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

A Berlin-based carbon credit marketplace has partnered with a Munich-headquartered developer to provide buyers access to CO2 removal (CDR) credits generated via European forestry projects.

European carbon market participants have raised concern that heavy changes to the EU ETS to reduce costs for industry, such as establishing a price corridor or cap, could create a crisis of confidence in the mechanism and even threaten the bloc's climate goals.

Power move - Italy's cabinet has approved on Wednesday a €3 bln reform reimbursing gas plants for EU carbon permit costs, preventing them from passing those costs into wholesale electricity prices. Because gas units set the marginal price, the plans to remove carbon costs has now pushed Italian forward power prices down about 15%, Bloomberg reported. The policy, which had been leaked last week, would cut bills for households and energy-intensive industry but compresses revenues for generators, especially renewables that previously earned high market prices set by gas. Utilities including Enel and ERG may face margin pressure, per the reporting. Under the draft plan, clean power would be shielded from carbon price impacts starting in 2027. But by covering emissions expenses, the government effectively reduces gas plants’ running costs, which could encourage greater fossil-fuel generation and make the EU’s 2050 climate-neutrality goal harder to achieve, Bloomberg added.

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.

Imports of fertilisers fell to a record low in January – not because of the EU's new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), but because importers stockpiled an unprecedented amount of fertilisers in December, trade bodies and NGOs said this week.

Eritrea aims to cut its emissions by nearly a quarter by 2030 on the condition of international finance and support, and potentially through cooperation under Article 6, according to the country's latest Paris Agreement pledge.

EUA prices rose for a second session on Wednesday after the weekly position data from futures exchanges showed speculative traders had reduced their net length for a fourth week, but by less than had been expected, while natural gas prices climbed sharply amid an increase in tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Hands off - Germany has relatively low gas storage levels at present (last pegged at 23.5% of capacity) but there is no need for market intervention, sources close to the country's economy ministry have said. Winter preparedness remained the responsibility of suppliers and traders, and the summer-winter spread is currently in a better position than a year ago, they said. The summer 2026 contract last settled at €30.78/MWh on Germany’s THE, while winter stood at €31.50/MWh. The German ministry is currently developing follow-up regulation for the current fill-level requirements, the sources said. State intervention should only occur if it can sustainably boost supply security, is cost efficient, and doesn't relieve market participants of their responsibility. (Montel News)

Data dump delayed - Due to the bank holidays at the beginning of April, the release of EU ETS verified emissions data for 2025 will be published "on Apr. 9, at the latest", the European Commission said Wednesday. This is later than usual, as the annual publication has typically come on or just after Apr. 1, with operators required to submit their emissions data for the previous year by Mar. 31.

A Paris-based carbon removal (CDR) portfolio manager announced Tuesday it has launched a due diligence coverage service to provide buyers with access to project-level assessments.

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.

Canada and Ukraine have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on areas of strategic importance in the energy sector, including on renewables, nuclear, and oil and gas.

Stick with it - Chris Stark, head of the UK's mission for clean power, made the case for sticking to the country's goal for 95% clean power by 2030 and said that carbon pricing is absolutely needed to get there. In an interview with Carbon Brief, he pushed back on calls to abandon the 2030 target such as by the Tony Blair Institute, saying increasing renewable energy helps insure against future gas-price spikes. The UK's high cost of energy are "due to fossil fuels, not due to the Climate Change Act", he said. The country needs to build an "electrostate" built on domestic supply chains and will have to interact with China, said Stark, stressing the importance of thinking long term.

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.

Anti-carbon tax Reform - The right-wing Reform UK party would chuck the UK's incoming CBAM, along with other climate levies, if it were to come to power, the party's shadow business and trade minister, Richard Tice, told Politico on Tuesday. This would come alongside a more interventionist industrial strategy that favours procurement of homemade goods, like a mandate for steel manufactured in the UK, he added. The UK intends to launch its CBAM in Jan. 2027, preceded by a pilot of its CBAM rates in Q4 2026. The UK's next general election is not currently scheduled until 2029.  

The Council of EU member states backed plans on Wednesday to amend the supply control mechanism of the bloc's upcoming Emissions Trading System for road transport and heating fuels (ETS2), without making changes to the European Commission's initial proposal.

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.

Delivering carbon capture and storage (CCS) at scale requires the financial sector to fund early-stage projects, boost bankability by aggregating demand, and accelerate learning via a global forum, according to a report by a private sector coalition.

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.

Leaked annexes to the EU’s upcoming Industrial Accelerator Act would force public projects and subsidy schemes to use minimum levels of low‑carbon and “Made in EU” materials in construction and transport, tightening rules for steel, aluminium, concrete and plastics across the bloc.

Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Luxembourg have pushed back against calls to delay the launch of the bloc’s new carbon market for road transport and heating fuels (ETS2), warning that further political tinkering would weaken the EU’s broader climate policy objectives.

EU-turn - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has doubled down on his backing of the EU ETS, calling it a "tremendous success", Euractiv reports. This comes just days after he first called last Wednesday for significant reform to the scheme, and even a "postponement", before then appearing to row back on these comments Thursday following an EU leaders summit last week.

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.

Demand for carbon removals (CDR) in 2025 roughly doubled year-on-year, largely driven by offtake agreements led by a tech giant, according to a sustainable energy outlook published on 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.