The rate of biogas facilities coming online year-over-year (YoY) has declined by half, according to newly released figures by a US trade association.

Carbon cancelled – Clairity Technology’s US-based Project Juniper has been listed as cancelled on the Isometric registry as of last week, according to platform records. No public explanation was provided for the change in status. The Nevada-based project had aimed to remove CO2 via direct air capture and store it through ex-situ mineralisation, with project documentation also citing water generation as a co-benefit. Leaders at the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance said in 2025 that the company’s arrival underscored the region’s emergence as a hub for climate innovation, alongside sectors such as biotech and IT.

Corporate climate roadmap - The City of Maple Ridge is seeking a climate consultancy to provide a corporate climate change roadmap to support and build on corporate climate and energy actions. The Corporate Climate Action Roadmap should complement the City’s low-carbon resilient actions identified in Maple Ridge’s Resilient Futures 2050 community climate action plan.

Companies should move beyond deforestation-free compliance towards nature-positive strategies as EU sustainability rules expand, panellists said during a Tuesday webinar.

Poland’s top administrative court has asked the EU’s highest court to clarify whether cash-settled derivatives linked to carbon allowances should be exempt from value-added tax (VAT), in a case that could have implications for ETS participants across the bloc.

Enacted plan - Brazil has formalised the approval of its National Plan for Climate Change (Mitigation and Adaptation) through the Resolution CIM/CC/PR 09 of 2026, published Monday in the Daily Official of the Union. The plan, which intends to guide public and private stakeholders towards a common climate trajectory by 2035 and achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), now has legal weight and defined obligations. Last week, the Ministry of Environment launched the updated plan and gazetted the resolution establishing a technical group within the Interministerial Committee on Climate Change (CIM) to create the country's climate change policy.

VCS update - Verra has released clarifications to the effective dates of its Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, it announced Tuesday. The clarifications are effective immediately, and pertain to: the effective date of those updates to Table 1 that pertain to changes to the default eligibility of projects that install light-emitting diodes (LEDs); procedures for how project proponents can choose to voluntarily update their projects to be validated or verified against VCS Version 5 requirements prior to the mandatory effective dates; section numbers that were removed in the requirements for projects registered with other approved GHG programmes; and late-to-verify procedures for Improved Forest Management (IFM) and Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) project types.  

California regulators on Monday outlined options for phasing in Scope 3 emissions reporting under the state’s corporate disclosure law, as rulemaking on the programme moves toward a 2027 start date.

A UK pension management company overseeing a £54.8-billion investment portfolio has signed its fourth deal with a carbon removal (CDR) market intelligence platform, aiming to procure credits.

European carbon prices settled at their highest in nine days on Tuesday as traders reflected on a slightly calmer short-term geopolitical outlook, and on the EU ETS' more secure footing after last week's European Council meeting that reiterated its support for the market.

CO2 tax suspension - The Federation of Austrian Industries is calling for a suspension of the CO2 tax, considering it unacceptable the tax be added on top of rising oil and gas prices. Timo Springer, federation president, said he viewed CBAM and ETS trading to be "outdated topics" and said "we simply cannot afford" the CO2 tax. Doing so is vital to protect Austrian industry and its employees, and to counteract inflation, he argued. FPÖ parliamentary group leader Erwin Angerer has also called for the CO₂ tax to be abolished immediately, and leader of political party Team Carinthia, Gerhard Köfer, also believes the CO2 tax an additional burden that should no longer be levied due to price developments. (Carinthia)

Rising risk - Non-profit ShareAction is calling for longer-term insurance policies and accounting methods in order to counteract the short-term focus of the current insurance sector, which complicates its climate stewardship. In 2024, global natural catastrophes caused $417 bln in economic losses, with insured losses reaching a record $154 bln and 63% of total losses remaining uninsured. In the US, recent years have seen nearly 2 mln policies cancelled due to climate risks. Insurance activities are also exacerbating climate change effects by underwriting activities that drive environmental degradation, though they can also help unlock capital for renewables, adaptation, and nature-based measures, which can help improve long-term resilience. ShareAction is conducting a benchmark of climate, biodiversity, social, and governance policies across the property and casualty insurance sector, and the full 2026 report will be released in June.

Looser forest risk assessments – The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility's (FCPF) Facility Management Team (FMT) has announced that use of the updated Reversal Risk Tool and submission of Annex 5 in Monitoring Reports are now optional, rather than mandatory, with immediate effect. Verification and Validation Bodies (VVBs) will no longer treat the absence of these elements as a compliance issue. However, if REDD+ Country Participants choose to apply the tool and submit Annex 5 voluntarily, the associated requirements will then form part of the verification criteria. The change reflects delays in implementing Annex 1 of the FCPF Buffer Guidelines, and the fact that all Emission Reduction (ER) programme crediting periods ended in December 2024, making full implementation impractical for some participants. Despite the relaxation, countries must still assess and report reversal risks in Section 7 of their Monitoring Reports, which will continue to be subject to verification. The FMT said it will provide guidance to VVBs to ensure reversal risks remain adequately managed and the integrity of FCPF credits is upheld.

A large volume of CORSIA carbon credits has been retired on the Gold Standard registry, in a sign that the international aviation emissions market may be starting to take off.

Russian concert offset – Russian petrochemical major SIBUR has fully offset the concert-related greenhouse gas emissions of Russian singer Zara, marking the first time in the country that an artist’s entire touring activity over a period has been made carbon-neutral, according to the Russian Carbon Units Registry. The project covered 49 performances in Oct.-Dec. 2025 and was compensated with 203 tonnes of CO2e carbon units from SIBUR’s Tomskneftekhim climate project.

Money for mangroves - Developer Blue Forest has secured funding from the UK govt's COAST facility to support sustainable livelihoods in the Zambezi Delta in Mozambique, said founder and CEO, Vahid Fotuhi, on LinkedIn. The programme will be implemented by a consortium of global and local partners led by advisory firm DAI and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The funding will support programmes that create lasting harmony between mangroves and the local communities, such as beekeeping and honey making, bamboo woodlots, and crab farming. It will also help boost the durability of Blue Forest's Mozblue mangrove project, co-developed with Removall Carbon.

The UK's second licensing round for carbon storage attracted bids covering more than 2 million acres (809,371 hectares) under the North Sea, which is likely to result in new storage sites, the government agency announced on Tuesday.

Tree targets - Turkiye is aiming to plant 600 mln saplings and seeds by November in a bid to expand forested areas and create new carbon sinks. The target was announced by Forestry General Director Bekir Karacabey who said that 517 mln saplings and seeds were planted last year, leading Turkiye to record an average annual increase of 118,000 hectares of forest. This allowed the country to climb from sixth to fourth place among countries that increased their forest cover the most, according to the FAO’s 2025 Global Forest Resources Assessment, he said. Turkiye is also using unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor forest and prevent fires, and setting camera traps to monitor critical areas, which Karacabey said makes it among the world's most advanced nations for forestry monitoring. (Daily Sabah)

The EU's carbon pricing scheme needs targeted reform, not a total overhaul, and a price corridor would be the best way to help industries make the necessary investments in decarbonisation, an insurance firm said in a report on Tuesday.

The war in Iran has released millions of tonnes of carbon in just the first few weeks, and risks slowing a transition to clean energy as countries turn to more gas and coal to cover the oil crisis, according to recent research.

An academic paper has posed 10 priority questions for the next decade of blue carbon science, including whether blue carbon crediting methodologies could be simplified.

The European Commission has signed off on €2.7 billion in grants for 54 clean industry projects under its EU ETS Innovation Fund, advancing a new wave of net zero technologies across 17 EU countries in sectors ranging from heavy industry to transport.

Russian oil ban delayed - The EU will no longer set out its plan to fully phase out Russian oil on Apr. 15 as initially planned, the European Commission has announced. Spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told reporters Tuesday that plans are "presented to the college only once they are mature enough. This can change through time," she said at a regular press briefing.

ERW partners - Climeworks is partnering with Lithos Carbon to bring enhanced rock weathering (ERW) credits to market and help scale the sector. Lithos applies finely ground basalt rock sourced from quarries to US farmland, claiming to lock up CO2 for over 1,000 years, with the results measured through sampling and analysis. The two formerly partnered in 2023 to deliver 3.5 mln tonnes of CDR over more than a decade. By 2025, Lithos had become the largest ERW developer by issued credits, while Climeworks had become the single-largest offtaker in the category.

Waste not, want not - The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) are joining forces to promote awareness of sustainable consumption in India and inform public policy on the subject, they stated in a release. The MoU aligns with India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision for a developed and resilient economy, and extends beyond high-level policy to inform company strategies and operations.

The European Commission’s upcoming plans to ease prices in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) are unlikely to fundamentally change how the bloc’s carbon market works and will likely include scrapping the automatic cancellation rule in its supply-balancing Market Stability Reserve (MSR), experts told Carbon Pulse.

A US-headquartered biochar company has secured an agreement to supply Microsoft with 1 million carbon removal (CDR) units over a 10-year period, it announced on Tuesday.

Several Latin American countries historically focused on nature-based solutions (NbS) and land use are seeing carbon project developers stride into technology-based GHG reductions and removals.

Shifting vote - Support for climate policies often hinges on the vote of the 'conditional middle', whose views shift depending on the details of each policy. This is according to a new study of 19,000 people in the EU, which found that 36% of participants support most climate proposals, 21% oppose them, while 33% make up the large swing group in the middle. This middle group often decide their vote depending on personal cost-benefit assessments of each policy, with incentive-based policies like home insulation subsidies often more politically feasible than tax-heavy ones. People are often more supportive of policies that support making pro-climate adjustments, rather than complete bans on certain products or practices such as beef or combustion-engine cars. Small shifts within the swing group can carry big impacts - sometimes swinging proposals to majority backing instead. Swiss voters' recent rejection of the climate fund may have been due to the initiative's vagueness about both funding sources and spending priorities. (Swissinfo)

In a world-first application of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), biogenic CO2 from a wastewater biogas facility in Norway has been transported and permanently stored 2,600 metres below the seabed, the project partners announced Tuesday.

Funding warm homes - The UK's DESNZ has put out a call for evidence on the different options for allocating the money in its new Warm Homes Fund, supporting the supply chain for home upgrades and retrofits. The £5 bln fund will provide £1.7 bln, plus £300 mln from a capital grant, for consumer loan schemes. The remaining £3.3 bln will come as innovative finance for investments and loans. The options for allocating the money include opportunities to reduce energy costs and roll out more solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, heat networks, and other technologies, DESNZ said. The call for evidence is seeking views on how the fund can have the biggest impact on as many households as possible, by upgrading homes and cutting energy bills. It's open until June 1.

Entities covered under Australia’s Safeguard Mechanism will need some 239 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) between now and 2035, according to a forecast presented Tuesday.

Several carbon market stakeholders in Southeast Asia signalled an interest in developing credits for international markets, but domestic policy architecture still lags behind such ambition, conference attendees heard Tuesday.

Prices in New Zealand’s ETS will continue to come under pressure from forestry-issued units absent any changes, the country’s former climate minister told Carbon Pulse on Tuesday – despite legislative tweaks to restrict farm-to-forest conversions last year.

Carbon markets should be integrated within wider regulatory frameworks that address deforestation risks and promote Indigenous stewardship to ensure they deliver real outcomes for biodiversity, according to a new paper.

Second time lucky? – Left-wing parties in the European Parliament have put forward a draft motion for resolution to reject the EU’s proposed permanent carbon removal methodologies under the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation. The motion was already rejected last week in the Parliament’s environment committee, but will now be presented for a vote in plenary on Mar. 26, Carbon Pulse has learned. The new motion is backed by the so-called progressive political groups in Parliament (Left, Greens and S&D). Even if rejected in committee, it only takes one group to put it on the agenda for a plenary vote, a Parliament official explained.

Debt-for nature swaps – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is talking with three African countries to set up debt-for-nature swaps potentially worth over $500 mln, it told Reuters this week. Ademola Ajagbe, TNC’s regional director for Africa, did not name those involved due to confidentiality agreements. However, he hinted that one deal would likely close this year while the remaining two would be finalised in 2027. Other African countries, Gabon and Seychelles, have agreed to debt-for-nature swaps in the past years, reducing repayments in line with conservation commitments.

Prices of carbon credits under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 are seen below $20 per tonne in the early years as supply outpaces demand, before a tightening market pushes rates above $100 by mid-century, according to an analysis.

Australia risks undermining its role in the global energy transition unless it improves competitiveness and investment settings, an executive at mining major BHP has warned.

Facilities covered by Japan’s GX-ETS are awaiting market rule finalisation and are unlikely to make credit purchases this year, according to an expert.

A group of over 30 companies in the UK's energy, transport, and building sectors launched a commitment on Tuesday to set science-based targets across their direct and indirect emissions, in line with limiting global warming to 1.5C.

With a surge in power demand from data centres extending the life of fossil fuel-fired generation, carbon removals are even more important than before, a high profile investor said Tuesday.

The European Union and Australia have concluded negotiations on a free trade deal that includes enforceable climate commitments allowing either party to impose sanctions if the other acts in a way that "materially defeats" the Paris Agreement – a clause that goes beyond the language of any previous EU trade deal.

Carbon platform - The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) has announced that its Centre for Digital Public Goods convened a key discussion on India’s proposed Open Network for Carbon Markets (ONCM), aimed at building digital infrastructure to support carbon market development. The initiative is being developed in partnership with Networks for Humanity and seeks to enable transparent, interoperable, and scalable carbon market systems. The platform is designed to facilitate participation across stakeholders while strengthening trust and efficiency in carbon credit transactions, as India prepares to expand its engagement with global climate markets.

A new methodology aimed at accelerating the global shift away from fossil fuel generators has been launched by Gold Standard, marking a first in the carbon market for supporting a just transition at small and distributed energy scales.

The Australian government on Tuesday announced fresh support worth A$32.6 million ($21 mln) for emerging carbon management technologies, building on earlier efforts to scale carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) solutions across hard-to-abate sectors in the country.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul appears to be signalling a shift away from the cap-and-invest carbon pricing scheme (NYCI) she once championed, as she pushes to rewrite the state’s flagship climate law amid mounting concerns over consumer costs.

Flaring up – The conflict in the Middle East has led to a surge in GHG emissions from oil and gas facilities, as companies burn off excess natural gas due to attacks and export disruptions, Bloomberg reported, citing satellite data. Flaring has increased at major sites including Qatar’s Ras Laffan and the UAE’s Das Island, adding tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2e in recent weeks. The rise is linked to shutdowns, storage constraints, and blocked exports, forcing operators to vent or burn gas.

G&T - California Governor Gavin Newsom and European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera on Monday reaffirmed a joint commitment to climate cooperation, emphasising the urgency of accelerating the transition to carbon neutrality while maintaining economic competitiveness and affordability. Both sides highlighted their legally binding climate targets - net zero by 2050 for the EU, and carbon neutrality by 2045 for California - and framed climate action as an opportunity to drive innovation, job creation, and economic transformation. They stressed that expanding domestic clean energy is key to energy security amid geopolitical instability and price volatility. The officials pointed to their respective carbon pricing systems as evidence that well-designed markets can reduce emissions while supporting growth, and pledged closer collaboration on areas including emissions trading, zero-emission transport, industrial decarbonisation, sustainable finance, and climate resilience. They also underscored the importance of science-based, socially equitable policies, multilateral cooperation, and combating misinformation, with a shared aim of delivering durable emissions reductions and strengthening global climate leadership.

A Canada-based pyrolysis firm has raised just over C$4 million ($2.9 mln) in a non-brokered private placement, upsizing the offering amid stronger-than-expected investor demand as it advances commissioning of its flagship renewable energy facility.

A Zurich-headquartered carbon removal (CDR) financier has committed to procuring over 305,000 CO2 removal certificates (CORCs) from a biochar facility in Bolivia, it announced on Monday.