Standard body Verra has launched a consultation on a draft savanna fire management method, it announced Wednesday.

An Australian NGO has written to the country's environment minister to reconsider the scope of an proposed gas development, referring to a peer-reviewed report showing the burning of the resultant fossil fuel would have dire consequences for the Great Barrier Reef.

You can learn from us - An article by the World Economic Forum published Wednesday has argued that governing advanced AI should learn from carbon markets. Current AI governance relies heavily on voluntary commitments and ethical principles, which have limited impact because they do not change economic incentives. In climate policy, meaningful progress only emerged when governments priced pollution through cap-and-trade systems. The authors suggested applying a similar approach to AI. Instead of regulating AI capabilities, which are hard to define and politically contested, policymakers should regulate a measurable input: computing power. Training frontier models requires specialised chips, data centres, and large electricity use, all of which can be monitored. Because compute can be metered, regulators could create a permit system where companies must purchase allowances to run large training jobs, the WEF said. Permits would be risk-weighted: safer systems require fewer permits and become cheaper to develop, while riskier systems cost more. This would turn safety from a public-relations issue into a financial incentive. Revenue from permit auctions could fund global oversight and support participation by less wealthy countries, the authors added. Although imperfect - such an approach does not perfectly measure harm and enforcement would take time - the proposal’s central claim is that measurable inputs plus pricing mechanisms create behaviour change.

Partners - The Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) has entered into a partnership with Natural Investments, an impact-focused investment platform within the Natural Capital group, to mobilise private capital into early-stage forest and landscape restoration projects in Southern Africa. Under the agreement, RSCF will provide co-financing to help Natural Investments expand its pipeline of investable, landscape-scale conservation and restoration projects. The support is intended to absorb early-stage development risk, improve project bankability, and create replicable investment structures capable of attracting private and institutional investors. The initiative aims to safeguard critical wilderness areas while demonstrating that restored landscapes can function as commercially viable natural capital assets. Natural Investments is advancing a diversified portfolio covering more than 1 mln hectares across Africa. Its projects target carbon sequestration and avoidance, biodiversity recovery, and improved local livelihoods, while seeking to generate sustainable long-term financial returns. The initial geographic focus under the partnership will be Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, selected for their policy environments, intact ecosystems, and potential for diversified revenue streams. RSCF, supported by the governments of Germany and Luxembourg and implemented by UNEP and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, was launched in Oct. 2020 to catalyse investment in forest and landscape restoration during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). It supports broader international objectives including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Bonn Challenge, and the Rio Conventions.

Fossil fuel interests are perpetuating energy insecurity by standing in the way of an affordable green transition, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) ministerial meeting on Wednesday, calling for a new global platform to discuss transitioning away from oil, coal, and gas.

A coalition of international organisations has unveiled a new effort to expand access to clean cooking, aiming to transform political commitments into financed infrastructure and nationwide deployment programmes, with several governments and industry voices also backing carbon credits as a key means of financing greater clean energy access in the sector.

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has called on the International Energy Agency (IEA) to move away from a recent "focus" on fighting climate change and concentrate instead on scaling energy access and security, speaking at a ministerial event in Paris on Wednesday.

Carbon markets should evolve to finance long-term ecological stewardship, not merely insure credits, argues Charles Bedford, Founder of Carbon Growth Partners and Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Working together - Japan and Cambodia this week signed a five-year cooperation agreement to deepen collaboration on climate mitigation and decarbonisation, reaffirming their support for the Paris Agreement and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The deal covers joint work on emissions reduction and adaptation, circular economy measures including plastics management, environmental technology deployment, pollution control, and biodiversity conservation. A similar deal was signed between Japan and Bangladesh.

Car credits - Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) generated a net surplus of 15.9 mln compliance units in its first reporting period, according to data published on Wednesday. Each unit corresponds to 1 gram of CO2 per kilometre below a vehicle’s emissions target. More than 68% of suppliers beat their emissions targets between July and December last year. Passenger car and light commercial vehicle fleets both outperformed their average emissions targets, while zero-emissions vehicles made up 12% of covered sales, the regulator said.

Two new savanna fire management (SFM) methodologies to generate Australian carbon credits will be considered by the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC) this week, with a project developer touting the large-scale benefits it will reap for Indigenous communities.

Hydrogen push – Indian clean technology company Greenzo Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Lord’s Mark Industries to develop up to 60 MW of green hydrogen projects in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Under the agreement, the partners plan to install solar-powered hydrogen projects with battery storage in Gorakhpur, Aligarh, Jhansi, and Lucknow, with Greenzo providing hydrogen technologies and engineering support. Lord’s Mark Industries will act as developer and investor, handling financing, regulatory processes, and commercial structuring. The companies have not disclosed project timelines or end users yet, but said the collaboration would support India’s green hydrogen sector as the country looks to scale clean energy deployment amid government incentives and growing interest in low-carbon fuels.

The final quarter of 2025 saw new records for commissioning of renewable generation and storage assets in Australia, according to a report released Wednesday.

Market shift – India is looking to diversify its steel export markets towards the Middle East and Asia as a way to mitigate the impact of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), according to a government source, Reuters reported. About two-thirds of India’s crude steel exports have traditionally gone to Europe, but demand there has softened since the carbon levy took effect in January, prompting New Delhi to seek new agreements with infrastructure-focused buyers in the Middle East and Asian markets. Officials also noted efforts to secure long-term supplies of critical raw materials like coking coal and limestone to support the industry’s competitiveness amid shifting trade dynamics.

An Australian oil and gas company has flagged a net nominal short-term Safeguard Mechanism liability of A$24 million ($17 mln) in 2026, it said in its annual results and reports on Wednesday, while also noting it had met its 2030 net emissions reduction target.