluters and wealthiest people, as part of the government's Comprehensive Spending Review next month. In an open letter coordinated by Climate Action Network UK, 82 organisations said there were fair ways to boost public finance to up to £115 bln over the next five years of climate action in the UK and overseas, through taxation. The letter cited polling that found that 82% of UK adults agreed that it was wrong for oil and gas companies to make record profits without taking responsibility for the damage they caused, while 64% supported increased taxes on the wealthiest to fund climate action.

German ETS auctions – The auctions for Germany’s national ETS will start on June 3 this year, according to reports. They are starting late because of the federal elections in February and amendments to Germany’s ETS legislation, the reports said. In 2022 and 2023, the first auctions began in January, and in 2024 they began in early March. The auctions are for fossil fuel distributors of in particular heating oil, natural gas, coal, diesel and gasoline. Allowances for 2024 cost €45 and those for 2025 cost €55. Germany’s ETS is due to transition to the EU ETS2 covering heating and transport in 2027.

A new paper has called for the establishment of an international regulatory club to align standards, manage long-term risks, and uphold trust in geological CO2 storage projects to help fully scale these technologies in Article 6 carbon markets.

Countries need to come up with a new generation of climate action plans centred on economic opportunity and a protected nature, also focusing on growing industries and economies, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said at the Nature Summit in Panama on Tuesday.

Verra has launched a review into an eastern European agricultural land management carbon project and now plans to update the associated methodology, it announced Tuesday. 

A European airline has described the 'two tier' carbon scheme created by the EU Emission Trading Systems (ETS) and the UN's CORSIA international aviation offsetting scheme as “manifestly unfair” and “scandalous”.

The Italian government plans to launch biodiversity credit pilot projects across the country, as interest in the emerging market has mounted among companies despite unresolved uncertainties, experts told a conference on Tuesday.

Jurisdictions all over the world are grappling with longstanding legal definitions of state property linked to the particularity of CO2 ownership – with the resulting legal flux injecting uncertainty into the voluntary carbon market (VCM), Carbon Pulse has heard from experts in several countries.

The Netherlands’ plan for renewed natural gas production in the North Sea should introduce a carbon takeback obligation to eliminate the need for CCS subsidies and reduce the risk of legal challenges, argue two expert consultants.

South Africa is preparing to launch a digital biodiversity offsets “portal” on May 22 as a way of trying to increase financing for nature, a minister said on Monday.

The European Commission has selected 15 renewable, or "green", hydrogen production projects for a total of €992 million in public subsidies from the EU ETS-fed Innovation Fund.

A UK bank has set up a new team to help clients buy and finance carbon and biodiversity credits, according to Bloomberg reporting.

Not so fast - A key plan by Germany's new government to introduce a subsidised electricity price for industry could be blocked by EU law, Handelsblatt reported. A discounted industrial power price is a core element of chancellor Friedrich Merz’s plan to prevent the decline of industry in Germany and restore the country to economic growth, but it's highly uncertain the EU would accept this plan. A subsidised industrial electricity price would require a change to EU state aid law, the article said. Currently, the average electricity price for industry is 16.1 cents per kWh, but the proposed subsidy could lower that figure to five cents per kWh. New economy minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) has been urged by officials to send the proposed plan to Brussels within this month.

Key carbon project baseline and leakage standards, adopted following a meeting of UNFCCC experts last week, have been heralded as a significant step forward in ensuring the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) is robust and aligned with internationally agreed climate warming goals.

Tricky times - Climeworks is mulling over international expansion despite a recent round of job cuts and uncertainty about funding for its direct air capture plants in the US, Sifted reported. The Swiss DAC developer is continuing to work on its largest ever project in Louisiana whilst it awaits a decision on funding, and is also evaluating several other countries to deploy into, with Canada, Saudi Arabia, Norway, and the UK meeting its criteria. Climeworks' first plant Orca has been operating in Iceland since 2021 and its second plant Mammoth is under construction. Last year, Orca captured 1,500 tonnes of the maximum 4,000 tonnes it's been designed to capture, operating for about 65% of the time. Output varies according to factors including weather and planned maintenance. On Saturday, the Guardian reported Climeworks was looking to lay off 10% of its 498 employees. The startup has signed offtake deals with companies including Microsoft, Japanese shipper NYK, and TikTok.

Green guarantee - The European investment fund (EIF) and BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions have signed a €200 mln InvestEU guarantee for SMEs and small mid-caps focused on climate change mitigation and sustainability in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The deal signals the EIF’s largest multi-country guarantee until now and is specifically designed to support energy transition leasing solutions. Financial support will be offered to investments in sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, green tech, and renewable energy. More details here.

The open-source MoFuSS fuelwood consumption model, used by clean cooking projects in voluntary and Article 6 carbon markets, will in the coming months launch a user-friendly yet highly granular and customisable online format, according to one of its architects.

A California-based carbon trading platform has announced that it will add a Nevada-based direct air capture (DAC) project - which they expect to be the first in the US to be issued credits - to its offering, making the units available to corporate and individual buyers.

A carbon accounting startup and a supply chain risk specialist announced Tuesday they have partnered to help companies collect higher-quality data and reduce Scope 3 emissions across global supply chains.

Carbon standard and registry Isometric has opened a consultation on a new draft module for emissions accounting in carbon removal and finalised a methodology to credit river-based projects.

Sarawak state in Malaysia passed a bill on Tuesday with the aim of monetising its biological resources for industry, while promoting benefit sharing and ramping up enforcement against misuse, according to local reports.

A French food multinational announced Tuesday it has signed an initial agreement with a Mexico-based agritech firm to deploy 6,500 biodigesters by 2030 across smallholder dairy farms to cut methane emissions from manure.

Ammonia producers in the EU are starting to purchase green hydrogen to decarbonise their operations, faced with the approaching phaseout of free allowances on the EU's Emissions Trading System, according to a green hydrogen developer.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, retired more than half a million carbon credits in 2024, including a batch tied to five “carbon neutral” crude oil shipments in a move to cover upstream emissions, according to its 2024 sustainability report.

R.I.P CSDDD? – French President Emmanuel Macron has called for scrapping the EU’s Corporate Social Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), aligning with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in asking for the directive to be withdrawn. “CSDDD and some other regulations have not just to be postponed for one year, but put out of the table," Macron said in English at the ‘Choose France’ conference in Paris on May 19. “We are very aligned now with Chancellor Merz and some other colleagues to go much faster,” he added. The European Commission has proposed postponing the implementation of corporate reporting rules earlier this year, including the CSDDD, which requires companies with a turnover of more than €450 mln to observe human rights and environmental obligations along their entire supply chain or face fines of up to 5% of their global turnover. EU countries have expressed overwhelming support for postponing the rules, while some like Spain have called for preserving them. (AFP)

Not going Dutch – The European Commission has approved a Dutch state aid scheme worth €1.2 bln in support of industrial decarbonisation, the EU executive announced on Tuesday. Called ‘NIKI', the Dutch scheme aims to support companies in their efforts to reduce lifecycle GHG emissions, and introduces competition between direct decarbonisation projects and emission reduction through resource efficiency and circularity projects. The NIKI scheme will be open to companies of all sizes operating in the Netherlands provided they are capable of realising lifecycle GHG emission reductions of at least 100,000 tonnes. The aid amount will be established following an open and competitive bidding process, based on the lowest aid amount requested per tonne of CO2 equivalent abated. The scheme is technology neutral. The Dutch government plans to organise one tender per year during the scheme’s initial five-year operation.

Businesses across the plastic value chain are increasingly exposed to liability risks, with potential consequences on their reputation and ability to attract investments, according to a report released this week.

Last hurdle down - The last legal hurdle for a large new Australian gas project has been cleared, paving the way for Santos to develop its high CO2 Narrabri coal seam gas field onshore New South Wales. The A$3.6 bln ($2.3 bln) project was cleared for development by the Native Title Tribunal after a case brought against it by the Traditional Owners, the Gomeroi people of NSW. Pushback has been fierce for the decade-plus the company has tried to get it off the ground, with farmers, environmentalists, and even the staunchly small-c conservative Country Women’s Association vociferous in opposition. The CO2 content is between 25-30% and Santos will have to find a way to deal with it from the get go.

Big ole BESS - Potentia Energy is proposing a new battery storage system in South Australia as part of the Bungala solar farm site, 15 km northeast of Port Augusta. The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is the first under the Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act (HRE Act). Public consultation closes in a week, the government said.

More than half of each of the EU's six imported food commodities come from countries that are vulnerable to climate change, while half of them – wheat, maize, and cocoa – are also at significant risk of biodiversity-related impacts cutting off their supply, a new study has found.

Graphic design software platform Canva co-founder Cameron Adams and his wife Lisa Miller, CEO and co-founder of a restoration foundation, will donate at least half of their multi-billion dollar fortune to environmental charities, they announced on Tuesday.

The emergence of national voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) in Africa is sparking disagreement over whether financial regulators should create harmonised or country-specific frameworks, according to top officials speaking to Carbon Pulse.

The European Commission’s upcoming buying programme for permanent carbon removals (CDR) is estimated to range between €2.5 and €6.2 billion, according to a study released ahead of a public workshop on financing CDR, hosted by the EU executive on Wednesday.

The South Korean government is developing a framework for recognising voluntary private-sector contributions to biodiversity conservation, as it signed a public-private partnership deal with a tech firm on Tuesday.

Biochar partners - Climate consultancy Atmosfair has partnered with biochar developer Husk Ventures on carbon removal in Southeast Asia. The collaboration sees them work together to produce biochar from rice husks, which will then be applied to fields to increase fertility and store carbon long term. The partnership that aims to sequester 20,000 tonnes of carbon over the next seven years will support regenerative agriculture and rural livelihoods in Cambodia and Vietnam. Astmosfair is also supporting Husk with a financing facility to increase Husk's production capacity in Cambodia and set up a new production facility in Vietnam.

Blue carbon study - The Japanese government plans to conduct blue carbon research aimed at capturing CO2 in the deep sea through cultivated sea plants, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed sources. The environment ministry will commission the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, energy major Eneos, and others to investigate the behaviour of seaweed when submerged at considerable depths and to assess the environmental impact of such blue carbon projects, the report said.

A Hong Kong-listed financial company has launched a carbon credit fund with two partners to accelerate the growth of voluntary carbon markets in the Asia Pacific region. 

India’s push to double its steelmaking capacity by 2030 is fuelling a wave of coal-based project announcements that threaten to derail global decarbonisation targets, a report has warned.

As much as 11% of Australia’s total carbon budget could be blown by house-building alone unless steps are taken now to cut the upfront carbon embedded in the building phase, an industry association warned Tuesday.

A cookstove project developer expects its carbon credits to be soon labelled with the Core Carbon Principles (CCP) stamp of high integrity, the first in the market from the sector, after slashing emissions reduction claims via a new accounting method, it announced Tuesday.

Fresh money - Tokyo-based carbon project developer Jizoku has raised JPY 71 mln ($490,017) in a seed round from a group of investors, including Partners Fund and Hakobune, it announced Tuesday. With the new funds, Jizoku said it will work to create carbon credits in Japan and overseas, primarily in the agricultural sector. The company has been promoting a methodology that can reduce methane emissions from rice cultivation through water management.  

I’ll take that – Around six in 10 Americans view more stringent environmental laws and regulations to be worth the cost, but opinions vary significantly by party and region, according to a 2023-24 survey conducted by think tank Pew Research Center. The survey, which included some 36,900 participants, found that Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents think such laws are worth the cost (82%), while Republicans and GOP leaners opined that they cost too many jobs and hurt the economy (59%). Minnesota and Washington, DC showed the broadest support for stricter environmental regulations, followed by 28 other states. The think tank said that views diverged in 20 other states, while a majority of adults in Wyoming did not support the laws.

A Brazilian startup has secured the country’s first biodiversity-labelled financing applied to forest restoration activities, receiving R$80 million ($14.2 mln) from the federal Climate Fund.

Australia’s largest carbon project developer has quit the federal government’s Climate Active scheme, arguing it has become too risky for companies to participate without being accused of greenwashing.

Benchmark RGGI allowance (RGA) prices hovered around the $22 handle in the absence of a significant driver as the market awaits updates on the ongoing programme review, federal pushback, and the upcoming Q2 auction in June.