Disclosure FAQ - California regulator ARB published guidance last week on how companies can comply with two climate disclosure laws - SB 253 and SB 261 - reported ESG Dive. ARB said it is currently in the “informal, information-gathering stage” for implementing both laws and reiterated its aim to develop a regulation by the end of the year. Regarding SB 261, the agency said it will post a public docket on Dec. 1 for covered entities to post a public link to their first climate-related financial risk report. Obligated entities are expected to submit their reports by Jan. 1, 2026.

Climate cuts - A US House appropriations proposal released Monday by Republicans would all but zero out funding to implement the Montreal Protocol, the major international treaty protecting the ozone layer, reported E&E News. The US is not expected to withdraw from the agreement, but the country has provided significant funding in recent decades to help enforce the standards in developing countries, according to the outlet.

The latest Clean Fuel Regulation (CFR) report from Environmental and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) found falling prices and an increasing supply that favours the creation of credits on imported fuels.

CCS initiated - US hydrogen and nitrogen manufacturer CF Industries announced Monday the start-up of a CO2 dehydration and compression facility at its Donaldsonville Complex in Louisiana. The facility aims to enable the transportation and permanent geological sequestration of up to 2 MtCO2. ExxonMobil, the CCS partner for the project, will be transporting and permanently storing the CO2. On an interim basis, the oil major is storing CO2 from the Donaldsonville Complex in permanent geologic sites via enhanced oil recovery (EOR). However, upon receiving its applicable permits, ExxonMobil plans to transition to dedicated permanent storage, starting with its Rose CCS project.

ESG lawsuit - Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Monday his office has launched an investigation into and launched lawsuits against two proxy advisor firms - Glass Lewis and International Stakeholder Services (ISS) - aiming to ensure compliance with demands for information related to their promotion of ESG. Bailey's office claimed these two firms "wield outsized influence" over the direction of US corporate governance, and have advanced "radical" ESG agendas that run counter to shareholder value.

An independent research group is projecting that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will increase emissions by at least 315 million tonnes of CO2e in 2035 compared to the previous status quo, mostly thanks to the repeal of power sector decarbonisation policies.

The Para state government in Brazil has signed the contract for the country's first concession tender for restoration in public areas, and announced its first investor.

David and Goliath - A lawsuit filed by a youth coalition against the Trump administration has attracted the interest of several Republican state attorneys general (AGs) all of whom are siding with the administration against the youth. In May, a group of 22 youth from across the US filed a constitutional lawsuit alleging that a number of executive orders designed to expand fossil fuel development and remove climate protections violate their fundamental rights. Now, 18 Republican state AGs are filing as intervenors in the case claiming that it could “threaten their economies, the use of their properties, and their state budgets". According to the brief filed, if allowed to join the lawsuit, the AGs will file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Aug. 4. (Daily Montanan)

More tropical data – Embrapa, Brazil’s leading agricultural research institution, has announced a partnership with Regrow Ag to adapt the DNDC (DeNitrification-DeComposition) model from the US agricultural resilience platform provider to tropical soils and climate conditions in Brazil. The tool is intended to support the country in enhancing GHG emissions reduction and carbon sequestration efforts in the region, and aims at providing the technical foundations needed for high-integrity carbon programmes in the national agricultural sector. DNDC is a globally recognised biogeochemical model that simulates carbon and nitrogen dynamics in soils, according to Regrow.

Climate negotiators cut – The Trump administration said it plans to cut 1,300 positions from the US State Department, which include dozens of officials working on international climate efforts. Combined with early retirements and deferred resignations, the department will lay off a total of nearly 3,000 staff of its workforce of 18,000 staff, according to E&E News. Under the Biden administration, state department negotiators were key delegates representing US interests at COPs.

Participation in California’s five most recent cap-and-trade auctions underperformed by nearly $3 billion in potential revenue, a report published on Monday claimed.

A multinational commodity trader already active in Brazil's carbon market is studying and in discussions for investments in two further jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) systems in the country, a director told Carbon Pulse.

A San Francisco-based climate non-profit is suing the US Treasury for what it calls its role in failing to publicly disclose GHG impact avoidance analyses for its investments.

NIMBY Hoosiers - Indiana residents neighbouring a forthcoming West Terre Haute project are rallying against CO2 storage regulations, according to The Journal Gazette. The outlet reported two dozen Hoosiers protested the pilot project by Wabash Valley Resources intending to pipe and inject nearly 1.7 million tCO2 to produce low-carbon ammonia fertiliser at a former coal plan in Vigo County.

Cutting down – Chinese tech giant Alibaba is cutting down on offsetting use, cancelling just under 12,000 credits in the year to Mar. 2025 compared to 118,000 two years previously, according to its latest ESG report. Instead, the company is prioritizing insetting. Its net GHG emissions in the year ending this March amounted to 10.15 MtCO2e, up from 10.06 Mt the year before.

European carbon prices quickly erased an early sell-off in response to the weekend announcement by President Trump that US imports from Europe may face a 30% tariff from Aug. 1, and climbed quickly amid dip-buying and reported compliance demand after prices had briefly fallen below a key level, before slowly unwinding their gains in the afternoon in line with natural gas.

CDP trustees - The environmental disclosure non-profit CDP has appointed two new members to its Worldwide Board of Trustees, saying they will help to strengthen its efforts to scale up in Asia Pacific in particular – where disclosures are growing at record pace. Marc Berryman, named chair of finance on the audit and risk committee, has been focused on risk management and regulatory oversight, in over 20 years of experience in financial services. He currently works as investment operations director at UK wealth manager St. James's Place, and was previously CEO and COO of Credit Suisse Asset Management UK. Hideo Tomita, appointed Japan representative, is the vice chair for Japan at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), and previously worked at Refinitiv Japan KK.

The UK's electricity demand could surge by as much as 170% as it reaches net zero emissions by 2050 – but it needs to speed up the delivery of clean electricity, bioenergy, hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon capture and removal technologies, according to projections by the National Energy Systems Operator (NESO).

Oil offsetting – Argentinian oil producer Vista Energy published its 2024 Sustainability Report last week. In the previous year, it released 222 MtCO2e of Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, with an intensity of 8.8 kgCO2e/boe. The report outlined the company’s target of reducing emission intensity to 7 kgCO2e/boe by 2026, and of offsetting all residual emissions – though without specifying quantities – through NbS carbon credits by the same year. Vista Energy’s subsidiary, Aike, is currently executing 13 Verra-certified NBS projects across 43,000 has in Argentina. These include initiatives in regenerative agriculture and livestock, mixed ARR, forest conservation, and IFM. Six projects are scheduled to undergo validation or CCB certification this year.

The world’s largest soil carbon project has been given a lifeline after a Kenyan Court of Appeal granted a stay of execution to an order that declared parts of the project illegal.

Voluntary carbon credit prices drifted sideways and retirements slid lower amid the summer holidays, while new Carbon Pulse analysis revealed the impact of up-and-coming registries in driving the sector towards retirement growth.

The UK government intends to help countries integrate nature-based solutions (NbS) into their updated climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, as part of an effort to ensure that national environmental policies tackle biodiversity and climate issues simultaneously, the government said in a paper published on Monday. 

A controversial proposal to amend the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) may enable sanctioned Russian and Belarusian wood to enter the EU through third countries, by introducing a 'no-risk' country category, an expert analysis has found.

DAC's not the answer - Climate scientist James Kerry cautions against overestimating the potential of carbon removal technologies, and stresses that phasing out fossil fuels as fast as possible should be the real focus in tackling climate change, in an op-ed piece for swissinfo.ch. He claims direct air capture (DAC) is "neither a serious nor scalable climate solution" and calls out the advance sale of carbon credits as creating false hope while allowing companies to continue increasing their emissions. Decarbonisation should be the focus - achieved through both carrot and stick approaches - combined with a carbon price that factors in the true social and planetary cost of CO2, he wrote.

Ocean farming using large algae could contribute significantly to global CO2 removal, with current technologies falling short of what is needed to stabilise the climate, according to a policy paper released Monday.

Voyage to Zero - Singapore-based Swire Shipping has launched a carbon insetting initiative whereby clients can cut their Scope 3 emissions by claiming the GHG savings from second-generation biofuels used in its fleet, even while their own actual cargo is shipped using conventional fuels. This so-called book-and-claim model was launched on the MV Apia Chief in Suva, Fiji, with the GHG savings calculated using independently verified data. (shipandbunker.com)

Green ammonia certification - Envision Energy's Chifeng Hydrogen Net Zero Industrial Park has been awarded the ISCC Plus certification - making it the world's first project to receive the designation for green ammonia with a verified GHG footprint. The park is currently the world's largest green hydrogen-ammonia project and the first to reach commercial operation. ISCC is a globally recognised certificate for sustainable feedstocks, which sets strict evaluation criteria across GHG accounting and material traceability. The certification enhances the competitiveness of Envision's green ammonia products on the market, the release stated.

Democratic lawmakers in the US Congress have reintroduced two bills intended to address shipping industry GHG emissions via the imposition of carbon pricing obligations.

Saudi solar - A consortium led by Saudi utility ACWA Power and including Aramco Power (part of Saudi Aramco) is to invest $8.3 bln to build 15 GW of solar and wind farms in Saudi Arabia. The consortium has signed power purchase agreements with the state-owned electricity buyer to build five solar and two wind projects across the kingdom, in a step towards Saudi Arabia's goal to generate half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2060. As of end 2024, the kingdom had about 4.34 GW of solar, but wants to reach 130 GW of solar and wind by 2030, freeing up oil and gas for export instead. (FT)

ERW partners - Negative Emissions Platform has welcomed Carbony to its platform, it announced on LinkedIn. The enhanced rock weathering (ERW) developer applies finely ground olivine rock powder to non-agricultural managed lands, thereby speeding up the natural mineral weathering that absorbs atmospheric CO2 and locks it away as stable carbonates in soil and water. The approach is said to boost CO2 sequestration whilst improving soil health, reducing acidity, and supporting ecosystem resilience. NEP and Austria/Bulgaria-based Carbony will collaborate to advance high-quality, landscape-based carbon removals, the announcement said.        

Two UK-based groups have released a report on the costs associated with investment in peatland restoration, aiming to support investors by addressing the financial barrier of data scarcity.

The G20's financial stability watchdog released a new strategy for approaching climate risks on Monday, but has paused further policy work amid the US retreat on climate action and at the request from some of its members.

EV partners - Article Six Group has announced a partnership with Africa-based electric mobility provider Roam, it stated on LinkedIn. The project will show how international climate finance can support electric vehicle deployment, particularly e-bikes, in Kenya.

The Frontier coalition has arranged the purchase of $1.75 million worth of carbon removal credits from three early-stage companies, it announced Monday.

New shop - Nairobi-based cookstoves manufacturer Burn has launched a new production facility in Malawi in partnership with Aim Carbon, the partners have announced. The new factory will produce up to 50,000 fuel-efficient biomass cookstoves per month, with 5% featuring digital monitoring to support carbon credit verification, in the initial phase. By 2030, Burn aims to distribute 2 mln clean cookstoves across Malawi, improving the lives of over 8 mln people, preventing 18 MtCO2e of emissions, and saving 9.6 mln tonnes of wood, it said in a statement. The programme is projected to generate more than $60 mln in carbon credit subsidies. The Malawi programme is part of Burn's wider initiative to deploy millions of clean cooking appliances across five African countries: Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has set up a regional hub to accelerate the decarbonisation of aviation across the Asia Pacific, focusing on green finance and the development of a carbon market in the region.

First fuel steps - Australian fuel producer Viva Energy has processed 10 types of of tyre pyrolysis oil at its Geelong Refinery it announced Monday, as part of efforts to advance the country's sustainable fuel industry. The company said the refinery had already processed a similar quantity of pyrolysis oil derived from waste plastic, demonstrating its capability to process at-scale oil made from waste. However, the company said the pyrolysis oil it used was imported from Poland with permission from the Australian government, as it is currently not available domestically. Viva is seeking to develop a tyre-recycling facility in Melbourne, capable of processing up to 80,000 tonnes of used tyres per year.  

The Aalborg Portland cement plant in Northern Denmark is set to eliminate its emissions by 2030, thanks to a major carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiative, Denmark’s green transition minister told Carbon Pulse.

Future-proof forecasts - Carbon market analysis firm Veyt is partnering with geospatial AI company Kayrros to improve the use of industrial emissions data for understanding near-term EUA demand. Kayrros' data on industrial carbon emissions will be integrated into Veyt forecasts, generating faster and more accurate forecasts of EU carbon allowances to reflect industrial activity, and delivering stronger risk assessment by minimising lag in emissions data, the companies said. Traders will therefore receive more accurate forecasts of short-term EUA demand and more informed price dynamics, stated a press release.

The UK has become a warmer, wetter, and sunnier country in recent decades, with the last three years ranking about the five warmest years recorded over 140 years, the Met Office found in an annual report published Monday.

Brazil is working to boost the number of domestic and international flights landing in the Amazonian city of Belem this year, to accommodate the tens of thousands expected to descend for November's COP30 climate change summit, the organisers announced on Monday.

Despite Europe’s strong political commitment to achieving net zero, 65% of industry executives surveyed in a new report said that poor governance and ineffective policy are undermining the region’s industrial competitiveness.

Cleaner and greener - Construction is about to start on a new electric arc furnace (EAF) at Port Talbot's Tata steelworks in south Wales, which should be operating by 2027 and curb the site's CO2 emissions by about 90%. This comes after almost 3,000 jobs were lost after the site's blast furnaces were shut last September and the government announced £500 mln of support for the site to transition to EAF production. The UK government's steel council will also meet Monday to finalise its steel strategy, the BBC reported.

Bigger and better - Energiequelle has commissioned two Enercon E-160 wind turbines as part of a repowering project in Rablitz, Saxony, with the upgrade increasing the energy output eightfold. The projected annual energy yield of the new turbines is around 40.8 mln kWh - enough to supply more than 10,000 households with green, CO₂-free electricity. The new turbines feature a hub height of 166.6 meters and a capacity of 5.56 MW each. Their commissioning followed a lengthy and difficult planning process including the construction of a dedicated substation to serve the increased capacity. Since June 20, the wind farm's energy has been fed into the public grid. The project has also been sold to renewables producer Encavis.

Hydrogen fee – The German Federal Network Agency has set the hydrogen core network’s ramp-up fee at €25/kWh/h/a, to ensure planning security and affordable access for market participants. This nationwide fee covers hydrogen feed-in and feed-out and is designed to recover grid costs by 2055 while remaining marketable. It was set after analysing infrastructure costs, market forecasts, and political factors. Though adjusted annually for inflation, the fee will otherwise stay fixed, with reviews every three years to ensure sufficient revenue. Based on the WANDA resolution (June 2024), the fee starts below cost-covering levels to avoid high initial charges, with later surpluses offsetting early deficits. (BNetzA)

Transition Finance Pilot - UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves will task regulators with lowering barriers to companies seeking to cut their emissions, during her annual Mansion House speech to London's finance sector. A pilot project will be run to identify where regulatory barriers may exist for emissions reduction projects by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, together with the Bank of England and the Green Finance Institute. The UK is battling lacklustre economic growth and the government views green finance as potentially able to generate up to £200 bln in economic revenue. (Reuters)

The UK automotive sector will receive £2.5 billion from new government funding competitions over the next decade to ensure the sector stays ahead in the race for zero-emission vehicles, the government has announced.

Gold Standard has opened a consultation on its new criteria for setting activity baselines that are aligned with the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), as the organisation aims to align its voluntary carbon market instruments with the provisions of the Article 6.4 system.

The Malaysian government will introduce its National Climate Change Bill to parliament in the coming weeks, which will include provisions for carbon market mechanisms aimed at reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions and incentivise emissions trading.

Keeping tabs - Australia's Clean Energy Regulator has informed 70 carbon projects they have missed their reporting deadline, it said in a compliance update. These projects are required to provide the regulator with a plan to return to compliance, or be revoked. Meanwhile, it said Fitzroy Mining had surrendered 172,900 prescribed carbon units for its Carlborough Downs and Ironbark Safeguard facilities, after they were in excess at the end of the last reporting period. Its final surrender is required by Dec. 15.

Mining giant BHP has signed an agreement with a Chinese technology company to investigate using batteries to electrify and decarbonise its mining operations, it announced Monday.

China under EU pressure – EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra urged China on Sunday to adopt more ambitious climate measures, particularly regarding coal dependency, during high-level talks in Beijing. The EU is delaying a joint climate agreement with China until stronger commitments are secured. While the EU is open to looking into a potential declaration, “the thing that is most important about these types of statements is the content that goes into it”, Hoekstra told Reuters in an interview. “We do encourage China to take more of a leadership role going forward and really hit the road with meaningful emission reductions in the next couple of years, and also move out of the domain of coal," he said.

Calling for proposals - Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting, commissioned by Japan's trade ministry (METI), has issued this fiscal year's second call for proposals about feasibility studies under the bilateral Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), according to a notice published Monday. The project aims to encourage the spread of decarbonisation technologies and products from Japanese companies, and to achieve GHG reductions in JCM partner countries. Up to eight feasibility studies will be subsidised with a maximum budget of JPY 15 million ($101,809) each, and applications will be accepted until Aug. 15, the notice said.    

Governments and validation and verification bodies (VVBs) are seeking to address what developers say is a major dearth of local experience, a conference heard last week.

EU-Indonesia trade deal – After 10 years of negotiation, the EU and Indonesia shook hands on Sunday on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), marking a decisive milestone towards its definitive conclusion in September, the European Commission said in a statement. Indonesia is a leading supplier of goods that are vital for the digital and green transitions and will help strengthen the supply chains of critical raw materials that Europe needs to power the clean and digital transitions, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The deal is more than just about securing supplies for Europe, as the agreement has a clear focus on local jobs and value creation, von der Leyen said.

Clean power shortage - South Korea’s four major industries – including steel and semiconductor manufacturing – face a projected shortfall of 21.4 TWh of carbon-free electricity by 2042, according to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI). The FKI notes that this deficit, which can only be met through renewable energy procurement under current rules, is equivalent to roughly 46.7% of Seoul's total electricity consumption last year. With domestic power demand surging due to the surge of artificial intelligence, the FKI has called for the government to broaden the definition of carbon-free electricity to include output from existing nuclear power plants, it said in a statement.

Moscow exchange - The 2nd conference "Exchange Instruments of Decarbonisation" was held in Moscow on July 11, organised by the Moscow Exchange and the National Commodity Exchange, with support from the Russian Partnership for Climate Preservation. The event brought together more than 200 representatives from business, regulators and the expert community to discuss the development of the carbon market in Russia, according to a statement. Moscow Exchange has introduced new mechanisms for trading carbon units and green certificates, which Russian authorities say are in line with best global practices. Russia’s pilot carbon market, the Sakhalin experiment, reached an important milestone on June 30, when the first sale of CO2 units took place as part of the pilot.

Carbon inventory - The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan has launched its first carbon asset inventory, with an aim to accelerate green energy adoption and unlock climate financing, the Peshawar Post reported. The inventory will track emissions reductions from renewable energy projects and convert them into carbon credits and renewable energy certificates. Developed in collaboration with the UK-funded SEED programme, the tool is designed to improve transparency, guide future energy planning, and align the province with global climate reporting standards.

Australia's Telstra says it is sticking to its plan to move away from using carbon credits to meet its emission reduction goals, despite cancelling several hundred Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) last month.

Big battery - A four-hour battery totalling 4 GWh has been proposed for a site north of Sydney to absorb excess solar power in the grid, RenewEconomy reports. Developer Bid Energy has put forward the 1 GW/4 GWh Kiar battery project for federal environmental approval. The battery would be located on the 330 kV transmission line between Sydney and several coal power stations that will retire in the coming years, a location the developer said was the "favourable location". The project is significantly larger than the 700 MW/2,800 MWh Eraring battery now under construction and is one of several significant battery projects being developed to help replace aging coal plants in Australia.

U-turn - Indian government has eased a mandate on sulphur emissions from coal plants, exempting 79% of coal plants from installing costly flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems unless located near major cities, Reuters reported. The revised mandate, issued on July 12, limits FGD installation to only 10% of plants near densely populated areas by 2027, with another 11% to be considered on a case-by-case basis. This reversal comes despite investments of $4 bln by state-run electricity producer NTPC and plans for wider implementation.

California lawmakers last week scrapped amendments that would have established a price cap for credits within the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programme.