Goldilocks - US oil lobby group American Petroleum Institute said that it supports the EPA’s proposal to repeal the endangerment finding for vehicles, but not for power plants and other stationary industrial facilities, Reuters reported. The Obama-era climate rule determined GHGs pose a danger to public health and welfare. It has been used to support emission regulations on the likes of power plants and tailpipe emissions.

Manulife worldwide - Canadian insurance company Manulife is launching Manulife Impact, a global network of restoration sites, working with community planting partners and nature restoration company Veritree. Manulife is Veritree’s first corporate partner to implement the latter’s smart forest technology at sites in Japan and the Philippines. To date, Manulife Impact Forests have restored 160 ha of land.  

Cleaner, cheaper Californian homes - California state Senator Scott Wiener (D) announced the Clean Homes and Energy Affordability Package (CHEAP), consisting of two bills (SB 222 and SB 868) streamlining permitting for heat pump, HVAC, and water heater systems, and approvals for plug-in solar systems. The bills are expected to allow Californians to save on energy bills by accessing cost-saving clean energy technologies at home, according to a press release from the senator's office.  

Meta goes nuclear - Meta has announced 6.6 GW in nuclear energy projects aimed at powering American AI. The tech major said its agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo make Meta one of the most significant corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in US history. The agreements focus on creating safer, advanced nuclear reactors, accelerating the development of nuclear technologies, and supporting power plant operation, lifespan extension, and increasing energy production.

California's carbon market will shoulder a heavier load in meeting state climate targets as other policies fall short, industry experts said at a conference in San Diego on Tuesday.

Verra revision - Verra published on Tuesday a revised version (v1.1) of its VMD0054 (Estimating Leakage from the Displacement of Agricultural Activities) module under its VCS programme. The revision - incorporating feedback received in 2024 - introduces an accounting framework that takes into account the production of new commodities introduced to the project area when calculating the net emissions from land use changes, and includes revised ecosystem conversion assumptions so that projects in areas with very little forest cover can use the most common native ecosystem as the reference for quantifying carbon stock change due to displaced production, Verra said. The previous version of VMD0054 (v1.0) will be inactivated on Feb. 1, 2027. Projects that meet the Jan. 31, 2027 submission deadlines may continue to apply the previous version of VMD0054 for the remainder of their project crediting period or baseline reassessment period, whichever is shorter. Verra will hold a webinar to provide an overview of VMD0054 v1.1 on Feb. 10, 2026 at 1100 Eastern (1600 GMT).

Superfund setback - New Jersey’s Climate Superfund Act, which would require fossil fuel producers to pay $50 bln toward climate resilience projects, stalled in the final days of the state’s lame-duck legislative session after failing to advance out of an Assembly committee, despite having majority co-sponsorship, E&E News reported. The bill cleared a Senate committee last week and was expected to pass the full Senate, but legislative leadership declined to move it forward without parallel Assembly action. Supporters say the proposal is effectively dead for the current session but remain confident it will be reintroduced next year.

Legal lifeline - US House Republicans have dropped a provision that would have barred Washington, DC, from spending funds in 2026 to pursue its climate-related consumer protection lawsuit against oil and gas companies, removing the language from a final congressional spending package now headed for the Senate, E&E News reported. The provision had sought to block enforcement of DC's Consumer Protection Procedures Act against fossil fuel companies over alleged misleading environmental claims. Its removal allows the lawsuit, filed in 2020 and upheld by a DC Superior Court judge in Apr. 2025, after industry efforts to dismiss it failed, to continue moving toward trial.

Data demands - US House Democrats have introduced two bills aimed at curbing the energy and water impacts of rapidly expanding data centres, particularly those supporting artificial intelligence, E&E News reported. Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and Greg Casar (D-TX) unveiled the Preventing Rate Inflation in Consumer Energy (PRICE) Act, HR 6983, and the Data Center Transparency Act, HR 6984, which would require data centres to self-generate their electricity, meet stringent renewable energy targets, and disclose water use. The lawmakers argue the measures are needed to address rising electricity prices and environmental strain linked to energy-intensive facilities, with Menendez citing a 20% increase in electricity bills for New Jersey households tied to data centre growth.

Community participation - Chile’s Ministry of Environment (MMA) is inviting civil society to join discussions on the update of the national Long-Term Climate Strategy (LTCS). Together with the NDC Partnership and WWF, MMA is developing an early citizen participation process, encouraging the recognition of visions, experiences, and proposals from different territories and sectors. The first workshop will be held in the city of Macul on Wednesday to discuss “Human settlements and community life: people, infrastructure, health systems, and territory.”

Claims for PACM – Mesa Argentina de Carbono, a private sector initiative that advocates for carbon markets, has urged the Argentine government to submit its third version of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) and to join the UN-backed international carbon market established under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. In a publication on its website, the initiative argues that Argentina could export its carbon credits and receive two to five times more per unit than in the current voluntary market.

Money for restoration - Brazil’s National Treasury has disbursed R$100 mln ($18.6 mln) to support the restoration of the Atlantic Forest in the country’s mid-west. The amount represents the first transfer from the second Eco Invest auction, a programme designed to scale up foreign investment in Brazil’s green economy. The beneficiary bank, Brazil-based Itau, said the total structured financing will enable the productive restoration of nearly 4,000 ha of degraded land in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The funds will cover soil preparation, planting, sustainable management, and the purchase of inputs for sugarcane cultivation at a sugar mill. The financing will have a two-year grace period and a seven-year term.

US GHG emissions have reversed two years of declines as colder winter weather and higher power demand drives up emissions in the buildings and electricity sectors, according to preliminary estimates released on Monday.

Existing US federal and state laws create potential regulatory obstacles for enhanced rock weathering (ERW) projects in Minnesota, while targeted legal reforms could help close gaps and enable the carbon dioxide removal pathway to scale, according to a new analysis.

California regulator ARB proposed to begin cap-and-invest allowance budget removals with vintage 2027 in its kickoff of formal rulemaking on Tuesday, while California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices dropped in the wake of the release. 

A representative at one of the largest developers of offsets in California’s carbon market said that the state should not restrict its considerations for which credits offer direct environmental benefits (DEBs) to match Washington’s cap-and-trade programme, during a panel discussion on Tuesday.

A federal court ruled in favour of a handful of grant awardees who lost funding as the Trump administration cut $7.5 billion in clean technology funding, stating the federal government can't terminate grants in states simply because they didn't overwhelmingly vote its sitting president.

A Boston-headquartered management consultancy firm has purchased 9,000 direct air capture (DAC) credits from a Texas facility.

Three bills filed in Louisiana’s 2026 regular legislative session this week would propose changes to state law affecting carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, by removing eminent domain powers and expanding parish-level authority over project siting.

A sustainable investment firm is investing $10 million into a US company that produces organic coconut sugar products in Indonesia.

Allowance volumes available at the first RGGI auction of 2026 jumped by nearly one-fifth quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), according to a notice published Tuesday.

A coalition of carbon removal buyers has facilitated $3.05 million in pre-purchases from two companies as part of its sixth round of advance credit buying.

Political and industrial climate action across Canada is slipping, despite falling emissions and emissions intensity, according to new report by a climate think tank.

Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for the clean transition and competition policy, defended the rules-based world order at a Brussels event on Tuesday, saying EU law ensures equal treatment for everyone in the green and digital transition.

Guinness Global Investors has launched a fund focused on food, water, climate, waste, and land that is looking to rapidly build on its seed capital.

Reliant blockade - A regional watershed management authority backed legislation that would prohibit carbon storage in Covington County, Alabama, reported Carbon Herald. The bill would block Reliant's proposed CO2 injection and storage site in the county. It's been referred to the House Committee on Economic Development and Tourism.

TIER negotiations stutter - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to expedite the approval of a new oil pipeline amid the US incursion into Venezuela. Smith said renewed Venezuelan crude production bound for the US would directly compete with Canadian production. The pipeline is tied to the Alberta-Canada MoU, where the oil-producing province promised to improve its TIER carbon market. Smith said those negotiations should move forward while avoiding an “overly aggressive carbon pricing system that makes our oil and gas resources uncompetitive” with international producers. The deal is aimed at achieving a C$130 ($93.68) effective carbon price.