A UN-backed incubator of nature market models on Thursday announced support for seven initiatives around the world with the aim of unlocking up to $200 million in restoration investment.

The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) has unveiled a new open-access online platform aimed at accelerating the development of clean cooking carbon projects by improving access to household energy data.

Ghana – the frontrunner in the African carbon market landscape – will move towards the issuance of its first Article 6 credits in the next couple of weeks, an official from the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told a conference Wednesday.

Bon Bonn - Brazil's COp30 presidency sees June's intersessional meeting in Bonn as an opportunity to restore confidence in climate negotiations, accelerate action, and instil a sense of urgency, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The presidency plans to hold at least 12 events over the 10 days, and play an prominent role in plenary and negotiating sessions. It will follow three pillars of work during the SB62 meeting, it said: strengthening multilateralism and the UNFCCC regime, connecting climate decisions to real world lives, and accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement. Brazil is also proposing a "Day Zero" of informal talks among heads of delegations, before the first day on June 16.

A further 275.5 million carbon allowances will be withdrawn from the EU ETS over the 12 months starting this September and inserted into the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), the European Commission announced late Wednesday in its annual 'TNAC' update.

CBAM loopholes - The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is full of loopholes, according to the European Steel Association (EUROFER), which has stressed that the lack of a solution to preserve exports will negatively impact both competitiveness and climate. 70% of EU steel exports currently go to countries with no carbon pricing, so EU exports will be displaced by more carbon-intensive products if this loophole isn't fixed, the organisation has stated. It's calling for free allocation for exports to continue in order to avoid carbon leakage in global markets, and has other requests including to extend CBAM to steel-intensive downstream goods. If loopholes like these aren't fixed, CBAM would undermine decarbonisation investments, speed up deindustrialisation, favour production in third countries, and fail to cut global emissions. (Eurometal)

Benchmark European carbon prices were forced to settle for a small gain on Wednesday as the market initially reacted strongly to funds marginally extending their collective net long position, with strength also fed in from a supportive auction result, before prices eased over the afternoon, while UKAs slipped lower after investors cut their previous-record bullish positioning.

Plastics made from renewable carbon could achieve negative emissions thanks to durable sequestration, and be cost competitive with fossil-based alternatives were carbon costs factored in, a consultancy has found.

CCS partners - Heidelberg Materials is partnering with engineering consultancy Arup to decarbonise the built environment, in particular through the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in cement production. The two companies will build on what's been learnt at the cement producer's carbon capture project in Brevik, Norway, stated the release this week. They will also advance R&D projects related to CCS-enabled decarbonisation in cement and concrete.

A blockchain-based carbon metadata project has released a new version of its model, which is now available for public consultation.

Portugal's carbon colonisation – Portugal wants to source carbon credits from its former colonies to meet its climate goals, the country’s environment minister has said. Graca Carvalho said Lisbon should be able to claim credits for emission reduction projects in its former colonies of Cabo Verde and Sao Tome and Principe, even if those credits are not yet formally approved under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which creates a global carbon market. (E&E News)

A German court has dismissed a landmark climate lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer against energy giant RWE, but an important precedent may have been set where big emitters can be held liable for the impact of their greenhouse gas emissions.

A Malaysian asset management company has partnered with developer South Pole to develop carbon credits across Southeast Asia.

Up and away - Flying electric taxis took a step closer to commercial take off this week after UK firm Vertical Aerospace announced it has made European aviation history with the first piloted flight of a winged electric aircraft in open airspace. The flight marked the first time the prototype VX4 aircraft had flown in normal airspace outside of strict test conditions. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved the flight at Cotswold Airport, the UK’s largest private airport. Vertical Aerospace is among a cluster of companies developing what have been dubbed flying taxis, which can ferry passengers in quiet, zero-emissions aircraft through urban areas. Rivals have undertaken test flights in Dubai and the US, but Vertical Aerospace’s flight is the first time a flying taxi has performed a journey in open airspace in Europe. The aircraft is designed to take off vertically or on a runway, with its propellers either holding it in a hovering pattern or tilting to operate more like a traditional light aircraft, than a helicopter. The UK government has set a target to make flying taxis a reality by 2028. (The Telegraph)

Geothermal energy is racing up the leaderboard for innovation to become a contender as the next technology to transform the energy sector, although oil majors may slow progress after many cut spending on low-carbon projects, analysts have said.

The UK government has announced a consultation on reducing its biodiversity net gain (BNG) requirements for smaller sites, in changes that market stakeholders have said could eliminate demand for off-site units.

A clean cooking funding initiative in Africa plans to expand its reach and will select the first companies  through a second funding round by the end of June, with carbon finance also helping to fund its work.

A paper released on Tuesday called on sports organisations to assess their direct and indirect impacts on nature to mitigate biodiversity-related risk and align with global regulations and targets.

Standards body and registry Verra announced a long-term partnership Wednesday in support of the organisation’s efforts to automate and digitise project development for the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

Shareholder push - 11 institutional investors worth a combined $1.8 trillion will ask Yara International to set upstream emission reduction targets that cover its purchase of fossil-based raw materials, during the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday morning. ShareAction will read a statement on behalf of these investors, the non-profit wrote in an emailed press release. The statement was signed by Edentree Investment Management, Ethos Engagement Pool International, Ethos Engagement Services Clients, Ethos Foundation, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, M&G Investments, MN, Pensionskasse Basel-Stadt, PGGM, PIRC, and Swiss Life Investment Management Holding AG. Major investors are increasingly focusing on the climate impact of the fertiliser industry. Since 2021, investors have been calling on the Norwegian fertiliser company to set science-based Scope 3 emissions reduction targets across the whole of its value chain. Fertiliser production and use accounts for 5% of global GHG emissions.

Revised methodologies under the EU Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) framework still lack integrity, market experts said on Wednesday, arguing that those being developed under the Article 6 Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) look likely to be better.

Carbon markets seek to incentivise climate action by attaching financial value to emissions reductions, but a senior research scholar at Stanford has instead proposed shifting to a system where carbon emissions are treated like long-lived financial liabilities.

EU member states are roughly on track to meet their 55% greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal for 2030, after improving their climate plans following recommendations from Brussels, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.