It's official - The US has formally triggered its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, notifying the UN on Tuesday, with the exit set to take immediate effect, according to a UN depositary notification. The withdrawal follows US President Donald Trump's Jan. 2025 announcement that the country would be exiting the agreement.

Carbon leakage has been estimated to offset between 5-30% of domestic emissions reductions in most recent studies, according to a new review that proposes a framework for analysing the spillover effects of mitigation efforts.

Carbon tariff study slips in - The US Congress has incorporated language from the bipartisan “Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act” into report text accompanying a fiscal 2026 spending minibus signed into law last week, directing the US DOE to study and compare the carbon intensity of US-made goods with those produced abroad, E&E News reported. The measure, backed by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND), John Curtis (R-UT), and Chris Coons (D-DE), had previously stalled amid conservative concerns it could lead to carbon taxes. Appropriators said the study is intended to provide US-generated data as the EU CBAM officially enters into force. While bill reports are not legally binding, agencies typically follow them, and the DOE-led study would be due by January.

In his 12th letter from the COP30 presidency, Brazilian COP President Andre Correa do Lago has introduced a two-tier multilateralism framework to accelerate climate action, warning that consensus-based decision-making alone is too slow to match the pace of global warming.

While a dozen EU member states support exempting fertilisers from the EU's carbon border fee, the European Parliament is taking a more cautious line.

Pie in the sky - Two of the world’s largest aircraft leasing companies have poured cold water on the aviation industry's ability to meet its goal of eliminating carbon emissions by 2050, the FT reports. John Plueger, chief executive of America’s Air Lease, said the targets "are practically unachievable as I see it now”. He pointed to the industry’s persistent production and delivery challenges among the factors undermining progress. Aengus Kelly, the head of AerCap, which is the world's largest aircraft leasing company, dismissed the 2050 target as "pie in the sky". Both CEOs were speaking in interviews at the Airline Economics conference held in Dublin this week. Kelly, in his interview, said customers would not pay the extra costs for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is critical to reaching net zero.

The potential adoption of a global price on shipping emissions later this year requires regaining the support of countries who were previously in favour but voted for a one-year delay in October, after a US-led opposition campaign, experts told Carbon Pulse.

Contrail impacts - The European Commission and Eurocontrol have released a second version of the Non-CO2 Aviation Effects Tracking System (NEATS), an IT tool for monitoring, reporting, and verifying the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation such as contrails and nitrogen oxides. The tool allows aircraft operators to calculate the climate impact of their flights, and relies largely on the PyContrails Python library, which models contrails. The upcoming version 3 will support EU ETS reporting for 2025 emissions and will introduce dedicated interfaces for aircraft operators, verifiers, and competent authorities.      

Plugging the gap - Michael Bloomberg has spent more than $3 bln on supporting global climate action over the last decade, as broader financial support gives way in the Trump era. This included $270 mln pledged to two climate initiatives around COP30 last year through Bloomberg Philanthropies and funds to cover a budget shortfall at the UNFCCC due to the absence of a US contribution. By comparison, the Rockefeller Foundation has pledged to spend $1 bln over five years, and some other climate funders have scaled back support in the face of US administration hostility to climate action. The Bezos Earth Fund ended its support for the Science Based Targets Initiative after an $18 mn three-year grant expired, and the philanthropic arm of The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation has stopped funding US green groups. (FT)

Liberia’s Carbon Markets Authority (CMA) has appointed a global consultancy to support international climate finance mobilisation and develop a national carbon market framework, backed by 100% grant-based or concessional funding.

India will not be granted exemption from the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) under a landmark free trade agreement signed in New Delhi today, officials stressed, saying the two sides will instead open a “technical dialogue” to ease implementing issues.

Peru’s Ministry of Environment (MINAM) has approved the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) as an official standard admissible into its National Registry of Mitigation Activities (RENAMI), also accepting several methodologies from the waste sector.

Carbon market news captured mainstream Brazilian headlines and Paraguay pressed on with Article 6, while the tough reality of international carbon pricing sank in for emissions-intensive sectors and economies, in a truly heterogeneous week for LATAM.

A6 forum - A Japan-Mongolia carbon market forum will be held in Ulaanbaatar on Feb. 27, aiming to spur deal-making momentum under the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), Article 6 Implementation Partnership (A6IP) Centre announced. Co-organised by the Mongolian and Japanese environment and energy ministries, the event will focus on rules-to-projects execution of Paris Agreement Article 6. Sessions will cover JCM frameworks, crediting procedures and methodologies, alongside tech-forward pitches from Japanese and Mongolian firms.