The New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs more ambitious targets and mitigation measures to encourage methane emissions reductions at the state’s coal mines, according to a think tank. 

The development arm of a European bank has offered up to $60 million for a new investment fund aimed at India’s energy sector.

The world needs to build renewable power capacity at twice the speed to reach the 11.2-trillion watt target set out by the COP28 UAE Consensus, according to a Tuesday report.

Japan bound – Carbon ratings agency BeZero is set to open a Japanese subsidiary, CEO and co-founder Tommy Ricketts told Carbon Pulse. The company has had a full-time employee in the country since last year, and is backed by Japan Airlines and Hitachi Ventures – with the former putting up some of the $32 mln BeZero secured in Jan. 2025. Ricketts added that the company has several local clients, so establishing a formal presence was a logical step.

With scalable low-carbon flight technologies still years away, the aviation sector is relying on CORSIA to bridge the gap to net zero - an effort now constrained by limited credit supply, financing and political risks, and the need for stronger methodologies and insurance mechanisms to unlock investment and restore confidence in high-quality reduction and avoidance credits.

REDD+ projects face deep methodological and governance flaws that undermine their claimed emission reductions, according to a report published Monday that drew on a decade of peer-reviewed research and independent evaluations on forest carbon projects.

Efforts to protect and restore the world’s forests are substantially underfunded, requiring an additional $216 billion annually to reach the levels the UN targets by 2030, according to a report published Tuesday.

A strong correlation between higher ratings and price premiums is emerging in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), according to a climate consultancy.

Icy hot - China and Iceland will work together on developing geothermal and green energy, Reuters reported Tuesday, China's national broadcaster CCTV. China this week also released six CCER methodology drafts to gather feedback from government bodies and academia, with one of them for medium-deep geothermal energy used in heating systems.

China has begun a new round of consultation on offset methodology proposals under its voluntary emissions reduction certification scheme (CCER), as it seeks to expand the project pipeline under the programme.

Only a small percentage of the nearly 2,500 activities that requested to transition from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to new Article 6 crediting have been formally approved by host countries, just months away from the deadline, according to new analysis.

A new study has shown that quantifying the climate impact of an individual fossil fuel project reveals “major socioeconomic and environmental consequences”, contrary to claims by proponents.

Charging up - Chinese battery and system prices are dropping to record lows in the Asia Pacific region, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie, however, prices may increase after 2029 as demand growth expands lithium supply. The rapid fall in costs have been attributed to rapid tech innovation, stabilisation of raw material costs, massive scale, and intense market competition, with China being the cheapest market for utility-scale battery energy storage. The firm expects costs in China to drop 35% to $84 per KWh, but system costs across the region vary significantly due to import restrictions, local content requirements, certification standards, and grid requirements. However, it said India presents the strongest cost reduction potential, with turnkey costs expected to decrease nearly 40% by 2034, supported by government initiatives.

A dozen oil and gas majors invested $30 billion in 2024 to reduce emissions, including carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) projects, while increasing their own production, according to an industry coalition.

Marshalling change – The Attorney-General of the Marshall Islands has asked the country’s highest court to overturn a near-20 year old law that he claims risks undermining efforts to attract climate finance, RNZ reported on Monday. The law, from 2008, pertains to ownership of land on which landfills have been established, stating that any newly-created landfill becomes the property of the adjoining landowners – in conflict with the constitution, which authorises the government to reclaim land for public use. AG Bernard Adiniwin said this conflict affects the country’s ability to attract climate finance for landfill projects, as donors will not release funds if the land is at risk of being privately-owned. Adiniwin has asked the High Court to fast-track the case, but no hearing date has been set yet.

Commercial expansion - The Australian government has committed A$20 mln ($12.9 mln) to cut emissions and unlock energy cost savings by expanding its Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) programme, it announced. Releasing the CBD programme expansion roadmap, the government said the cash would go towards expanding the existing disclosure programme, as well as increasing the range of energy tools and services for the National Australia Built Environment Rating System (NABERS). The current programme requires office building owners of more than 1,000 square metres to obtain and disclose a NABERS rating at the point of sale or lease. The roadmap proposed to expand this requirement to large office tenancies and hotels, outlining the benefits of expanding disclosure requirements to more buildings, noting those that have boosted their NABERS rating from 4 to 6 stars have saved an average of A$280,000 per year.

More analysis has found Australia’s new savanna fire management (SFM) method could lead to a material uplift in carbon credit issuance, having detrimental impacts on the market and the Safeguard Mechanism. 

Climate amnesty – NGO Amnesty International is calling on the New Zealand government to establish a humanitarian visa for residents of Tuvalu and Kiribati affected by climate change. In a report last week, the group flagged that despite being the home of the largest diaspora of Pacific peoples, the lack of a dedicated climate risk pathway leaves those most at risk of displacement due to climate change trying to navigate New Zealand’s stringent immigration rules and other, limited routes to migration. Australia already has an agreement with Tuvalu for a so-called climate visa, which the BBC reported in June a third of the Pacific Island’s citizens has applied for.