A European soil carbon startup has announced its withdrawal from carbon credit markets, citing structural incompatibility between current market frameworks and regenerative agriculture practices.

Greenwash hearing – A French civil court will hear a 2022 alleged greenwashing lawsuit against oil major TotalEnergies on June 5, said ClientEarth, the law firm representing environmental groups Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France, and Notre Affaire a Tous that filed the case. The plaintiffs claimed TotalEnergies misled consumers about its products through advertising and public messaging that they said was in breach of the European Unfair Consumer Practices Directive. Claimants purported that TotalEnergies’ "reinvention" marketing campaign broke European consumer law in suggesting the company could reach net zero emissions by 2050 whilst still expanding fossil fuel production.

A New York-based clean fuels startup recently unveiled its modular direct air capture (DAC) technology, which produces liquid gasoline from air, water, and renewable electricity.

A carbon credit provider has announced its head of origination and former CEO will resign as of June 5.

Projected externalities - Advocacy non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) claimed Thursday that the US federal tax bill would undermine an American-made energy boom and increase pollution. The bill, which narrowly passed the House on a 215-214 vote, would result in an early termination of clean electricity and energy storage tax credits under Sections 45Y and 48E, a repeal of credit transferability provisions, and new restrictions on solar and wind leasing arrangements. EDF said that those tax credits helped the US produce some of the world’s cleanest energy and estimated their withdrawal would raise household electricity prices, create uncertainty for businesses, send jobs to other countries, and threaten people’s health with more pollution. EDF was also concerned with changes to vehicle standards, aimed at reducing expensive fuel use and tailpipe pollution; attacks on local efforts promoting cleaner air around schools and ports; and a 10-year reprieve for large oil and gas companies from paying a fee on methane pollution.

Low credit issuance and retirements last week reflected a subdued voluntary market that continues to be stifled by the lack of available Core Carbon Principles (CCP)-tagged credits, as well as few signs of a reaction to the expected shortage of eligible Phase 1 CORSIA supply in the coming years.

It's official – Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially launched the national carbon registry in Harare on Friday. The Zimbabwe Carbon Registry (ZCR), developed by A6 Labs and Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife, uses blockchain technology to monitor carbon credits from issuance to retirement. With the launch, Zimbabwe initiated world’s first inter-registry transfer under Article 6, Mnangagwa said. The transfer involved moving 10,000 carbon credits from Gold Standard's registry to Zimbabwe’s ZCR, related to a project developed by local firm Cicada, media outlet Daily News reported. Earlier this month, the country published its new carbon trading regulations in a bid to attract fresh investment and enhance transparency. With the launch of the registry, the government aims to build investor confidence and align with the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 framework.

The climate targets in Germany’s land use sector (LULUCF) appear to be out of reach. However, abandoning targets for nature-based CO2 sinks would be equal to abandoning its climate neutrality goal, warns Milan Loose, who works as Policy Advisor on Negative Emissions at Bellona Deutschland.

The European Commission is considering regulatory measures and public funding to support the uptake of nature credits across the EU, as well as introducing certain carbon credit methodologies with a biodiversity dimension, according to a leaked draft version of its roadmap for developing and scaling the market.

Deploying carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) across key industrial sectors in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, and Romania could reduce the region’s industrial CO2 emissions by up to 25% by mid-century, according to new analysis by Dutch-based researchers.

Map it out - Verra is modifying the release process for allocated deforestation risk maps to ensure that the data meet the standard's requirements for high quality and to increase transparency around the data development process. Going forward, Verra said last week it will now provide estimated release dates only for provisional open-access data. These provisional open-access data are posted while final review and quality control of the data is underway. The standard procedure will be for Verra to make VMD0055-compliant data available two to three months after the release of the corresponding provisional open-access data, provided the VMD0055-compliant data clears the required third-party review.

Brains wanted - The UK Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) is seeking new members for its advisory board. Advisory board members play a crucial role in guiding the development, application, and promotion of the WCC, ensuring it remains a robust and credible standard for woodland carbon projects. The commitment involves attending four meetings annually and contributing to consultations as needed. Applications are open until June 30.

Concrete deal - Isometric and Carbonaide have teamed up, they announced Monday. Through the partnership, Isometric will provide Carbonaide with MRV under the Isometric module for CO2 storage via carbonation in the built environment. Carbonaide provides CO2 curing and flow management solution for storing carbon in concrete.

A Dubai-headquartered project developer announced Monday it has partnered with a Nairobi-based clean cooking company to distribute 1.2 million digitally monitored biomass and electric cookstoves across four African countries.

Sustainable palm oil - Thailand’s Thaicom and Global Green Chemicals have signed an agreement to explore the use of science and technology in monitoring palm plantation areas, and assess their carbon sequestration capacity. Under the agreement, the partners will exchange knowledge and expertise and help in advancing data collection for palm cultivation areas while also enhancing carbon storage assessments from palm planting in line with international standards. The partners aim to support the development of low-carbon palm oil products across plantations in Thailand.

No more carbon neutral - Singapore-based ride hailing company Grab has dropped the term “carbon neutral” from its offsetting feature, which allowed its customers to neutralise the emissions of their travel or deliveries since 2021 with a fee of S$0.10 ($0.07) for each trip that goes towards the purchase of carbon credits. Previously called a carbon neutral fee, the feature is now known as Green Programme across all of Grab’s markets, EcoBusiness reported. Non-profit RimbaWatch has claimed that Grab’s actions were a result of dropping the carbon neutral claims was made on the basis of carbon offsets in the EU and UK, but the taxi service app insisted that the change was designed to harmonise its branding across Southeast Asian nations.

A sustainability platform has launched a new open-source database containing emissions data, which it claims covers 95% of global GDP.

Colombia-based environmental standard Cercarbono has launched a public consultation on a carbon credit methodology tailored to the recycling of materials from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).

An Australian developer has earned its first carbon removal credits for burying biomass, with 586 CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs) issued for its facility under the Puro.earth standard.

Chicken-char - Japan’s Towing Corporation will begin demonstration experiments using biochar made from livestock waste, including chicken waste. It is partnering with agricultural firm Nippon Ham to make farming and agriculture more sustainable using ‘Chutan’. It can be made from rice husks and tree offcuts but also carbonised livestock waste, which will reduce greenhouse gases given the methane does not escape as it does during traditional waste processing. The partners will demonstrate proof-of-concept using chu-charcoal, or carbonised chicken manure, which will be spread on cornfields and their growth studied, the partners said Monday.