Omnibus challenge ahoy - Moves to roll back EU sustainability reporting legislation could face challenges in court, legal experts have warned. David Frydlinger, a partner at Swedish law firm Cirio told news site EUobserver the European Commission’s so-called Omnibus package of simplification laws, put forward in February, lacked the usual impact assessment, which are necessary under EU law for any substantial reform of existing legislation. In his view, the Commission has failed to do its legal homework, and has exposed itself to legal challenges. Spain and Denmark are among the countries that have already voiced concerns, and a group of eight NGOs and trade unions recently filed a complaint with the European Ombudsman, the article notes. (EUobserver)

Second chance – The European Commission’s former top climate official, Jos Delbeke, has come out in support of plans to include Article 6 credits into the EU’s upcoming 2040 climate target plan, due to be presented on July 2. Delbeke had previously banned Kyoto-era CDM credits from the EU ETS, as those had contributed to crashing the price of CO2 on the EU carbon market in the 2010s. But he said the newer version of the UN credits, known as Article 6 under the Paris Agreement, deserve a chance. “I’m in favour of reopening the door for those credits,” Delbeke told Politico in an interview, “but we have to be very restrictive on the quality of those credits. And we have to be very alert and make our own decisions on the quantity that we are going to allow.” Article 6 credits also don’t necessarily have to be included in the EU ETS, he added, saying there are other options available. He didn't explain what those were. (Politico)

Endurance contract - Energy services provider Expro has been contracted to provide integrated well testing services for the UK's Northern Endurance Partnership carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, the company announced Thursday. Expro will appraise two wells in the Endurance reservoir, which is estimated to have a capacity to store up to 450 Mt of CO2. The Endurance project secured the UK's first CCS permit last December, and is part of the government's goal to reach 2030 Mt of CO2 storage per year by 2030 and over 50 Mt by 2035.  It's a joint venture between BP, TotalEnergies, and Equinor.  

An engineered carbon removal (CDR) standard and registry is offering project developers access to finance that will turn offtake revenue into upfront cash, after striking a deal with a Google Ventures-backed carbon removal intelligence platform.

Including municipal waste incinerators in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) would deliver between 18-32 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2040 while driving investment in recycling, and creating thousands of jobs, according to a study published on Thursday. 

Insufficient government action to strengthen 2030 climate goals and submit ambitious 2035 targets is placing the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C warming limit at significant risk of long-term overshoot, according to a new assessment from a green group.