Origen story - Climate-tech firm Origen has completed a pre-FEED engineering study, carried out by Hatch, for its first commercial-scale zero-emission lime facility, confirming the technical feasibility, cost profile, and scalability of its DAC technology. The company’s oxy-fuel kiln design captures all process CO2 as a pure stream during production, avoiding the need for post-combustion capture and enabling near-zero emissions. The study indicates the plant could produce up to 315,000 tonnes of lime annually, with costs competitive with conventional production and improving at larger scale. Engineering analysis, supported by prior demonstration testing, suggests lower execution risk due to the use of established industrial equipment and supply chains. A lifecycle assessment found the process can reduce emissions intensity by around 90% compared to traditional lime production. With pre-FEED complete, Origen will move to site selection and detailed FEED engineering, as demand for low-carbon industrial materials grows under increasing regulatory and corporate pressure.

Europe's largest industrial carbon capture facility is expected to come online by Q3 2026 with capacity to permanently store up to 12 million tonnes of CO2 over 15 years, according to the developer.

Brazil, India, and Kenya have the geology, renewable energy and industrial base to support large-scale carbon removal (CDR), but a lack of regulation, financing, and workforce capacity is holding back deployment, researchers and industry experts said on Thursday.

The UK government’s decision not to extend its planned carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to cover refined oil products has triggered warnings from industry that the country’s remaining refineries face an increased risk of closure, potentially accelerating reliance on imported fuels.

Pipe dreams – French tubular solutions firm Vallourec announced this week it had secured a contract to supply corrosion-resistant pipes and connections for an offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Indonesia. The company will deliver materials and services to Indonesian BP subsidiary BP Berau Ltd.'s Tangguh CCS development, including lifecycle technical support.

European carbon prices jumped by 6.3% on Friday, the biggest one-day rise since May 2024 and wiping out much of the week's losses after prices set an 11-month low on Thursday, as traders reacted with relief to the outcome of the EU summit, at which leaders called on the European Commission to hasten proposals for reform of the carbon market and in particular the Market Stability Reserve, and brushed aside calls to suspend the market.

Satisfactory outcome - Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed confidence the European Commission will approve Italy's energy reform, following lengthy negotiations in Brussels. Italy has secured key language in the EU Council conclusions allowing for rapid national measures to mitigate electricity price components, including carbon costs, she said. This paves the way for immediate talks with the Commission on Italy's energy decree, she said. The energy reform aims to cushion the impact of energy costs, including by removing the impact of EU carbon costs on gas-fired generation. (Montel News)

Suspend CBAM - Irish farmers are facing prohibitively expensive fuel and energy prices due to the effects of the war in the Middle East, with the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) calling for the suspension of the EU's carbon border fee immediately, in addition to support for rising prices. Average urea costs have risen by €200 per tonne and other fertilisers by €100-150 per tonne in recent weeks, wrote ICOS president Edward Carr in a letter to the govt. The cost of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on top of imported fertiliser costs has become prohibitive, he said. The bloc's attempts to offset the effect of CBAM are insufficient, and instead, the EU should "immediately suspend the CBAM tax on fertiliser”. (Irish Farmers Journal)

A large lignite-fired power producer has reported a heavy fall year-on-year in its power generation covered by the fuel under the EU ETS in 2025.

Voice of reason - Understanding more about how carbon removals can bring the world back from the 1.5C temperature overshoot likely to happen in coming years will be a key topic addressed in the IPCC'S next set of reports - AR7 - due to be released between 2028-29, said the organisation's chair Jim Skea. He spoke to Bloomberg about the more challenging environment the IPCC now operates in due to climate misinformation and the US withdrawal. Some 50 US scientists are involved in the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) who are funded by philanthropic bodies. The IPCC is resilient and continues to operate despite the challenges, said Skea. The first report of the cycle - the special report on climate change in cities - will be released by Mar. 2027. Under current policies, the world is on track for about 3C of warming by 2100, but implementing all the NDCs would reduce the temperature rise to 2.5-3C, he said. Higher warming levels would entail negative effects including reduced agricultural productivity leading to higher food prices. "The decisions that are taken or are not taken in the next few years will influence where we are," - "the gap lies in action", not science, said Skea. The biggest challenges ahead lie in engaging much larger numbers of people on actions such as reducing consumption and changing land use, which will be harder than the emissions reductions achieved so far through electrification and renewables.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the forthcoming launch of a €30 billion industry decarbonisation “investment booster” at an EU summit in the early hours of Friday morning, which will draw on 400 million allowances from "existing reserves" in the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Green hydrogen producers rushed to apply for the EU’s latest Innovation Fund auctions before the war in Iran drove up gas prices, the European Commission said on Friday.

Just 16% of European companies are pulling ahead on addressing environmental issues, according to a new report, which found they cut emissions about 60% faster than peers in the last year.

False narrative - Right-wing media narratives in the UK are fuelling a false backlash against climate action, with political elites from Reform UK and the Conservative party out of step with the public appetite for net zero. This is according to recent analysis, jointly prepared by think tank the IPPR and non profit Persuasion UK, who found the country's increasingly assertive far right caricatured net zero as a threat to British sovereignty. Media coverage of net zero is more than twice as likely to be negative than public attitudes actually are - driving a false narrative. Instead, polling shows some 40% of voters remain firmly behind net zero, almost double the 24% who are staunchly opposed to it. (the Guardian)

Peru has authorised its first bilateral deal for selling carbon credits internationally under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement after striking a deal with Switzerland.

A 12% EU ETS Market Stability Reserve (MSR) intake rate could add nearly 100 million EUAs to the market by 2027 and lower carbon prices by around 13% over the period, according to analysis published this week.

A data platform for carbon removals has launched a buyer’s guide for high integrity removals in order to scale the market.

The European Commission has launched twin consultations to redesign the EU’s post‑2030 renewables and energy efficiency laws, in a move intended to align the bloc’s energy legislation with its new 2040 climate target.

A London-based carbon removals registry has published a draft protocol for managing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and ozone-depleting substances (ODS), inviting comments until mid-April.

A sustainable aviation trade body in the UK has committed to support the purchase of more than £2 million worth of carbon removals to help close the sector's net zero gap, as an industry taskforce urged for policy intervention to avoid a looming supply shortfall.

Benchmark EU carbon futures jumped nearly 10% on Friday morning after the European Commission confirmed it would imminently propose tweaks to the market to help ease prices in the near term, as well as planned medium-term reform measures including a €30 billion 'investment booster' for decarbonisation, as participants said they now consider fundamental changes to the Emissions Trading System, or a possible suspension of the scheme, to be off the table.

EU heads of state and government have urged the European Commission to present a review of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) “by July 2026 at the latest” and to finalise the legislative process by the end of 2027 – a year marked by the high-stakes French presidential election.

Italy’s push to suspend EU carbon costs may sound like a quick fix for spiking power prices – but it will come at the expense of low-carbon technologies that bring greater energy independence, and help industries cut emissions, experts warned. 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called on governments, businesses, and households to take immediate action to curb oil demand, as the supply disruption linked to the war in the Middle East has tightened global markets and pushed crude prices above $100 per barrel.

The European Commission will propose reforms to the EU carbon market, including tweaks to the Market Stability Reserve, a €30 billion industrial decarbonisation fund, and plans to extend free allocations from 2035, as the bloc weighs short-term interventions to cushion the impact of surging energy prices triggered by disruption in global oil and gas markets linked to the US-Israel war against Iran.

Record output – Norwegian energy company Equinor reported adjusted operating income of $27.6 bln, and adjusted net income of $6.43 bln in its annual report for 2025, alongside record production, in spite of lower commodity prices. Output rose 3.4% YoY to 2,137 mboe/d and renewable generation increased 25% to 3.67 TWh, helped by new fields and tie-ins. The company advanced CCS and offshore wind projects but reprioritised parts of its low-carbon portfolio and updated its transition plan amid external market developments causing low-carbon solutions to mature at a slower pace than anticipated. Equinor also reduced operated Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 34% from 2015-25.