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- Thu 22:50Solid storage – Multinational investor Rothschild & Co has signed a three-year carbon removal offtake agreement with UK-based O.C.O Technology to purchase a set volume of credits generated via the mineralisation of CO2 into carbon-negative construction materials, the company announced on Thursday. The move came as part of Rothschild’s strategy to increase the share of removals in its compensation portfolio to 100% by 2030. Press materials said that the deal supports the expansion of existing capacity and development of new facilities, adding that carbon credit platform Patch helped facilitate the transaction.
- Thu 21:47The head of Ukraine’s energy system called for donations of key machinery from the global energy market as Russia continues its campaign of “energy terror”.
- Thu 21:30German Chancellor Friedrich Merz late on Thursday softened earlier calls for strong political intervention in the EU’s Emissions Trading System or even a postponement of the scheme, while other EU leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron, also defended the carbon market.
- Thu 18:47IFM credits - Latvian state-owned company Riga Forests has launched a tender for improved forest management (IFM) carbon credit project development, audit, validation, verification, registration, and sales services. The procurement is open to eligible suppliers via LatviaTenders, with bids due by Feb. 20. Full technical and financial details are available in the tender documents.
- Thu 18:42The EU’s review of its Emissions Trading System (ETS), scheduled for this summer, will likely ensure the long-term integrity of the scheme despite the current political backlash against the world’s largest carbon market by revenue, according to analysts.
- Thu 18:10A new paper from researchers at the University of Oxford set out eight strategic challenges that define what it calls the "fossil fuel endgame", arguing that targeted policy, financial, and regulatory interventions could still restart a transition that has stalled despite international commitments.
- Thu 17:19Clean hydrogen is still more of a hope than a hype, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said this week, after comparing the green energy to the development of other nascent technologies.
- Thu 17:17European carbon prices nose-dived on Thursday, recording their largest one-day fall since May 2022, as the market responded to comments by Germany's chancellor suggesting that the EU could "postpone" the market if it is judged to be failing to drive the clean energy transition, as well as to further calls for reform from a cross-section of EU leaders.
- Thu 17:02Kenya's decision not to approve clean cookstove distributor Koko Networks' carbon project was unexpected for a company backed by the World Bank's political risk guarantee, which is specifically designed to prevent this kind of breakdown, according to experts.
- Thu 16:29The Republic of the Congo seeks to improve its capacity as a net carbon sink some 47.8% by 2035 compared to business-as-usual levels, conditional upon international support such as carbon trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
- Thu 15:57German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s declaration that the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) could be postponed or diluted has been met with forceful pushback in Brussels as EU leaders were meeting to discuss ways of restoring the bloc’s industrial competitiveness.
- Thu 15:27The EU has an opportunity to help other countries build their own carbon pricing programmes, and forge alliances, as part of its strategy for buying Article 6 carbon credits – once the bloc has a clearer idea of how it wants to participate in global markets, according to the head of international emissions trading lobby IETA.
- Thu 14:31Compensation call - Chemicals group Ineos is calling for compensation from Belgium's Flemish govt for suspending the permit of its Project One petrochemical plant in Antwerp - a decision which it says significantly increased costs at the site. In response, the govt said it had formally rejected the compensation claim, calling the demand unjustified and lacking in legal basis. The plant is expected to produce 1.5 mln tonnes of ethylene per year, with ethane gas imported from the US as feedstock and the produced ethylene used to supply its other plants in Europe. Speaking at an industry gathering, Ineos CEO Jim Ratcliffe also critiqued the EU's green agenda for deindustrialising the continent, with chemical sector closures having doubled in the past year. (FT)
- Thu 14:01Climate action is "mission critical" to global security, the UN's climate chief said in a speech looking ahead to a particularly complicated annual climate summit in November, in the face of evermore hostile geopolitics and led by a first-of-its-kind shared presidency between Turkiye and Australia.
- Thu 12:30The Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) is seeking to structure a blended nature-based investment pilot aimed at restoring mangroves around a beach resort, with potential for supporting a future biodiversity credit market, Carbon Pulse has learned.
- Thu 12:25South Africa’s energy minister is working on a proposal to temporarily suspend the carbon tax in a bid to ease pressure from electricity tariffs, a move which could weaken climate policy signals and complicate access to Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) finance, according to local media reports.
- Greener design - Urban Partners, a European urban investment manager, will partner with sustainability platform One Click LCA to embed lifecycle carbon data into design and material choices for new developments. The asset manager, formerly known as Nrep, will have access to One Click LCA's sustainability database for construction, to compare materials using verified data and evaluate CO2 emissions across a project’s full lifecycle. Doing so will help Urban Partners in its SBTi-validated goal to halve embodied emissions by 2030, relative to a 2022 baseline, stated the press release.
- Thu 11:28Liberia last month provoked backlash when it announced it would create a compliance mechanism charging $25 per tonne of CO2 to maritime and aviation operators – but this mechanism has been misunderstood and will be revised to remove sensitivities, according to a top official.
- Thu 10:53The EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) needs to be revised to prevent Europe’s industry from collapsing, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said as he walked into a leaders’ summit on competitiveness on Thursday, in comments that were then echoed by his Belgian and Italian counterparts, deepening an ongoing sell-off in the bloc's compliance carbon market.
- Thu 10:48Cleaner maritime - Eurazeo has secured a €175 mln first close for its Eurazeo Sustainable Maritime Infrastructure II (ESMI II) fund, which will channel capital into decarbonising European shipping and maritime. The close exceeded the fund’s initial €125 mln goal and moves it nearer the €400 mln final size. ESMI II focuses on senior secured financing solutions for European small and mid-sized shipowners, which face rising compliance costs from environmental regulations. The strategy targets marine transport, offshore renewables support vessels, and port infrastructure upgrades. The fund is expected to support 20-30 European shipowners and maritime stakeholders over its investment period. The first close was supported by European institutional investors including the European Investment Fund, MAIF, Suravenir from Groupe Crédit Mutuel and L’Auxiliaire.(ESG News)
- Thu 10:18The Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s long-awaited Land Sector and Removals Standard (LSRS) has been broadly welcomed as a major step forward for corporate carbon accounting of agriculture- and land-related emissions, though questions remain over implementation details, traceability rules, and the exclusion of forest carbon.
- Thu 10:12
Nature first - European businesses are being urged to invest in local nature-based carbon removal projects by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Doing so can help enhance their supply chain resilience and lower costs for reaching net zero, said its new report which calculates a tonne of carbon removal can be delivered for $10-15 via such projects. CISL highlights the private sector's dependence on ecosystem services that are rapidly degrading, with Europe’s bioeconomy directly supporting 5% of EU GDP and 8% of EU jobs in 2023. But this contribution is at risk with more than 80% of Europe's protected habitats considered in poor condition, while around two-thirds of its soil is degraded. Investing in nature-based solutions via supply chains can allow businesses to support their own ecosystem dependence whilst contributing to the EU goal to restore at least 30% of poor condition land by 2030. (edie.net)
- Thu 09:43The international emissions trading body IETA has pushed back against proposed changes to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Scope 2 guidance that would require hourly matching and physical deliverability for renewable energy procurement.
- Thu 01:01Voluntary carbon market standard operator Verra has opened a consultation into a proposed “major revision” of its methodology to reduce emissions via improved agricultural land management.
