Withdrawal wanted - Washington state on Wednesday requested a rehearing of a US DOE emergency order requiring the TransAlta coal plant in Centralia to remain available for generation, arguing the directive is unlawful and impractical given the facility’s coal phaseout. Attorney General Nick Brown said the DOE exceeded its authority by ordering coal readiness despite the plant lacking staff, fuel, or buyers, and despite state law banning coal-fired power sales after 2025 under the Clean Energy Transformation Act. Governor Bob Ferguson (D) also criticised the order. The state said the move could raise costs, increase pollution, and disrupt state-led energy planning, and said it will pursue court action if the rehearing is denied.

Chile energy transition - The International Energy Agency (IEA) launched its Chile 2050 Energy Transition Roadmap on Wednesday, outlining a pathway for the country’s energy sector to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century under its Announced Pledges Scenario. Prepared at the request of the Chilean government, the document identified four pillars for cutting energy-related emissions, which account for around three-quarters of the national total: improved energy efficiency, deep decarbonisation of power generation, electrification of end-uses, and the build-out of modern, resilient grids. The IEA projected renewables to supply over 95% of electricity by 2035, final energy intensity to fall 45% by 2050, and annual investment across the energy system to rise sharply, particularly for efficiency, electrification, and grid resilience.

REDD+ project developers in three Brazilian states can now advance registrations under Verra's VM0048 methodology following the release of finalised deforestation risk maps, the registry announced Wednesday.

A Canadian industrial mineralisation company has reached a new agreement with a British Columbia-based mining partner to evaluate a nickel project for potential lifetime carbon removal (CDR) of up to 220 million tonnes of CO2, they announced Wednesday.

The valuable exchanges in the Brazil-led global compliance carbon market coalition has shown the country that its own programme has a long way to go before considering linkage, a Brazilian federal official said at a conference on Tuesday.

California regulator ARB is investigating a client alert sent out by a Utah-based consultancy last week that warned of imminent legal risk to US compliance carbon markets and caused allowances prices to tank.

Banks remain slow to set emissions reduction targets for agriculture even as the food system accounts for roughly one-third of global GHG emissions, according to a new technical briefing.

US states are shifting their focus from 'if' to 'how' carbon management should happen, and what guardrails can be implemented to protect communities, according to research by an environmental policy non-profit.

New York nuclear - New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) unveiled Tuesday a series of energy proposals, aligning the release with the delivery of her State of the State address. These included efforts intended to boost nuclear energy, including the establishment of new initiative, the Nuclear Reliability Backbone, directing state agencies to establish a clear pathway for additional advanced nuclear generation. This initiative will be developed by a new Department of Public Service (DPS) process to consider, review, and facilitate a cost-effective pathway to 4 GW of new nuclear energy that will aim to combine with existing nuclear generation and the New York Power Authority's (NYPA) previously announced 1 GW project to create an 8.4 GW “backbone” of energy. Other proposals listed look to: add requirements for utilities before increasing consumer rates; streamline planning and administration of programmes meant to lower families' energy bills; speed up the process of connecting large energy users to the grid; support solar development in public schools; establish a sales tax exemption for EV charging stations; and prevent "phantom loads" by requiring data centres to pay more for electricity, or alternatively generate their own.

Virginia's proposed legislative return to RGGI could speed up the process of bringing it back into the programme's fold, but the question of negotiating the potential new participant's allowance budget represents a notable hurdle on the state's path back, an industry representative told Carbon Pulse.

Quality is becoming an increasingly significant factor in voluntary carbon market (VCM) pricing, with higher-integrity credits commanding a widening premium, but the market remains weighed down by large volumes of low-integrity “junk” credits, the authors of a new market assessment said.

Pipe dreams – California faces an estimated $43 bln cost to maintain its gas network over the next 20 years, even as state climate goals imply a transition away from natural gas that would ultimately strand those assets and burden ratepayers, Legal Planet reports. A new brief from the UCLA Emmett Institute analyses SB 1221, which created a CPUC pilot to designate up to 30 neighbourhood decarbonisation zone projects where utilities work with communities to transition areas away from gas service. The paper examines legal and practical hurdles, including cost recovery and utilities’ obligation to serve, and recommends proactive, community-centred outreach, consistent cost-benefit analysis methods, and utility compensation mechanisms to correct misaligned incentives and better align utility, ratepayer, and decarbonisation goals.

Sunny savings – A study by Synapse Energy Economics for the Coalition of Community Solar Access finds that expanding distributed solar and energy storage in New York could save the state about $1 bln a year in energy costs by 2035, Energy Jobline reports. Boosting capacity to 20 GW would lower average residential bills by $87 annually upstate and $46 downstate, including for non-participants. The analysis also shows stronger reliability during peak winter demand, reduced exposure to gas price volatility, avoidance of about 11% of gas used for electricity generation, and nearly $947 million a year in GHG cost savings, according to the study’s authors and supporters.

The fall in issuance of credits in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in 2025 was due to a downturn in new supply of renewable energy credits, analysts said on Wednesday.

California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) could see upward price pressure as the state's compliance instrument bank recedes and emissions begin to exceed the cap, according to an analyst forecast presented this week.

Partisan pivot - A new poll suggests Republican opposition to electric vehicles may be easing following the 2024 election, while Democrats continue to hold negative views of Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk, E&E News reported. The survey of 600 voters, conducted in Nov. 2025 and released this week, found that partisan attitudes toward EVs are shifting even as Tesla faces image challenges among likely buyers. Commissioned by the American EV Jobs Alliance and EVs for All America and carried out by Hill Research Consultants, the poll focused on voters in households earning more than $50,000 to capture opinions among those more likely to purchase a new vehicle.

Science stalled - A US Democratic effort to affirm the scientific consensus on climate change was blocked on the Senate floor after Republican objection prevented fast-track passage, E&E News reported. The resolution, introduced by Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, sought to state that climate change caused by fossil fuel combustion is not a hoax, describe GHG-driven climate change as sound science, and call for protection of congressionally authorised climate research programmes. The measure failed after Senator Roger Marshall (R) of Kansas objected to a request to pass it by unanimous consent, a procedure reserved for non-controversial actions.

Approximately a third of private nature funds said they regard carbon and biodiversity credits as meaningful sources of revenue, a report has said.

Indigenous-led nature-based solutions (NbS) in Canada backed by federal funding see nearly three times lower carbon losses than conventional protected areas, according to a climate scientist involved in a new study examining the environmental impacts of Indigenous land stewardship.

A California-headquartered carbon solutions provider has signed a delivery agreement for the first 2 million afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) credits under its pipeline with tech giant Microsoft.

Around 15% of companies are pulling ahead on environmental leadership - unlocking over $200 billion in financial opportunities, according to analysis from an environmental disclosure platform.

The US withdrawal from the UNFCCC means it no longer has a say in how the billions of dollars it has contributed to the international climate treaty will be spent, as the world continues to negotiate efforts to stem emissions in the country's absence, experts told Carbon Pulse.

Rising global temperatures helped rank 2025 as the third-warmest year ever measured, coming in marginally cooler than record-holders 2024 and 2023, as scientists warned an acceleration in global warming is beating earlier expectations.

Carbon markets in the US Northeast face a critical year as political pressures and programme deadlines converge to test the region's emissions reduction initiatives, panellists said at a conference in San Diego on Tuesday.

The planet's sensitivity to greenhouse gas emissions is likely higher than anticipated, posing greater climate risks to economies worldwide, according to a new report.