A major Australian bank expects Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) demand to remain resilient thanks to newfound policy certainty, but the price will likely remain stagnant for the remainder of the year, while it predicts upward momentum in the New Zealand market.

Government reshuffle - Germany’s environment ministry will regain the lead on international climate policy under a new department headed by Heike Henn, the government has confirmed. The ministry will take over responsibility for international climate negotiations and the International Climate Initiative (IKI), coordinating with the development ministry and alongside foreign ministry programmes. The foreign ministry, which previously led Germany’s climate diplomacy, will continue to play a role, including through its network of 50 “climate priority embassies”. Despite climate change being identified by intelligence services as one of the country’s top five external threats, the government’s newly established national security council (NSR) does not include the environment minister. The NSR, chaired by the chancellor, will handle strategic and crisis issues with participation from key ministries, security bodies, and external partners. Environmental NGO Germanwatch criticised the omission, warning that climate is one of the greatest security threats of the time and should be systematically embedded in the NSR. It called for the environment minister and climate experts to be given a seat at the table. Germany has also pledged to highlight the link between climate, peace, and security in its bid for a UN Security Council seat in 2027-28. (Argus)

In a new report, ExxonMobil said that CO2 emissions from energy could fall by about a quarter by 2050, but warned fossil fuels would continue to dominate the global energy mix, with further progress needed to meet climate targets.

A new analysis of the US clean energy and manufacturing industries shows early signs of how developers are responding to the clean energy tax credits modified by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

EU Emission Trading System prices for heating and transport (EU ETS2) are forecast to start trading at around €80 per tonne in 2027 before rising sharply to eventually reach €180 per tonne in 2034, responding to a drop in supply, an analyst said on Thursday.

The amount of land suitable for new tree planting is far smaller than previously estimated once biodiversity is taken into account, with carbon storage potential also being overestimated, a newly released study has found.

European carbon allowance prices slid towards the bottom half of their recent €70-€73 range on Thursday, as natural gas prices slumped on reports of an increase in LNG deliveries to Europe, as well as news that a Russian cargo had been moved to China, raising speculation of a relaxation in US sanctions on Moscow.

Biofuels and durable carbon removal (CDR), plus onboard carbon capture, are likely to be the cheapest route to decarbonise shipping, with the uptake of electrofuels heavily dependent on the price of electricity, according to analysis by a climate expert.

Likelihood to buy - Data provider Allied Offsets has launched a Likelihood to Buy score, which will help to identify which companies are most likely to engage in the VCM in the near future, the company said on Thursday. The score reflects the likelihood of companies buying in the near-term, and will help to make the market more transparent and actionable for stakeholders. It covers some 28,000 companies that either have been active in the VCM, are major publicly listed companies, are have been identified through Allied Offsets' research on large emitters. The score looks at past market engagement, corporate commitments, and predictive modelling.

Helping hand to hydrogen - The emergence of binding hydrogen offtake agreements signals growing maturity and investor confidence in the development of a clean hydrogen economy, wrote Agnieszka Ason, energy lawyer and senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. In a paper, she looks at the practical considerations in negotiating and structuring hydrogen offtake agreements. The report outlines the main structures, discusses the key commercial terms and contractual risk management tools, and provides an outlook for international clean hydrogen contracting in the coming decades.

Blowing on the wind - H1 2025 saw a record number of applications approved to build new onshore wind turbines in Germany, with numbers increasing by two-thirds to 7.8 GW compared to H1 2024. Meanwhile, the total number of completed onshore turbines also saw strong growth, found industry agency Fachagentur Wind und Solar.  An additional 400 onshore turbines with a combined capacity of nearly 2.2 GW were commissioned during the first six months of this year, bringing the nationwide fleet to a total capacity of 65.3 GW by end of June. The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia continued to lead the country in terms of approved capacity, followed by Lower Saxony. Wind energy contributed 23% to Germany's gross electricity generation last year, and forms a key part of government plans to reach a power grid with 80% renewables by 2030. (Clean Energy Wire)

Over the (carbon) rainbow - Carbon standard Rainbow (formerly Riverse) has announced a partnership with Sylvera to strengthen the integrity and reach of those projects it certifies. Ratings organisation Sylvera offers third-party assessments of carbon projects across aspects such as carbon accounting, permanence, additionality, and co-benefits. Rainbow hopes the partnership will allow its certified projects to gain greater visibility with buyers and will contribute to a more transparent voluntary carbon market.

A UK power company is under investigation by the country’s financial watchdog over "historical statements" made about the sourcing of wood pellets for its biomass power station.

An Australian airline has reported that 70% of credits in its voluntary carbon programme now come from nature-based projects, such as reforestation and biodiversity restoration, as it seeks 'higher integrity' assets.

Board refresh - Stacy Kauk has been appointed to the board of directors at CarbonCure Technologies, bringing experience from her current role as chief science officer at removals registry Isometric, and previous role as head of sustainability at Shopify. In addition to CarbonCure, Kauk also serves on the board of Carbon Removal Canada. CarbonCure, which injects CO2 into concrete for permanent storage, has also appointed William C. Holden as board chair and Onne van der Weijde as vice chair, according to a statement on its website.    

Moscow will need to adopt a comprehensive emission trading system or risk the country’s fledgling voluntary carbon market tailing away into obscurity, finds a new report.  

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) could see credit prices increase nine-fold by 2040, according to updated analyst forecasts, with the current oversupply to endure until the 2030s.

Emissions gap - The disparity in transport emissions between the richest and poorest in Britain is set to widen, according to new analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The wealthiest and most mobile people in the UK already produce 10 times more carbon through their domestic travel than the poorest and least mobile, and this is forecast to grow to 13 times by 2035 under current decarbonisation policies. Wealthy white men from rural areas are the country’s biggest emitters of GHGs. When including international travel, IPPR forecasts the richest to emit 22 times more than the poorest in 2035 – up from 20 times today. The organisation proposes a fairer policy approach to decarbonising travel, which would focus on reducing excess private car travel and flights for those able to change their behaviours fastest, while increasing transport options for the least mobile. It would encourage less car use across all groups and encourage public transport and active travel like cycling. (the Guardian)

Corporate buyers of carbon credits are fundamentally changing how they engage with the voluntary carbon market, according to new report, moving away from one-off, transactional purchases and shifting towards long-term partnerships.

The UK government’s publication of its Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) Business Model has been welcomed across the carbon removal sector as a breakthrough moment for the industry, offering long-term financial stability and a pathway to scale engineered removals.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are obligated to add non-CO2 aviation emissions to their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), according to legal analysis commissioned by NGOs.

France and Germany are under pressure to shape a compromise on the EU’s proposed 2040 climate target, as the Danish EU presidency floated a revised text ahead of a decisive meeting of the bloc's environment ministers on Sep. 18.

India could unlock billions of dollars in climate finance to protect its forests, but existing international methodologies that don’t conform to the country’s unique ecological and governance realities have put multiple projects in limbo, an expert told Carbon Pulse this week.

A Finnish geospatial technology company has signed agreements with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to advance the use of remote sensing in forest carbon management, the firm announced Wednesday.

UK's woodland and peatlands - The UK Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) and Peatland Carbon Code (PCC) teams have received funding to progress standardised biodiversity metrics and financial tools for these landscape types, they said in a newsletter Thursday. The project is to build on previous work exploring how biodiversity improvement could be measured and monetised under these codes and is to be partially funded by the Scottish government. The UK Land Carbon Registry, which hosts these projects, has also moved to a new platform earlier in August, following the launch of Version 3 of the WCC. The WCC has also welcomed the following new members to its advisory board: Alex MacKinnon of Tilhill Forestry (CarbonStore), Kate Palmer of Confor, Craig Mackenzie of University of Edinburgh, Natalia Dorfman of Kita Earth Limited, Clara Guttman Belling of Cresco Capital Services, Nick Swinburn of Woodland Trust, and Matthew Doran of the Country, Land, and Business Association.

A parliamentary proposal in Sweden to pay landowners to delay timber harvests, in a bid to meet EU carbon removal goals, has received strong industry backlash, led by concerns about job losses and raw materials shortages.

Fertile ground - The soil carbon programme developed by InSoil has been verified by SCS Global under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and VM0042 methodology, the developer announced Thursday in a release. It claims the programme has so far led to the removal of 154,915 tonnes of CO₂e and is on track to generate over 4 million verified carbon credits by 2027 across the more than 700,000 ha enrolled. InSoil’s Green Loans financing model provides zero-interest loans to farmers in exchange for a fixed share of carbon credits aligned with the EU Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation. In April, the company changed its name from HeavyFinance.

A carbon removal registry has launched a new GHG accounting module, creating what it describes as the first universal framework for measuring emissions and removals across all carbon removal pathways.

CEFIC, the European chemicals industry association, has urged the European Union to factor in greenhouse gas abatement potential as a key criteria for organising electricity grid connection queues, as industrial electrification becomes a top priority in Europe’s climate agenda.

Confusing corporate language is hindering companies communicating with customers who are seeking sustainable products, despite cost-of-living pressures, a report published Thursday found.

Withdrawal - Mitsubishi this week announced its withdrawal from three Japanese offshore projects due to soaring costs, a move that will likely delay offshore wind power expansion in Japan, Reuters reported. Mitsubishi said cost increases had "far exceeded projections", including construction prices more than doubling since the 2021 bidding phase, according to the report. The development comes after Denmark's Orsted last year decided to withdraw from the Japanese market as part of its global restructuring. Japan aims to lift its offshore wind farm capacity to 10 GW by 2030, from the current level of around 5GW.

The path to moving multiple Australian industries away from diesel and into cleaner alternatives is a “complex challenge” hampered by the use of carbon  credits and diesel fuel tax rebates, in addition to difficulties in scaling up new technologies and the high costs associated with cleaner fuels, a paper argued this week.

Indonesia could learn from China’s rollout of its national emissions trading scheme (ETS), and a formal cooperation between the two countries could accelerate development, a report said on Thursday.

Cambodia readies for Green Climate Fund - Cambodia’s environment ministry and the Global Green Growth Institute said on Thursday they are working on a Green Climate Fund readiness assessment, as the country seeks to mobilise $32.2 bln to meet its climate goals. The ministry endorsed a 2025-27 action plan to overcome barriers in accessing climate finance and building capacity. The plan underpins Cambodia’s pledge to cut emissions 55% by 2035, conditional on external support. Representatives from government, business, and development agencies agreed on priority measures to strengthen climate finance systems.

Aussie power storage – Western Australian utility Synergy is on the cusp of having more battery storage than coal capacity, news outlet Renew Economy reported on Thursday, making it the first traditional power generator to find itself in this position. The government-owned company said this week that its 500 MW Collie battery – the second largest in Australia – is in the final stages of commissioning and should be fully operational by the end of the year. Once completed, Synergy will have more than 800 MW of battery capacity, versus 740 MW of coal-fired capacity. (Renew Economy)

A major North Atlantic ocean circulation that shapes Europe’s climate could collapse after 2100 in high-emission scenarios, with some models pointing to shutdowns even under lower warming pathways, according to a scientific study published this month.

Climate and half-yearly reports published this week illustrate the strategies some Western Australian resource and industrial companies are using to meet their compliance obligations under the Safeguard Mechanism.

HESTA la vista – NGOs Amnesty International Australia and the Center for Non-Violence (CNV) have ditched healthcare and community sector super fund HESTA due to its ongoing investments in fossil fuel firms. A press release from campaign group Market Forces on Thursday noted that HESTA had more than A$500 mln ($325.7 mln) invested in oil and gas companies Woodside and Santos as of Dec. 31, 2024. It also added that a third group, Jesuit Social Services, has put HESTA on notice and is asking it to increase the pressure on Woodside and Santos to abandon their oil and gas expansion plans. CNV, Amnesty, and Jesuit Social Services have been pushing HESTA for greater climate ambition, and for it to divest from the fossil fuel companies. The press release also noted that many CNV employees have already been transferring their retirement savings from HESTA to fossil-free super funds.

New Zealand’s national carrier saw its carbon costs inch up in 2024 amid higher NZ ETS costs and in preparation for expected obligations under the aviation sector’s offset programme, CORSIA.

You’re it – TagEnergy has acquired Australian developer ACE Power, it announced on Thursday for an undisclosed amount. ACE Power's 6GW portfolio – comprised of solar, wind, and battery storage projects – brings TagEnergy's total pipeline in the country to 10 GW. It already has 1.3 GW under construction and operation in Australia, via the Golden Plains onshore wind development – the largest of its type in the southern hemisphere, and which is expected to be complete in 2027. TagEnergy is aiming to become a national independent power producer, with CEO Franck Woitiez saying Australia is one of the most exciting and promising places to deliver the energy transition.

One of Japan's largest banks has invested in a Tokyo-headquartered carbon credit project developer for the creation of carbon credits both at home and abroad.

Brazil should simultaneously and strategically set its policies on voluntary carbon credits, an emissions trading system (ETS), and Article 6 engagement to reap the benefits of private investment and achieve the country’s Paris Agreement goals, said a carbon market industry group in a report on Wednesday.

California regulator ARB's 2025 year-on-year (YoY) advantage in offset issuances narrowed over the most recent bi-monthly issuance period, decreasing 52.6% over the previous period, according to state data released on Wednesday.