Building a federal committee – US EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will consider pro-fossil fuel representatives to serve on the agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a seven-member panel that could be instrumental to the Trump administration’s goal of rolling back air standards. E&E News reported on Tuesday that more than a quarter of the candidates for the position, which Zeldin will ultimately select, have downplayed the threat of climate change as part of the agenda of the non-profit CO2 Coalition.

A Brazilian carbon project developer announced on Tuesday it had acquired a minority stake in a startup specialising in the automation of ESG data and carbon management for companies.

The GHG Protocol’s Independent Standards Board (ISB) has voted to advance its Scope 2 revisions to public consultation – absent one part.

As the Trump administration works to revamp environmental review procedures for major infrastructure projects, some states and local governments are pushing for more inclusion in the US DOE’s new rules.

Every $1 spent by companies on addressing physical climate risks could deliver a return of up to $21, with an average benefit of $8, analysis from a global environmental impact organisation shows. 

Guidance for J-REDD+ – Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment published in the Official Union Gazette on Tuesday the safeguards text for projects on public and collective lands, as well as for the jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+) system. Approved in June by the National Commission for REDD+ (CONAREDD), the guidance established that traditional lifestyles and territorial uses must be respected — such as fishing and subsistence agriculture — and that both public and private forest carbon projects must conduct Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in accordance with ILO Convention 169. For J-REDD+, it stated that, aside from what is “justifiably confidential”, information on benefit-sharing agreements must be disclosed, and documents and contracts must be written in a clear and easily understandable manner.

Home stretch – Chile's Article 6 regulation is undergoing final checks by the national Comptroller's Office before likely publication in the country's national gazette – at which point, it will enter into force. The policy would establish the conditions and requirements for emission reduction or removal units within the framework of international cooperation established in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, said the Comptroller's Office bulletin. This "ambitious" regulation underwent public consultation last summer, at which point Chile's Article 6 working partner under a bilateral agreement with Switzerland, the Klik Foundation, raised points of concern. The Klik Foundation has since helped coordinate a pipeline of nearly a dozen Article 6.2 projects in Chile.

Real-time rock reading – Emissions Reduction Alberta is investing nearly C$13 mln ($9.4 mln) into three projects focused on monitoring geological CO2 storage, deploying compressed air energy storage, and lithium extraction. Emissions management company Carbon Management Canada will receive C$3.8 mln to develop an alternative to traditional monitoring systems for geological carbon storage, such as 2D and 3D seismic surveys, which are expensive and don't provide real-time insights. Carbon Management Canada will compare the results of the new technology against established monitoring techniques at the company’s Alberta-based research station to ensure accuracy.

Commitment issues – Barclays has pulled out of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, following after HSBC in July and other major banks earlier in the year, Bloomberg reported. The bank said that the alliance no longer has the membership to support its transition, though it remains committed to its goals of becoming a net zero bank by 2050 and facilitating $1 trillion of sustainable and transition finance by the end of the decade. Separately, just before Barclays’ departure, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters was openly critical of banks that committed to climate targets when it was “fashionable” and have since withdrawn their ambitions, The Guardian reported. Winters said most of Standard Chartered's clients are focused on net zero transitions as much as they were before, which is good for business.

Cityscape – A city council member has introduced a bill to regulate a Municipal Carbon Credit Market in the capital city of Curitiba in the Brazilian state of Parana, according to the local government's news site. The market would be based on legally set emissions targets for different economic activities. Councillor Camilla Gonda has suggested that companies participating voluntarily in the programme receive advantages in bidding processes, discounts on environmental licensing fees, tax incentives for solar energy installations, and public recognition as a Climate Neutrality Partner for the municipality. The bill is awaiting assessment by the city's legal division. This offsetting plan is aligned with Brazil's national carbon credit law (15.042/2024), approved last December, Gonda has said.

Sovereignty and sequestration – A new initiative led by Tribal and environmental organisations aiming to support Indigenous sovereignty in the CO2 removal (CDR) sector was announced Tuesday. The effort is backed by Partnerships for Tribal Carbon Solutions, a programme of non-profit Global Ocean Health; the Indigenous Greenhouse Gas Removal Commission, a consortium of federally recognised Tribal governments; the Carbon Business Council, an industry coalition representing over 100 CDR companies; and the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal, a research centre at American University. The initiative seeks to co-develop permitting frameworks, benefit-sharing models, and planning tools to help Tribes evaluate CDR options on their own terms.

Green goal greenlit – New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is accelerating efforts to pass legislation committing the state to 100% clean energy by 2035 before his term ends early next year, E&E News reported. The proposal, led by state Sen. Bob Smith (D), has been under discussion for two years, with a new version now circulating among lawmakers. Murphy, alongside environmental and labour groups, is pushing for the bill’s passage in the upcoming lame-duck session.

CDR convergence – A recent study by Cambridge University interviewed 79 members of the CDR community on their priorities for the nascent market, which included strong regulatory frameworks, market transparency, accountability, funding mechanisms and climate justice. A significant portion of subjects – who were interviewed between July 2023 and September 2024 – were suppliers, at 45%. Despite their varied perspectives, researchers found all actors converged on the necessity for robust governance systems characterised by vigorous third-party enforcement, transparency, and accountability.

Here come the torts - The US EPA’s recently proposed repeal of the endangerment finding – a 16-year-old rule critical to US environmental policy – may come with certain unintended risks to the industries that urged its revocation. Jonathan Adler, a law professor at William & Mary Law School, told E&E News that the strategy could “backfire” by exposing carbon-intensive industries to federal tort suits. Prior to the rule, it was common for federal tort suits to be filed against large emitters related to their climate impacts. That flow of litigation began winding down as the EPA began regulating emissions under the CAA following the endangerment finding. If the repeal is upheld by the courts, states and climate groups could begin filing those suits once again, thereby introducing a level of uncertainty to the power sector. This argument has been highlighted by environmental groups since the endangerment finding first came under threat.

Protecting Queretaro - The Mexican city of Queretaro is proposing to add two new sites to its growing list of natural protected areas. This summer, the municipality started a public consultation process and citizen workshops to create protections for Canada Bolanos and Cerro Colorado. If approved, the two sites would add a combined 62 hectares to the city’s roster of urban protected areas. Currently, the city has 12 protected natural areas representing 34% of municipal territory, according to El Universal Queretaro.

Decision-makers surveyed by academic researchers misjudge the share of the public that is inclined to take personal action to address climate crisis by nearly 50%, according to research released on Monday.

US tariffs on European products could significantly cut EU ETS-covered emissions, but are not expected to affect the market’s bullish 2026 trajectory, according to a bank analyst.

European carbon allowances surged on the back of aggressive and resilient buying activity on Tuesday, climbing to their highest in three days towards the end of the session as a steady flow of demand pushed the market away from its medium-term support level, while energy markets also recovered from a weak open to end the day in positive territory.

A UK forest carbon standard is piloting using drones for counting trees while also improving prediction tools for soil carbon as it looks to enhance its digital capabilities, following the launch of a new version.

Poland's approved national energy and climate plan sees coal out of the power sector in the mid-2030s and emissions down 54% by the end of this decade.

CCS projections - Government support for carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be key to its growth over the next five years - lowering costs about 14% by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Cumulative investments in CCS by then are forecast to reach about $80 bln, with two-thirds of the capacity additions projected to occur in North America and Europe. Hard-to-abate sectors like cement, fertiliser, and steel will benefit most from CCS, though most initial heavy lifting will be done by the oil and gas sector. Manufacturing is expected to account for 41% of annual CO2 captured by mid-century. CCS will grow to capture 6% of global CO2 emissions in 2050 compared to just 0.5% in 2030, WEF estimates, though would have to grow six times more than forecast to achieve the volume needed under DNV's net zero scenario.

Spain and Portugal are positioning themselves at the forefront of Europe's renewable transition, viewing the energy shift not as a cost, but as an industrial opportunity, although the region faces new tests following a major blackout in April and a new EU-US trade deal for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

An India-based startup developing algae-powered carbon capture technology has secured pre-seed investment to support the scaling of its nature-based emissions removal systems aimed at improving urban air quality.

Some restoration models don’t work consistently for different ecosystem types, creating uncertainties over exactly what volumes of human carbon emissions can be offset by restoring the natural world, according to a team of researchers.

Gas surcharge - All German electricity consumers may soon face a new surcharge to fund gas plants set up to provide backup power during low renewables generation. Economy minister Katherina Reiche of the CDU plans to auction state support for 20 GW of reserve gas plant capacity to be built by 2030, and to provide enough investment certainty, a capacity mechanism would then be established to pay energy companies to keep plants on standby, financed by the consumer levy. Yet such a levy directly opposes the coalition’s pledges to lower electricity prices. The Green party has critiqued the proposal for being expensive for power consumers and lacking on transparency. Proposing to build new gas plants has also drawn criticism from climate advocates within the CDU, with some saying alternatives like batteries and hydrogen offer better long-term backup. (Clean Energy Wire)

Turkiye has published new draft carbon credit and offsetting rules, outlining principles and procedures for generating and trading carbon credits from domestic projects.

EU countries must publish a public inventory of closed and abandoned underground coal mines by the end of Tuesday in a first move to curb largely hidden and large-scale abandoned mine methane (AMM) emissions.

Snuggle time – The official, UN-appointed online platform for booking accommodations for COP30 in Belem launched on Friday evening, offering mostly private residences as the handful of hotels in the Amazonian city were booked up months ago. While confirming Carbon Pulse’s bookings, bnetwork – the France-based company tasked with managing the reservation process – revealed that not only will some delegates be expected to share rooms, but beds as well. Brazilian officials have insisted there will be enough beds (over 55,000 across nearly 30,000 rooms) for the expected 50,000+ attendees - but if more people than anticipated make the trip, some may need to sleep together. Hundreds of apartment listings on the COP30 booking platform state they can accommodate upwards of 2-8 people. But upon further examination, many of these options assume 2 people will sleep together in a double bed (and feature prices ranging from $400 to nearly $14,000 per night). As well, many listings are incomplete in that they lack descriptions, they don’t show any amenities, or they feature the same exact photos as apartments in other buildings. No further details have been released regarding the cost and availability of rooms aboard two large cruise ships to be moored in the expanded Port of Outeiro some 25 km or 45 minutes from the venue. This is all likely to further aggravate prospective attendees, including large government delegations that have made it very clear they will not have their staff share rooms. The EU and other negotiators have voiced concerns about the need for privacy and rest during intense negotiations, while also criticising the unaffordable room rates. Brazil has responded by assuring countries that a total of 2,500 individual rooms are guaranteed for government delegations, priced from $100-600/night. These will first be offered to 73 nations classified as LDCs and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), with 15 rooms reserved for each at rates ranging from $100-220. All other countries will be guaranteed 10 rooms priced at $230-600/night. Despite the increasing international pressure, Brazil is refusing to move the talks from Belem, Reuters reports. COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago has confirmed there is “no plan B” for the summit's location. The UNFCCC has advised Brazil to consider relocating some parts of the event, such as the leaders' summit, to ease accommodation pressure, but Brazil rejected the suggestion, adding that it is working with local property owners to encourage fair pricing while warning that it cannot legally enforce price controls. President Lula and Para State Governor Helder Barbalho say they remain committed to showcasing the Amazon and have invested heavily in Belem’s infrastructure.

Scaling e-mobility – Ecosecurities and Ghana-based Energy Quest Foundation have entered a partnership to accelerate electric mobility solutions across Sub-Saharan Africa. The collaboration will seek to channel both carbon markets and climate finance mechanisms into EV-related initiatives ranging from fleet electrification, to charging infrastructure, and battery projects, the partners said in a statement. The partnership will focus on carbon and climate advisory services, capacity building and development of investable e-mobility pipeline, as well as mobilisation of investment-ready solutions.

BEVing up - The UK’s electric car revolution continued in July ahead of the government introducing a new grant scheme, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT). Bucking the wider market performance, registrations of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) rose 33% and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) 9.1%, although the latter is modest in comparison with the 34.6% increase recorded for the first half of 2025. July was the second weakest month of BEV growth this year, but this could be explained by the newly announced Electric Car Grant (ECG). Full model eligibility has yet to be confirmed, causing some buyers to hold off pending confirmation of which vehicles will qualify for a discount of up to £3,750. BEV market share still reached 21.3%, up from 18.5% in the same month last year.

The European Commission is planning on extending aid for indirect EU ETS costs to other sectors, it said in a call for feedback opened this week.

India’s national compliance carbon market under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) is estimated to become the third largest in the world after China and the EU, but complexity in design, lack of regulatory clarity, and a dearth of accredited verifiers may hamper early implementation and undermine price discovery, according to experts.

India’s voluntary carbon market is being constrained by prolonged registration timelines and limited sectoral focus, and this is undermining its growth potential and credibility, according to a report released this week.

Carbon recycling for steel - PeroCycle, a developer of closed-loop carbon recycling for steelmaking, has appointed Grant Budge as CEO alongside the opening of a £4 mln seed round. The capital raised will fund pilot deployment and accelerate commercial growth, it said in the release Tuesday. PeroCycle was spun out of the University of Birmingham and Cambridge Future Tech, in partnership with Anglo American. The pilot will have a targeted capacity of 1 kilotonne of CO2 processed per year, with the technology aiming to tackle the steel's industry's carbon footprint - responsible for around 8% of global CO2 emissions.

Sustainable agriculture market investments will reach $5-10 billion annually over the next year in Brazil, making the country an international leader in the practice, a stakeholder has predicted.

BP has launched a new cost-cutting review, despite announcing better than expected profits in quarterly results Tuesday, that could see the oil major further pivot away from its clean energy business.

The European Commission has given the green light to a €11 billion French State aid scheme aimed at accelerating the development of offshore wind energy, as part of the EU’s broader push towards a net zero economy.

Gold Standard is inviting responses to a consultation it has opened on a new draft methodology standard for addressing leakage emissions in greenhouse gas accounting methodologies.

EU ETS breaches - Multinational drinks producer Diageo has been fined more than £1.2 mln by the Scottish government for failing to apply for EU ETS permits at three sites on its Glen Ord complex in Muir of Ord, Inverness between 2013 and 2018. The company corrected the error in 2019 and blamed 'human error' for the reporting failure. It was ordered to pay civil penalties of just under £1.4 mln, which were reduced to £1.2 mln on appeal. Scotland aims to reduce CO2 emissions 75% by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2045. Scottish installations were subject to the EU ETS prior to the UK leaving the bloc in Jan. 2020.

One of Japan's largest oil refiners is backing an emissions reduction project under Tokyo-led Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) that can cut emissions from rice cultivation.

Bosnia and Herzegovina will aim to introduce an emission trading system (ETS) by the end of 2025, the country’s prime minister said, as reported by local media.

Let's do more - The Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is urging the private sector to invest in large-scale reforestation efforts, as a "strategic path" towards earning carbon credits and building climate resilience. DENR Secretary Raphael PM Lotilla stressed that forests are not just environmental assets, citing the potential for carbon credits in sustainable forest management areas. The appeal was made during the signing of an MoU between the DENR and the Ayala Group under the regulators' Forests for Life programme, which aims to plant at least five mln indigenous trees across critical watershed areas over the next three years.

Clarity - China's newly revised green finance project catalogue, released last month by the country's financial regulators, offers a more unified green standard for bonds and loans that could help scale up financing for target projects in China, according to a report published this week by Sustainable Fitch. The latest version replaces previously separate classification systems for green bonds and loans, streamlining asset management guidance and reducing project identification costs for issuers and investors, the report said. After the new catalogue takes effect in October this year, all onshore green debt issuers are required to align financed projects with it and report their progress accordingly.  

New partnership - Japanese project developer ByWill, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality in all 47 prefectures of Japan, has concluded a collaboration agreement with the government of Kagoshima Prefecture's Ibusuki City, Kagoshima Bank, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, it announced Tuesday. Similar to partnerships that ByWill has previously secured, the alliance will work to create and distribute environmental values, such as domestically issued J-Credits.

The UK government has chosen a further six projects to take forward into the negotiations phase of its Track-1 expansion of the HyNet carbon capture and storage (CCS) cluster in northwest England.

A carbon removal buyers club has opened a summer call for project applications.

No shocks here – The first phase of the 850-MW Waratah Super Battery has come online, Akaysha Energy announced on LinkedIn on Tuesday. With a capacity of 350 MW, the battery is acting as a shock absorber in the New South Wales grid, in the event of a heatwave or lightning strikes, the firm said. The remaining 500 MW will come online later this year.

A clean cookstoves project in Fiji has received the country’s first carbon credits issued by Verra, with thousands more pending, according to the project developer’s general manager for Asia Pacific.

Laos looks to nuclear – Laos is exploring the prospect of nuclear power with Russia’s Rosatom, signing an agreement to develop a roadmap after a presidential visit to Moscow by Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysia’s Bernama reported this week, citing Russian and Laotian news. The landlocked country hopes to diversify its power mix from hydropower, coal, biofuel, and waste. Around 80% of its electricity generation is from hydropower, though over half of this is exported to other nearby nations. It follows neighbour Vietnam into exploring nuclear, which shelved plans twice before putting them back on the table recently.

No plan B – The President of COP30 reiterated last week that the climate summit will be held in the Amazonian city of Belem, despite mounting pressure over surging accommodation prices and insufficient infrastructure that could price out poorer countries, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, Brazil is working to boost the number of domestic and international flights landing Belem this year, to accommodate the tens of thousands expected to descend for the November summit, the organisers said last month.

A new report to support developing countries in Asia develop carbon markets has identified nine key issues which need to be resolved in legal frameworks to attract investment and facilitate high-integrity projects. 

FEED for CCS - Japanese gas giant Inpex announced entry into front-end engineering design (FEED) at its Abadi LNG project offshore Indonesia this week. There are four packages within the FEED work, and each one will contain a scope related to carbon capture and storage (CCS), Inpex said. The company has been clear for some time it planned to incorporate CCS into project development given the high CO2 content of the gas reservoir. It has previously mulled developing carbon credits but not offered further details, although it was the first proposed CCS project greenlit for credits within Indonesia in 2023. It said its planned LNG expansion, which will be able to meet 10% of total Japanese demand, at 9.5 mln tonnes.

Turn in your drafts – The eighth participant in Colorado’s GHG emissions reduction programme submitted its individual draft plan on Monday for limiting emissions beginning in 2030. All 18 facilities covered under the GHG Emissions Management and Manufacturing 2 (GEMM) rule must submit plans, which will be available for public comment. JBS Swift Beef submitted its plan, which will be available for comment through Sept. 18, for its meat processing facility in Greeley, Colorado. JBS must reduce its 2030 emissions by 15.5%, compared to 2021 levels – nearly 178,300 tonnes of CO2e. The company plans to install an anaerobic digester to capture methane emitted from the wastewater in a nearby lagoon, which it says accounts for the majority of its emissions.

Electrifying construction – A New York state agency has approved an all-electric building standard – a move mandated under the 2023 All-Electric Buildings Act. The New York Fire Prevention and Building Code Council adopted the standard on July 25, making the state the first in the US to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings. The standard applies to smaller structures built after 2025, up to seven stories tall or up to 100,000 square feet (9,290 sq metres), and larger buildings beginning in 2029.