Global oil companies are failing to disclose their strategies for implementing and reporting progress towards meeting their own 2050 net zero goals, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The attempted reopening of Article 6 rules at COP30 surprised an already-skittish private sector, which needs regulatory stability and time to begin investing, according to a carbon-specialised banker speaking on a post-COP webinar Tuesday.

Carbon removal (CDR) buyers’ club Frontier will pay a Bavaria-based biogas company $41 million to remove 96,000 tonnes of CO2 between 2027 and 2030, according to a Tuesday press release.

A UN body is seeking to procure up to over 83,000 voluntary carbon credits through a tender that closes in early December.

The UK government is seeking feedback on its plan to bring emissions from international shipping into the UK Emissions Trading Scheme from 2028, in a new consultation opened on Tuesday.

European carbon strengthened on Tuesday morning, extending a rally that began on Monday afternoon after the market had fallen below a key psychological level, while energy prices fell away later in the day as traders reacted to positive statements in the ongoing negotiations towards a peace agreement in Ukraine.

Disproportionate impact - The average household in Germany spends about 0.4% of its net income on the country's national emissions pricing system for transport and heat, according to analysis by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) of 2024 data. The cost burden is disproportionately heaviest on poorer households, with the poorest 10% spending 0.7% of their household income for the CO2 levy, while the richest 10% spend 0.25%. Yet the 10% of richest households consume about three times as much fossil energy as the poorest 10%. Redistribution mechanisms such as heating cost coverage can help to compensate for the disparity of CO2 pricing, the UBA noted. Germany is set to freeze its national CO2 price in 2027 after an increase to as much as €65/t in 2026, in response to the EU postponing its launch of ETS2.

EU ban on Russian gas – The EU may implement a ban on existing short-term Russian gas contracts from April next year instead of June, aligning with EU sanctions, according to draft compromise proposals floated by the Danish EU Council Presidency. The compromise proposal is being put forward as part of ongoing talks between the European Parliament and the Council of EU member states over the REPowerEU plan, put forward in May, which seeks to end Russian fossil fuel imports by the end of 2027. There’s no consensus on ending new or long-term contracts, according to the draft compromise plan, seen by news site Contexte. The European Commission is tasked with proposing alternatives on oil, with exemptions for landlocked nations, and sanction penalties still under discussion.

A global law firm and UK-based carbon brokerage have implemented a multi-year carbon removals procurement programme that capitalises long-term credit purchases as a balance sheet asset rather than a profit-and-loss cost.

Carbon removal (CDR) is no longer a fallback but a central pillar of climate strategy, though major barriers to scale persist, with biochar emerging as the most viable near-term pathway, according to a wide-ranging publication that examined how CDR could deliver nearly 10 billion tonnes of CO2 annually by 2050.

Corporates are planning to boost carbon credit spending this decade, but long-term investment in the voluntary sector is being hampered by regulatory uncertainty, a survey has found.

Climate adaptation grant - The African Development Fund has committed a $14 mln grant to scaling up climate resilience across the Sahel, with the new funding to support the dissemination of resilient and improved seed varieties. The $14.64 mln grant was approved by the ADF board of directors to support Project 2 of the Programme to Strengthen Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel in Abidjan on Nov. 21. The additional financing is provided through the Climate Action Window, a climate-focused funding mechanism of the ADF. The grant will cover 30 municipalities and support the creation of 60 climate-smart villages across the Sahel.

European energy market analysts expect carbon prices to surge toward the triple-digit mark in early 2026, supported by structurally tighter EU ETS fundamentals and a relatively soft gas market, but momentum is likely to ebb in the second half of the year as policy discussions loom into view.

Campaigners are hoping that the UK's Autumn budget announcement on Thursday proves pivotal in speeding up the country's energy transition, as four years of higher energy prices from fossil fuels, costing Britain £183 billion, have fuelled a wider cost of living crisis. 

An investment fund is investing in an agtech firm in India after securing $375 million to date from institutional investors, it announced Tuesday.

The European Union must bridge the funding gap for carbon removals (CDR) if it is to meet its climate neutrality target by 2050, according to a new report from the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST), a Brussels-based think tank.

Swiss Art. 6 deals - Switzerland’s Federal Council has approved the country's bilateral climate agreements with Zambia, Mongolia, and Uganda, enabling the country to count resulting emission cuts toward its 2030 target, the government said in a statement. Switzerland signed the world’s first such treaty under Article 6 with Peru in 2020, followed by agreements with Ghana, Senegal, Georgia, Vanuatu, Dominica, Thailand, Ukraine, Morocco, Malawi, Uruguay, Chile, Kenya and Tunisia. All deals include safeguards to prevent double counting and uphold environmental and human rights standards.

Curbing emissions from ships berthed at EU ports is being driven by EU legislation to electrify all container terminals by 2030, but achieving that goal will require significant grid expansion and an improved business case for ports to make the robust investment required.

EIB boost - Swedish utility Vaxjo Energi has secured advisory support from the European Investment Bank (EIB) through the European Commission’s Innovation Fund Project Development Assistance (PDA) programme. The PDA support will help Vaxjo advance POSCLIMB, a planned BECCS project at its Sandviksverket biomass-fired combined heat and power plant in Sweden. It will help mature the project technically and financially ahead of a possible application to the Innovation Fund, with the aim of capturing and permanently storing up to 200,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually for sale as carbon credits.

A US-based climate consultancy has proposed a new format for reporting electricity emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, arguing that current market-based Scope 2 methods no longer reflect actual impact or support decision-making.

UK industrial bills cut - The UK government is to reduce electricity bills for over 7,000 manufacturers by up to 25%, it said in a statement Monday. It will also increase support on access to finance for high-potential firms through the British Business Bank, as part of an optimistic vision for economic growth. Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle has announced the launch of an eight-week consultation for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) that will determine eligibility. High energy prices have consistently been flagged by UK businesses as a key issue, as well as securing access to finance to scale a business.

New position - Renat Heuberger has been elected chairman of European soil carbon company eAgronom, he announced on LinkedIn. Heuberger also holds the role of CEO of climate consultancy Terra Impact Ventures, and chairman of fintech startup MPower Ventures, as well as author of book the Carbonparadox, according to his profile. eAgronom works with thousands of farmers across Europe on regenerative agriculture, generating carbon removals in the process.

2026 will be a crunch year for implementing UN carbon markets, after Article 6 decisions at COP30 cleared up key administrative uncertainties such as funding shortages and the closure of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and affirmed previous agreements on crediting standards and trading rules, according to experts. 

Africa could generate nearly $50 billion in revenue from carbon removal (CDR) markets by 2030, with the continent’s theoretical CDR potential across various methods far exceeding global projections for 2035, according to a report published this week.

Biodiesel and renewable diesel produced from vegetable oils can deliver little or no net greenhouse gas benefit compared to fossil diesel in some instances, and in some cases perform worse, an expert said during a webinar on Friday.

Scaling up energy efficiency across Europe is critical to decarbonising the EU’s energy mix and meeting the objectives of the bloc’s new emissions trading system for buildings and road transport (ETS2), the Coalition for Energy Savings argued in a new report.

VCS credits for SA-le – WeAct will be auctioning VCS credits from its South African grasslands management project (VCS2710) next month, the developer said in a press release. The sale of the nearly 0.7 mln high-integrity units will take place from Dec. 8-10 on Xpansiv CBL’s platform and feature a $12/t floor price, with the credits eligible for compliance with the South African CO2 tax as well as voluntary use. The auction will be a closed, single-round, pay-as-bid format, with the minimum bid size set at 10,000 units. Australia-based WeAct added that higher priced bids will receive the most recent vintages, and buyers need to hold both a Verra and CBL account. The deadline to register for the auction is 1500 UTC on Dec. 3.

A handful of countries are still keeping out of the race to trade carbon credits through Article 6 – although the number is dwindling, as even the most ideologically opposed see pragmatic business opportunities.

Household chocolate products may be marketed as ‘sustainable’ despite risks of containing cocoa linked to the destruction of Liberia’s Upper Guinean Rainforest, an NGO report said ahead of a key vote on the EU's contested anti-deforestation law.