Nine Brazilian states covering the country’s Legal Amazon area could collectively raise $10.5 billion or more from 2023-30 in REDD+ credits, according to a study published Tuesday by a California-based think tank.

I guess oxidants do happen - Researchers from Rice University published a new technique to improve the stability of electrochemical devices that convert CO2 into fuels and chemicals in the journal Science on Thursday. The process, called acid-humified CO2, extended the operational life of a CO2 reduction system by more than 50 times – a milestone for the field. Practical implementation of electrochemical CO2 reduction otherwise has been hindered by poor system stability, and the research could open the door to more durable, scalable CO2 electrolysers.

Texas’s natural gas plant pipeline, aimed at supporting rocketing electricity demand amid an AI boom, could bump up the state's annual emissions by as much as 10%, according to a report released Wednesday. 

Too much renewable hydrogen could hinder the EU from hitting its climate target and keep emissions high, warns a new report.

Countries, companies, and other organisations need to be careful how they use and account for emissions reductions traded under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the University of Oxford said in a report setting out three principles for ensuring that the new international market does not become an avenue for greenwashing national and corporate climate action.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is at a turning point after a rush of investment, but the gap between ambition and reality for 2050 remains a chasm, according to DNV’s new Energy Transition Outlook CCS to 2050 report.

Nuclear need - Houston-based Talen Energy announced Wednesday it has expanded its partnership with global tech giant Amazon to provide carbon-free energy from its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) data centre campus adjacent to the facility, with the ability to also deliver in other parts of the state. Talen and Amazon will also explore building new small modular reactors (SMRs) within Talen’s Pennsylvania footprint and pursue expanding the nuclear plant’s energy output through uprates.

The climate crisis is a health crisis – A new Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health (PECCH) has launched, chaired by former Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, the World Health Organization announced on Wednesday. The PECCH brings together 11 commissioners from across the WHO European Region, who will deliver recommendations for actionable solutions at the intersection of health and climate.

Credits incoming, hopefully - The Brazilian municipality of Santos signed a memorandum of intent with Banco do Brasil on Tuesday for the future provision of technical advice on carbon credits and improved governance aligned with the UN’s SDGs. Santos said that such partnerships could allow the city to sell carbon credits in the future, earning revenue through sustainable projects. Other benefits include increased access to finance, potential investment attraction, and improved qualifications for city staff amid a growing green market.

Washington's second quarterly auction of 2025 cleared over $3 above front-month Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) future prices the day before the sale, reaching the highest settlement since the end of 2023 but failing to trigger the release of reserve volumes, according to a notice published Wednesday.

The US EPA announced on Wednesday a repeal of emissions regulations on new and existing power plants, replacing with new rules that would no longer force the sector to reduce its emissions.

UK ETS emissions fell by more than one-tenth in 2024 as a drop in power sector emissions led the way lower for a second year, while the iron and steel sector led a decline in industrial greenhouse gases, and aviation reported a marginal gain.

Qatar’s business and financial centre will in late 2025 launch a pilot tokenised carbon market, according to several regional media outlets.

The Indonesian coral bond was soft launched on Wednesday at the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) with an expected raise of $100-120 million.

European carbon allowance prices headed back towards a key level on Wednesday morning, boosted by strong gains in natural gas and power markets after news of corrosion at a French nuclear reactor sparked a rally across energy markets, and weekly position data showed speculative participants had upped their bullish bets last week.

Although the European Commission recognises biochar as a permanent carbon removal (CDR) technology, not all uses will qualify under the EU’s Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) certification framework, an official told Carbon Pulse.

Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has released a roadmap for the development of biofuels, outlining a national strategy meant to shape domestic energy policy.

A climate finance government consultancy is looking for a partner to develop a clean cooking project in Burundi in what could be the "world's largest ever carbon finance project", it announced on Wednesday.

More than a third of the world's fish stocks are unsustainably exploited, a UN FAO report launched on Wednesday at the UN Oceans Conference (UNOC) has found, although it said some species are recovering.

The European Commission’s top climate official has outlined key conditions for using Article 6 international credits to meet the EU’s 2040 climate target, saying those need to rely on robust monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, which are currently not in place, and will probably take years to develop.

Analysts have identified a glaring data gap between corporate climate pledges and their lobbying, which may lead to poorly informed decisions from investors and a slow down on climate progress.

The UK government is putting nearly £10 billion of funding towards carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) out to 2030, and throwing its weight behind the development of a third and fourth cluster, the Treasury announced in its Spending Review on Wednesday.

Small- and medium-sized companies in the portfolio of an Italian bank will be supported in measuring their carbon emissions, developing a CO2 emissions reduction pathway, and funding climate mitigation projects through an initiative with a climate consultancy.

A London-based measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) firm said Tuesday it has launched a dynamic performance benchmark (DPB) assessment to help nature-based (NbS) project developers better evaluate the additionality of their forest carbon projects.

The Brazilian ETS will allow the use of carbon credits to cover between 5-20% of emissions by regulated entities, a Brazilian Ministry of Finance official confirmed on Wednesday, with the exact share to be determined by the end of 2026.

A scenario whereby countries increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement would increase global GDP up to 3% by 2050 due to avoiding significant economic losses, while reinvesting carbon revenues could bolster GDP further, the OECD has found.

Standardising dMRV - The Carbon Markets Infrastructure Working Group (CMI WG), convened by the World Bank in collaboration with SustainCERT, has developed five technical guidance notes for a safe, interoperable, and efficient carbon markets infrastructure. These notes offer guidance on ecosystem governance, transaction integrity, information security, data and systems interoperability, and standardising digital MRV. See the full collection here.

A Madrid-based startup is offering the transport industry verified Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs) to help decarbonise Scope 3 emissions because traditional carbon offsets are “increasingly inefficient”.

French Polynesia unveiled plans at the ongoing UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) to establish the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA) to date, with a handful of other countries joining efforts to close the gap on sea conservation goals.

A Polish court has ruled that the EU's energy and climate policies breach the country's sovereign right to decide its energy mix and how it's supplied, and found the climate action tools like the Emissions Trading System (ETS) can significantly affect national energy policy.

New agreement - Japanese project developer ByWill on Wednesday signed an agreement with Aichi Bank, Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank, and Kitanagoya City in Aichi prefecture of Japan, for the creation and distribution of J-Credits. Under the agreement, the partners will strengthen cooperation by sharing information on environmental assets with a broader aim of decarbonising the region.

Coming soon - Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism is planning to submit the draft carbon market and trading policy to the cabinet, following months of public consultation, local media outlet the Brief reported. The policy will entail the country’s strategy for carbon trading under the Paris rules and establish regulatory framework for standards, MRV, and international trading, the outlet added. Namibia's compliance carbon market will come in addition to the VCM projects already set up, ranging from biofuels to agriculture to renewable energy, an official told Carbon Pulse during COP29 in Baku. Meanwhile, the country is also making progress in finalising a national policy on mining in protected areas as well as a Forest Amendment Act, the media outlet said.

Influential sports organisations including the Football Association (FA) in England and Cricket Australia are supporting a unified approach to calculate greenhouse gas emissions across sport, with the launch of a new methodology and calculator allowing the industry to more consistently measure its carbon footprint and report climate action.

Greener grid - India added a record 29.5 GW of renewable energy generation in FY 2024-45, Union Power Minister Manohar Lal said this week. He also announced $650 mln in viability gap funding to incentivise the production of 30 GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS). The government also extended the waiver of inter-state transmission system charges for storage projects until June 2028, a move set to benefit both battery and pumped hydro storage developers. As renewables green but also decentralise grids around the world, batteries and AI are emerging as shock absorbers to keeping the power flowing while increasing resiliency.

Surprise device - Japan's Seiko Epson, known for making injet printers, is developing a carbon capture device the size of a photocopier, aiming for a 2028 launch, Nikkei Asia reported. The company claims to have created a 10-nanometre membrane that isolates CO2 from industrial emissions without heat or bulky equipment. The device could be powered by a standard 100-volt outlet, and will target small factories to capture over 10 kg of CO2 daily when stacked. Epson plans to market it with replaceable membranes and sees potential in synthetic fuel production and dry ice.

Adopting the contested 'Global Warming Potential*' metric could let major agricultural emitters sidestep significant methane cuts by “grandfathering” past emissions, and shifting focus away from urgently needed reductions, experts warned during a briefing on Tuesday.

South Africa plans to allow Article 6 credits issued under the new Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) for use under its CO2 levy, a government official said Wednesday.

Calculations ongoing - South Korea's petrochemical industry has teamed up with the government to form a consultative body in a bid to systematically calculate GHG emissions across the supply chain, the Herald reported. Three petrochemical producers - Lotte Chemical, LG Chemical, and Hanwha Solutions - recently signed an MoU with the environment ministry and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute to support Scope 3 emissions calculation, according to the report. The institute will be in charge of operating the consultative body and publishing relevant guides, the report said.

South Korea's monthly CO2 permit auction on Wednesday was again oversubscribed, but with the clearing price remaining below KRW 9,000 ($6.55) despite an uptick in market activity since last month.

Six major development banks have committed to a €3-billion financing target over the next five years to combat ocean plastic pollution as an extension to the Clean Oceans Initiative (COI).

A coalition of public and private organisations published a proposal on Wednesday to scale up the UK’s nature credit market, warning that businesses are unlikely to participate without government regulation.

The global land area available for forest restoration has been significantly overestimated so far, as previous assessments overlooked key drawbacks, including potential negative impacts on biodiversity, according to a paper released on Wednesday.

Fusion funding - Proxima Fusion has raised a €130 million Series A funding round to build the world's first commercial nuclear fusion plant based on a stellarator design, it announced in a release Wednesday. The Series A financing was co-led by Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital, with significant participation from UVC Partners, DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Plural, Leitmotif, Lightspeed, Bayern Kapital, HTGF, Club degli Investitori, OMNES Capital, Elaia Partners, and redalpine. It brings the Munich-based company's total funding to more than €185 mln in private and public capital. Proxima is in talks with several European governments to finalise a site for its demonstration stellarator Alpha, which is scheduled to start operating in 2031, and is the key step toward demonstrating net energy gain and moving towards a first-of-a-kind fusion power plant.

Coal case - in Australia, activist group Lock the Gate Alliance has launched legal proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) in an attempt publicise correspondence between the state government and coal company lawyers, it announced. The group said the NSW Planning Department twice refused requests to release documents, but that some what were released show correspondence between the department and a law firm engaged by coal companies to justify the assessment of changes to coal mine developments as modifications rather than new developments.  That way, developers avoid their plans being determined by the Independent Planning Commission. Lock the Gate is being represented by the Environmental Defenders Office, with the group saying the NSW public has a right to know if coal developers are influencing the government. They estimate 10 coal projects are undergoing or awaiting assessments as modifications.

Japan’s top five investors hold more than $40 billion in companies with the world’s biggest fossil fuel expansion plans, which could wipe out the emissions reduction potential of their clean energy investments, according to a new report.

Vietnam will launch its domestic carbon market in August, with generous offset rules that will allow companies to use carbon credits for up to 30% of their emissions quotas, according to regulations released late Tuesday formalising the national emission trading system (ETS).

Solar survival - Southeast Asian solar companies will only likely survive tariffs from the US if governments in the region cut red tape and loosen the control of oil and gas companies over the energy mix, Al Jazeera reported. The Trump Administration will begin imposing tariffs ranging from 375% to more than 3,500% on imports from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. US officials argue Chinese producers have used Southeast Asian countries to get around tariffs on China, accusing China of dumping cheap solar panels in the US market. Southeast Asia accounts for about 80% of the solar products sold into the US. Ben McCarron, managing director of Asia Research & Engagement, told the outlet however that leftover supply from slowing exports could be absorbed by domestic markets if governments pulled the right policy levers.

Sustainable farming - Japanese machinery maker Yanmar on Wednesday announced the launch of a climate-friendly project, which combines regenerative agriculture with solar power generation. One of the objectives is to establish data-based solutions that contribute to decarbonisation, such as reducing methane emissions by extending the mid-season drainage of rice paddies, and improving soil and fixing carbon through rice husk biochar. The company said it will also create carbon credits through the application of biochar. Yanmar aims to expand the project to cover 1,000 hectares nationwide by FY 2030, and will consider global expansion in the future.

A Japanese industrial major this week announced it has teamed up with a local partner in Malaysia to build a green steel plant that will make 2 million tonnes of hot briquetted iron (HBI) annually with significantly lower carbon emissions than traditional coal-fired facilities.

Going green - Kazakhstan is discussing plans to establish a green aluminium production project with Shanghai-based East Hope Group. In a recent meeting with Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, chairman of the Chinese corporation discussed prospects for implementing the project focused on establishing a full production cycle for manufacturing green aluminium products. The project's first phase would include construction of an alumina processing mining and beneficiation plant with a capacity of 2 Mt annually and an aluminium electrolysis plant with a production capacity of 1 Mt per year. Electricity to be used in the project will be generated by renewable sources and around 10,000 permanent jobs are expected to be created, according to the outlet.

It's official - The Pakistan government has proposed a carbon levy of PKR 2.5 ($0.009) per litre on petrol, high-speed diesel, and furnace oil in its latest budget for the financial year 2025-26 on Tuesday, media outlet Profit reported. The measure, expected to raise $170 mln in the upcoming financial year, will curb emissions, fund climate projects, and realign energy policy with global environmental goals. The levy is expected to increase to PKR 5 in the next financial year. The country is also planning to make a separate gas surcharge for off-grid industries permanent, as part of a broader economic package backed by the IMF. According to IMF estimates, once fully implemented, this fuel levy would price carbon emissions at around $107-120 per tonne of CO2.

The New Zealand government’s “loose” limits on farm to forestry conversions will see land continued to be forested, as the volume of overseas investment in forestry rose in the last two years, according to a report published Wednesday.

Building baselines - The majority of landfill gas projects in Australia will keep their baselines under the new Australian Carbon Credit Unit Method, Argus reported. LMS told the outlet that its six upgrade projects with confirmed baselines would retain their current baselines under the new method. Nine of the company's other registered upgrade projects are still within their initial 12-month baseline monitoring period and are yet to be audited to determine baselines. The other five largest landfill gas operators did not say whether their upgrade projects had baselines above the new proposed figures. The new landfill gas method is currently open for consultation and will go before the  Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC) for assessment.

Grumpy oilers - The Canadian Competition Bureau released final guidelines on environmental claims to address misleading advertising and deceptive marketing practices related to the environment last week, though Alberta did not react positively to the publication. The new guidelines require that claims have been adequately and properly tested, and in the case of claims about environmental benefits of business activities, the evidence must be based on an internationally recognised methodology. Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, Rebecca Schulz, called the new guidelines “more fancy rhetoric,” that puts an “undemocratic gag order” on businesses that are working to reduce emissions.

Right said Fred - Renewable fuel company Gevo plans to add a sustainable aviation fuel plant to the corn-based ethanol plant it purchased in southwest North Dakota, the North Dakota Monitor reported Tuesday. COO Chris Ryan said the project could cost around $500 million and would still be years away, he told the Midwest Agriculture Summit in Fargo, North Dakota. Richardson said that gasoline is a diminishing market and jet fuel is "a kind of sexy thing to talk about these days". Gevo purchased the Red Trail Energy plant last year, which was the first ethanol producer in the country to implement CO2 sequestration.