Climate damages could drive EU public debt far above official projections by mid-century if governments fail to increase spending on climate mitigation and adaptation, according to a report by a UK-based economic think tank published on Monday.

Researchers have proposed a market-based framework to help the chemicals industry decarbonise complex global supply chains, arguing that verified emissions reductions within value chains could become a scalable complement to existing carbon markets.

Adding biochar to soil could significantly reduce the climate impact of farming in dryland regions compared with compost-based treatments, according to a new study that highlights implications for offsets and agricultural mitigation strategies.

The past month in climate litigation saw the US’ highest court take up a major lawsuit led by local governments against the oil industry, a landmark corporate climate case move into trial phase in Europe, and courts across multiple jurisdictions weigh greenwashing claims and statutory climate duties.

EU carbon prices returned a marginal daily and weekly gain on Friday with carbon traders marking time amid worsening sentiment as the conflict over Iran extended into a seventh day and energy markets looked to be increasingly threatened by a long-term suspension of exports from the region.

Exchange-traded fund operator KraneShares is shutting one of its leading carbon funds and returning cash to investors, a company official confirmed this week.

Briefing alert - The European Commission will hold an exclusive policy briefing for the Pact Community on the EU ETS on Mar. 19, which will be hosted by Mette Quinn, the Commission's deputy director for carbon markets and clean mobility. It will take place from 12:00 to 13:00 CET and participants can register here.

Automotive pushback - The Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius has said the EU's revised CO2 regulation for cars, which requires manufacturers to meet a 90% tailpipe emissions reduction target from 2035, risks destabilising the bloc's car market. He urged regulators to revisit the plan that he says could effectively impose a complete ban on combustion-engine vehicles by 2035, and suggested they should consider wider mechanisms to curb emissions, such as boosting synthetic fuel use. The revised CO2 regulation for cars was presented in December and eases the de facto phaseout of internal combustion engines that was previously in place. Manufacturers are allowed to offset the remaining 10% through credits tied to low-carbon fuels and green steel. (Automotive News Europe)

Voluntary carbon registries may have to reveal the company or entity retiring credits to meet the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Market’s (ICVCM) threshold for Core Carbon Principles (CCP) eligibility, in a move under consideration to ratchet up transparency, a spokesperson for the organisation told Carbon Pulse Friday.

Soaring oil prices – Crude oil prices could surge to $150 per barrel within two to three weeks if the critical Strait of Hormuz remains closed to tankers, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday. His comments came just hours before reports that Kuwait – one of OPEC’s founding members – had begun shutting production at some oilfields as storage capacity fills up with shipments blocked at the strait. Kuwait is also considering deeper production cuts, including at refineries, to align output with domestic demand. All major Middle Eastern oil and gas exporters are set to declare force majeure on exports within days if the key shipping lane remains effectively closed to tanker traffic, said al-Kaabi, who is also president and CEO of QatarEnergy. Qatar’s state energy firm earlier this week halted LNG production at its Ras Laffan hub, the world’s largest LNG complex. Front-month Brent crude futures were trading above $90 a barrel on Friday.

Irish carbon tax under fire – The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has called on Ireland's government to immediately suspend the country's carbon tax due to rising energy costs for farms, agricultural contractors, and the wider economy. Farm businesses and contractors are particularly vulnerable because there is no viable alternative to diesel to power farm machinery, it said. Diesel carries a carbon tax of about 17 cents per litre, while natural gas and LPG, which is heavily used in the poultry sector, is also subject to carbon charges. The EU's carbon border fee on nitrogen fertiliser should also be immediately suspended by the EU Commission, said IFA farm business chair Bill O'Keeffe, citing the negative impacts to the market due to disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra has this week ruled out suspending the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) for fertilisers.

Ongoing uncertainty over the upcoming revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) has prompted analysts to lower their price forecast for carbon allowances (EUAs).

First CBAM certificates – The European Commission has communicated that the first quarterly price of the certificates for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be published on Apr. 7. Publication will take place both on the European Commission's CBAM webpage and in the CBAM registry. EU importers of CBAM goods will have to buy CBAM certificates from Feb. 2027 to cover embedded emissions of their 2026 imports of iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium, and electricity. The price will be calculated during the first calendar week of the following quarter, and will be based on the quarterly average of the EU ETS auction clearing price of allowances.

Sea level jump – Actual sea levels in coastal areas are up to 24-27 cm higher than previously thought, meaning the impacts of sea level rise have been underestimated, according to a new study published in the journal Nature this week. Researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands analysed 385 scientific studies and found that 90% of them  assume the sea is at exactly the same height as the land, when in actual fact it often rises above that due to wind and waves, for example. Predominantly in the Global South, measured mean sea level can be more than 1 m above the assumed level, with the largest differences in the Indo-Pacific. This means climate change-induced sea level rise could affect 31-37% more land and 48-68% more people (increasing estimates to 77-132 mln) than previously thought.  (Nature study)

Middle East angst – A lengthy war in the Middle East may drive up demand for carbon credits in the compliance market, if utilities switch to coal as a result of LNG disruptions, according to BloombergNEF. Taiwan is already considering boosting production at coal-fired plants, while Italy is keeping its plants in reserve as a precaution. The ultimate impact on compliance markets will depend on how long the energy disruption lasts and whether regulators step in to adjust compliance caps, said AirCarbon Exchange. Meanwhile, the voluntary market could see a drop in buying activity as corporate discretionary spending gets constrained due to higher operating costs from an energy crisis - firms may reconsider buying timelines, emissions forecasts, and hedging strategies as a result, according to AirCarbon. (Bloomberg News)

The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) should build on the governance systems developed for jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+), as the two mechanisms share objectives and draw on complementary sources of finance, a board member of standard body ART told Carbon Pulse.

Togo’s National Assembly has approved, at first reading, a bill revising the country’s environmental framework law and introducing a carbon tax as part of broader efforts to strengthen climate governance and align with global environmental standards, local media has reported.

There will be more wildfires, storms, and bark beetle infestations across European forests throughout the 21st century under all temperature change scenarios modelled by a large team of scientists.

Few policies have done more to combat climate change than the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), Michael Bloomberg, founder of the news outlet said in an opinion piece Friday, urging member states to reform but back the cap-and-trade carbon scheme.

Power storage in Romania – The European Commission has cleared a €150 million Romanian state aid scheme to support at least 2,174 MWh of new battery electricity storage, financed via the EU Modernisation Fund and approved under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF). The measure will provide investment grants for standalone battery storage systems, awarded through competitive tenders, to ease integration of variable renewables into Romania’s power system and support the EU’s net zero transition, the Commission said in a statement announcing its decision.

Colombia's fossil fuel phase-out conference – The First International Conference for the Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels – to be hosted by Colombia and co-organised by the Netherlands in April – now has a rough agenda, Colombian Environment Minister Irene Velez Torres said on a webinar Thursday. A meeting of academics will be held from Apr. 24-26 ahead of a high-level summit on Apr. 28-29 with participants from 40-80 countries, including civil society and academic delegates. The conference itself will unfold in four stages: collection of written submissions focused on concrete solutions; online dialogue on the basis of these contributions; decentralised, self-directed dialogues organised by local communities and other actors; and the high-level segment, which will have capacity limits. For the final stage, accreditation will be based on three criteria meant to ensure balance: regional representation, sectoral representation, and relevant work on the conference's main themes. The conference is designed to contribute to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's call to develop a global roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels, announced at COP30 in Belem last November. Colombia will host national elections in May.

Weakening the EU carbon market “would be a mistake”, according to economists at a Paris-based climate think tank who have called instead for reinforcing the system to secure the long-term competitiveness of European industry.

Carbon insurance to manage political risk, and a dual-layered registry approach to support carbon accounting, are two valuable tools for the UN’s CORSIA international aviation offsetting market – but there are big caveats, according to experts.

A reform of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), which helps to balance the supply of allowances in the EU carbon market, could be swiftly adopted by the end of the year, according to German lawmaker Peter Liese, who led the European Parliament’s last overhaul of the bloc’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Redirecting revenues from the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to producers of specific industrial product categories rather than allocating them by country could both reduce global emissions and offset some of the policy’s welfare losses for trading partners, researchers argue.

Countries could seize a "golden opportunity" by establishing a government-backed strategic reserve to guarantee long-term demand for CO2 removal credits and unlock financing for large-scale projects in the "massive industry of the future".

Governments in Canada, the UK, and the US are pursuing markedly different policy approaches to scaling CO2 removal (CDR), with diverging frameworks for financing projects and long-term revenue certainty emerging as the sector seeks to move from pilot activity to commercial deployment.

A decade-long field trial in Germany has found that regenerative organic farming practices can increase soil carbon stocks, but mainly in surface soils and with limited evidence of long-term carbon storage at depth – raising questions about how related offsets methodologies account for permanence and monitoring.

Getting to the truth - Some companies deny they signed up to an industry petition asking the EU to "bring energy and carbon costs down", which was presented to EU leaders last month in Antwerp and led to some politicians making remarks that weakened the EU carbon price. The letter said it was sent on behalf of signatories of the Antwerp Declaration, which was backed by nearly 1,350 signatories in 2024 including over 900 industry companies, but some of those companies now say they didn't support the missive. Even the organisers told Politico they don't know the actual number of backers for this year's petition - reflecting rising instances of letters demanding policy changes in Europe in the name of companies loosely associated with the organisers to boost their influence.