Powering up renewables – Proposed reforms to New Zealand’s planning system will accelerate the build out of renewable energy, climate minister Simon Watts said on Tuesday. Proposed reforms to the Resource Management Act, introduced to Parliament on Tuesday, will see the 1991 legislation replaced with a Planning Bill and a separate Natural Environment Bill to speed up consents, and lower costs, the government said. Watts added that more electricity generation has been commissioned in the past 18 months compared with the preceding 15 years and that 95% of the country’s power will come from renewables in the future, up from the current 85%. The government is aiming to pass the bills next year. Power generation is covered by the NZ ETS.

Low-carbon banks – London School of Economics’ TPI Global Climate Transition Centre opened a public consultation last week on proposed design updates to its banking assessment tool, seeking feedback from investors, banks, multilaterals, and IFIs on methodological changes to the Net Zero Banking Assessment Framework and its Carbon Performance for Banks metrics. The centre, which independently evaluates institutions using publicly disclosed data, said the consultation runs until Jan. 31, 2026.

The harmonisation of emissions reporting will be a key theme of 2026 as consensus grows over the need for product-level carbon accounting in global trade and climate policy, according to an end-of-year outlook report.

Voluntary carbon credit retirements were down by 30% month-on-month in November, and at 50% of the levels seen over the same period last year, as issuance also fell away, while CORSIA supply started to filter in as new credits were tagged as eligible for the UN's international aviation offsetting scheme.

Down under carbon battery - Engineers have unlocked a new class of supercapacitor material that could rival traditional batteries in energy while charging dramatically faster, according to Science Daily. The research comes from the ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacturing with 2D Materials (AM2D) in Monash's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. They have developed a new carbon-based material that enables supercapacitors to hold energy levels comparable to traditional lead-acid batteries while releasing that energy far more quickly than conventional battery designs. The researchers traced this progress to a newly designed material architecture called multiscale reduced graphene oxide (M-rGO), created from natural graphite, an abundant resource in Australia. Phillip Aitchison, CTO of the Monash University spinout Ionic Industries and a co-author of the study, noted that efforts to commercialise the technology are already underway.

Progress for Article 6.4 - The expert panel (MEP) working on Article 6.4 methodologies, have tentatively agreed to recommend a tool for assessing the risk of reversals across activity types, such as biochar, forestry, and subsurface CO2 storage, at the end of its 10th meeting. Major work was also undertaken on revising CDM methodologies for grid-connected electricity and the associated emission factor tools. A merged and updated tool for calculating grid emission factors was also finalised and is due for public consultation. The MEP also worked on revisions to the clean cooking energy transition methodology, and a consolidated framework will include updated sampling guidelines, efficiency methodologies, and renewable biomass considerations. Details of the meeting will be published on the UNFCCC website shortly, and the next meeting will be Jan. 26-30.

China’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) is pushing manufacturing companies to produce higher-quality innovations while curbing low-value patenting behaviour, according to new research that finds the market mechanism is helping to suppress so-called “innovation bubbles” in the sector.

Farm credits – India’s IIT Roorkee has partnered with the state government of Uttar Pradesh to launch a large-scale carbon credit programme for farmers, aiming to monetise sustainable agriculture and land use practices, the Economic Times reported. The initiative will deploy a digital MRV system aligned with international standards to track gains in soil carbon and reductions in GHG emissions from practices such as minimal tillage, cover cropping, residue management, agroforestry, and improved bio-fertiliser use. It will start in the Saharanpur division of the state. IIT Roorkee will also help connect farmers with carbon markets and global buyers.

Five countries are leading the way in developing legal frameworks to support blue carbon, which are urgently needed to tackle the persistent barriers thwarting market growth, found a non-profit in a new report.

Gold Standard has tagged its first Core Carbon Principles (CCP) labels to credits generated from clean cooking projects, the registry announced Tuesday.

Reaching net zero emissions globally by 2050, which will conserve and restore biodiversity, will cost about $8 trillion per year over the next 25 years – which is much lower than the escalating costs of climate change for health, nature, productivity, agriculture, infrastructure, and more, the UN warned on Tuesday.

A rating agency has teamed up with a satellite-based biomass measurement company to advance the accuracy and transparency of forest carbon assessments worldwide.

A global forestry investment manager has announced the final asset sales to Europe’s largest pension investor as part of the winding down of one of its funds.

Indigenous energy - The Western Australian state government is funding the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation (NAC) to establish the first Ngarluma Green Energy Park - a 100% Traditional Owner owned renewable energy project in the Pilbara, aiming for up to 5 GW capacity, it announced. The government will provide an initial A$2.7 mln ($1.8 mln) to support surveys and technical groundwork over the next 12 months, with the goal of using the park to drive industry decarbonisation and create jobs, income, and long-term economic opportunities for the local Indigenous community, it said.

The New Zealand government was advised that reducing its 2050 biogenic methane emissions target could see the gap to its third emissions budget (2031-35) double, official papers released Tuesday showed.

Assessing impacts - Australia's Net Zero Economic Authority (NZEA) has launched a consultation to assess whether an Energy Industry Jobs Plan is needed to support workers impacted by the upcoming closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power station in July, 2028. The power station in Victoria, operated by EnergyAustralia, employs around 500 people and supplies around 20% of the state's electricity demand. The consultation will help the authority understand how the closure may affect workers, businesses, and the local community, what transition support is already in place, and what opportunities exist in the regional labour market. Submission close on Feb. 6, 2026.

Waste not, want not – A new research hub dedicated to turning tough carbon waste products into high-value products launched on Tuesday at Monash University’s Clayton campus, the institution announced in an emailed press release. The ARC Research Hub for Value-Added Processing of Underutilised Carbon Waste will develop technologies to convert waste products such as tyres, organic residues, and plastics into clean hydrogen, sustainable chemicals, and advanced carbon materials. Four universities are partnering on the hub alongside Monash University: The University of Western Australia, Curtin University, The University of Queensland, and the Queensland University of Technology, as well as industry partners. The group has already executed seven projects, with an additional four to be signed and two more under development.

Rio Tinto’s announced downgrade to its decarbonisation spending this side of 2030 demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the Australian government’s Safeguard Mechanism, an environmental group said Tuesday.

A new modelling tool could help middle-income countries come up with policies capable of cutting global greenhouse gases by about 5% by 2040, by tackling emissions from cooling and refrigeration, according to the researchers who announced it on Tuesday.