Show your footprint - Democratic US lawmakers introduced legislation directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish voluntary guidance for companies to disclose their indirect Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions using standardised methodologies. The Standardised Calculation of Operational Polluting Emissions (SCOPE) Act, led by Senator Adam Schiff in the Senate and Representatives Don Beyer and Kevin Mullin in the House, aims to replace the patchwork of company-specific reporting systems with a single uniform framework. The bill is backed by several environmental groups including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Defense Fund.

CCS captured - Three bills targeting carbon capture and storage have emerged in the Alabama legislature following resident opposition to a project in Covington County, News 4 reported. Two House bills (HB 428 and HB 431) would give local governments authority to block CO2 injection wells and levy a 20% tax on underground carbon storage, with revenue split between the state and local governments. A Senate bill (SB 266) mirroring the Covington County ban has already passed the Senate and heads to the House. All three bills follow meetings between legislators and constituents who raised concerns about a project proposed by Reliant Carbon Storage.

Restoration policy – In Brazil, a policy to encourage ecological restoration in the state of Goias is advancing. On Thursday, the Legislative Assembly of Goias approved, in an initial vote, a bill aimed at restoring devastated and degraded ecosystems, seeking to recover the structure, function, and natural biodiversity of affected areas. The public policy would include fiscal incentives and credit lines for rural properties that adhere to environmental restoration projects, while implementation would be carried out by the state’s environmental agency. The bill will now return to the plenary for a second vote before final approval.

Hearing held – The Washington Department of Ecology held a public hearing on Thursday for proposed revisions to its US Forest offset protocol under its cap-and-invest programme. Officials outlined updates including revised improved forest management (IFM) baselines and leakage rates, adjusting forest management requirements, adjusted buffer pool contributions, aggregation options for small projects, and other provisions, while indicating a target of June 10, 2026 for adoption. During the hearing, two speakers questioned offset integrity and permanence, particularly wildfire and biomass assumptions. Written comments are due by March 13, ahead of a Concise Explanatory Statement and final decision. The next online public hearing will take place on March 3.

California’s policy advisory office has recommended the legislature reject Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) tax credit, calling it an expensive approach to lowering emissions.

While Mexico and Colombia finalise key components of their emissions trading systems (ETS) ahead of publishing implementing decrees this year, Chile advances on operational rules for Article 6 and its integration with other environmental market mechanisms, officials from the three countries said during a panel on Wednesday.

Current satellite-based forest monitoring pipelines often function as de facto “black boxes” – complex, region-specific, and difficult to replicate, a webinar heard this week.

The administration of US President Donald Trump (R) is drafting a new diplomatic memo against the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) proposed carbon price plan, media reported on Thursday.

The US EPA is considering a plan to require big oil refiners to make up for the waived biofuel blending volumes obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), according to a media report on Thursday.

Several of Chile's ministries and the state-owned BancoEstado have created a public-private initiative with Chilean industries to facilitate the participation of small and medium-sized forest landowners in carbon markets.

The Symbiosis Coalition has updated its quality criteria, expanding its remit to include mangrove restoration projects in addition to those focused on terrestrial reforestation and agroforestry.

Stay tuned - Chile aims to launch a pilot cap-and-trade system by Mar. 2027, according to Juan Pedro Searle, head of the Carbon Markets Development Unit at the Chilean Ministry of Energy. That's according to an interview with the Partnership for Market Implementation (PMI), the World Bank initiative that is supporting Chile in this endeavour. The ETS would cover just the energy sector, Carbon Pulse understands. The March end date coincides with the end of Chile's three-year PMI support programme. It is also consistent with plans dating to July 2024 to launch a pilot ETS for 2026-27. The future of Chile's climate initiatives will ultimately be determined by the incoming right-wing administration of President-Elect Jose Antonio Kast, who will on Mar. 11 assume the role from outgoing left-wing President Gabriel Boric.

Carbon removal (CDR) policies could misjudge climate benefits by assessing activities at the facility level while overlooking emissions from the wider systems they depend on, a new report has found.

CDR play - The Lego Group has expanded its durable carbon removal (CDR) portfolio with ClimeFi across the three pathways of biomass geological storage, mineralisation, and marine carbon removal. They form part of the toymaker’s DKK 18 mln (€2.4 mln) pledge to four CDR projects - three durable CDR projects through ClimeFi, and one nature-based reforestation project in Mexico through Climate Impact Partners. This brings Lego's total commitment in CDR to DKK 54 mln, the release stated.

Whether US financial firms decide to rejoin the newly relaunched Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) will largely depend on the legal risks around ESG engagement on their home turf, experts say.

Up to 1 million CORSIA-eligible cookstove credits will be auctioned by the International Airline Trade Association (IATA) in March that will test whether the spot price has tumbled into a range of $15-16.

Green finance - Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) channeled €134 bln into sustainable business last year - up 44% on the 2024 level. The 2025 figure "marks an annual record for BBVA, which aims to mobilise €700 bln between 2025 and 2029", wrote Javier Rodriguez Soler, head of sustainability and corporate and investment banking (CIB) at BBVA on LinkedIn. It consolidates sustainability as a real growth driver at the bank, as well as a strategic lever to open new markets and attract new clients, he said.

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) is drawing new institutional fixed-income investors, buyers, and funds – but several forms of risk and taxes are spooking others, a webinar heard.

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is a crucial, but not the only, avenue to bring the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) landmark climate advisory opinion to life, said the director of the NGO which kickstarted the campaign, pointing to the opinion's applicability to the UNFCCC, finance and trade talks, as well as human rights bodies.

An initiative of investment managers committed to climate action has officially relaunched, backed by more than 50 asset owners representing $3.7 trillion in assets, but with substantially weaker requirements.

Insurance and emissions - New Jersey's Senate on Tuesday passed two bills (S-685 and S-867) that would establish task forces to study GHG emissions from motor vehicle fleets and the impact of climate change on property insurance rates. The first bill would create a Fleet Conversion Task Force to recommend policies for shifting commercial vehicles to zero-emission alternatives. The second would set up a joint task force to assess how climate change affects residential and commercial property insurance premiums, with a focus on flooding. Sponsor Senator Bob Smith (D) said state lawmakers must act as federal agencies retreat from regulating GHG emissions.

The pre-COP31 summit will be hosted by Fiji in October, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) announced on Thursday.