The government of Kazakhstan announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement regarding a forestry project targeting more than 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 removals.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) futures moved back higher following Tuesday's reversal from the recent historic surge as market administrator RGGI Inc. issued a statement late in the day welcoming Virginia back into the programme.

The standard body is cutting project review timelines, rolling out digital systems, as well as expanding Article 6 and CORSIA labelling guidance, it said in a Wednesday stakeholder update, as it also published auditor scorecards on the same day.

Remote sensing-based models used for forest carbon projects are unlikely to incorporate tree species identification due to cost constraints, with speakers instead highlighting the role of time-series biomass data in assessing forest carbon projects at a Wednesday webinar.

Pennsylvania announced more than $267 million to projects across the state targeting GHG emissions reductions between a number of projects, including one carbon capture initiative at a cement manufacturing plant.

A Brazilian startup focused on the development of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) technology for carbon crediting in agriculture has raised R$10.8 million ($2.15 mln) to expand its business, it announced on Wednesday.

Washington’s Department of Ecology (ECY) published on Wednesday implementation guidance related to planned updates to Allowance Price Containment Reserve (APCR) and other auction- and supply- related provisions under the state’s cap-and-invest programme.

Nearly a fourth of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) era projects transitioning into the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 market risk overlapping with land used by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, according to an analysis that geospatially mapped hundreds of projects.

Richmond solar rules - Virginia last week passed a law that voids community-wide prohibitions on solar fields and establishes new siting guidelines for such facilities, Canary Media reported. When the law takes effect on July 1, local governments will still be able to deny permits to solar developers but must submit their rationale for doing so to state-level regulators. Virginia is ninth in the US in terms of states' installed solar capacity, and gets about 10% of its energy from the source.

Fusion grid first - Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has applied to connect its planned 400-MW Fall Line Fusion Power Station in Chesterfield County, Virginia to regional transmission organisation PJM Interconnection, marking what it said is the first grid-connection request by a nuclear fusion developer, E&E News reported. The move signals a shift from research to commercial deployment for a technology that aims to generate electricity by replicating the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but which has not yet been proven at commercial scale. The application begins a PJM interconnection process that could take four to six years and will assess whether the project can reliably deliver power to the grid. CFS, a spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is developing compact fusion reactors using high-temperature superconducting magnets and is targeting operations in the early 2030s.

European carbon prices shed 2.5% on Wednesday as traders re-focused on the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz and its impacts on energy markets while the negative correlation - between gas and oil on one side and carbon on the other - resumed to send EUAs back below a number of technical support levels.

Brussels is looking into merging the land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) Regulation and the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) into a single instrument, it said as part of its regulatory "deep cleaning" action plan.

A European Parliament debate on the EU’s response to the Middle East crisis veered onto the bloc’s carbon pricing system, as MEPs clashed over whether the ETS and border carbon fee are shielding people from fossil fuel shocks or piling costs onto households, farmers, and industry.

A US-based aerospace company has procured 20,000 carbon removal (CDR) credits from six suppliers across the globe via a UK-based marketplace, it was announced Wednesday.

Carbon removal could be added to the list of decarbonisation actions that are tied to EU ETS benefits like free allowances and indirect ETS cost compensation, suggested a German consultant on a webinar Tuesday.

Test drive – Bridgestone Americas, a US subsidiary of a Japanese tire and rubber major, and Penske Transportation Solutions, a North American logistics and transportation firm, said on Wednesday that their joint Decarbonization Lab has validated near-term options to cut carbon emissions from commercial fleets. The first-phase trials, conducted over more than 500,000 fleet miles (805,000 km), tested tire and retread performance, renewable diesel, and route optimisation and logistics efficiency. If scaled across the Penske-Bridgestone dedicated fleet, the route optimisation would have the effect of decreasing emissions by 4-6%, press materials said. The companies added that they plan to continue testing additional solutions in a second phase of the lab in 2026.

Greece, Malta, Portugal to court - The European Commission has referred Greece, Malta, and Portugal to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to transpose the bloc's recent rules to promote renewable energy into national legislation, it announced on Wednesday. The new rules aim to encourage renewables in all sectors of the economy, not just power, especially the more difficult ones, like heating and cooling, buildings, transport, and industry. Member states were due to integrate the rules by May 21, 2025. The Commission sent the three countries letters of formal notice in July, and reasoned opinions in December.

A European steelmaker has profited from the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) by receiving more free carbon allowances than it emits, and is weakening its decarbonisation goals despite receiving significant government subsidies, according to new analysis.

Verra has reinstated eight carbon projects in China following the conclusion of quality control reviews (QCRs), but probes are continuing in another 27 projects, it announced Wednesday. 

More than 40 companies, associations, and local governments are urging the UK government to make the HyNet carbon capture and storage cluster the countries first regional hydrogen network. 

Countries have agreed on a four-year strategy for climate adaptation funds run by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which aims to scale up investment in nature-based solutions (NbS).

Countries remain divided on what a Net-Zero Framework (NZF) for global shipping should look like, with some calling on Wednesday to scrap its carbon levy, and others to ditch any mechanism that collects revenue.

Australian coal mines increased their reliance on offsets to meet compliance obligations under the Safeguard Mechanism, according to analysis calling for the upcoming review to plug gaps in the scheme.

A carbon removal expert that had been working for the UK government has joined a voluntary market registry and standard body.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has announced an update to its “absolute contraction approach”, a key method used by companies to set emissions reduction targets, in a move aimed at improving consistency and implementation while preserving net zero ambition.

US researchers have published an independent national GHG inventory covering three decades of emissions data, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) missed its annual reporting deadline for the second consecutive year.

An established carbon markets expert has departed the British fossil fuel producer BP to join another large oil and gas company, they announced Wednesday.

The European Commission signalled conditional openness to Italy’s plan to subsidise gas-fired power on Wednesday, as it unveiled a new temporary state aid framework to cushion energy-intensive sectors from the Middle East crisis.

How to protect forest defenders - The Rainforest Foundation UK, and partners, have put out a security brochure to help the Congo Basin's community observers stay safe as the document illegal logging and other extractive activities, it announced on Tuesday. The work of community observers, often volunteers, often puts them at odds with companies operating outside the law, and therefore in danger.

European exchange EEX confirmed that its EU emissions spot and derivative volumes dipped in 2025, year-on-year, in annual financial results published Wednesday.

The European Parliament voted to keep allowances in the Emissions Trading System for heating and transport (ETS2)'s Market Stability Reserve (MSR2) fully valid until 2033, with partial validity until 2035, while they rejected right-wing political parties' attempts to delete and postpone the bloc's second carbon market.

Greece calls for realism - The EU needs a realistic approach to cutting emissions, and more restraint in "retaining the core" of the EU ETS, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a meeting with European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera in Athens this week. Touting Greece's success in reducing power prices and ditching coal, Mitsotakis also stressed that some sectors, like shipping, need more time to decarbonise. The ETS is valuable in sending the signal to decarbonise, but needs to be balanced with economic competitiveness, he said.

The folly of the UK offering vast subsidies for a single gas-fired power plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS) should serve as warning to the rest of Europe, according to a new paper.

COP31 energy talk - The incoming Turkish COP31 presidency and the IEA are kicking of a series of high-level energy transition dialogues on Thursday in Paris, the presidency said in an emailed statement. The talks will feed into the presidency and IEA's efforts to shape a focused, credible, and delivery-oriented strategy this year on the energy transition - including renewables deployment, green industrialisation, and clean cooking. At the meeting on Thursday, presidency will present its strategic vision and priorities for COP31, and gather views from international partners.

The European Commission's new Middle East crisis aid framework draws a line between the EU ETS and the latest surge in energy cost, helping to ease high power prices while insisting that the carbon market is not the culprit.

Biochar partners - Berlin-based software platform BlueLayer has partnered with Indian developer LongStraw Carbon to produce around 10,000 tonnes of biochar within a year, with a target of 100,000 tonnes annually by 2028, it said in a LinkedIn post. LongStraw uses proprietary thermal processing technology to generate biochar alongside energy and bio-oil, while working with farmers and millers to improve soil health and reduce fossil fuel use. BlueLayer will provide dMRV infrastructure, to support issuance of carbon credits under Isometric’s methodology.

CO2 negative - Malaysia’s Sabah state was confirmed as carbon-negative, local paper Daily Express reported, citing an official speaking at the state legislative assembly. The status is based on the forest-rich state's first 2024 inventory report, and opens door to carbon markets, the official said. The government plans to use the data from the inventory to guide future mitigation and adaptation policies.

The EU's carbon border fee appears to be distorting electricity flows between the EU and the Western Balkans countries, which risks reducing the amount of clean power flowing from these countries into the bloc, according to a report by an energy community body. 

Emissions reporting is becoming standard practice across the UK's electrification supply chain, but public transparency and Scope 3 coverage still lag behind, according to an industry analysis published Wednesday.

A flurry of Sub-Saharan African clean cookstoves were cleared to generate international carbon credits this past month, injecting fresh supply into the aviation offsetting scheme CORSIA, and the wider international market. 

Overtaking - The China Electricity Council (CEC) has predicted that 2026 will be the first year solar capacity exceeds coal in China. Combined newly installed wind and solar capacity reached 57.16 GW in the first three months of this year, representing 68.2% of all new power generation capacity added nationwide. By the end of the year, combined wind and solar will account for half of the country's total installed capacity, with solar alone eclipsing coal for the first time in history, CEC said.

Coal mine methane (CMM) emissions remain largely unaccounted for in official data, hindering the uptake of proven technologies that could cut emissions this decade,  according to a report published Wednesday.

Indian steelmakers have been setting ambitious climate targets, but a recent report found that failure to back those goals with capital spend is leaving the sector lagging global peers on decarbonisation efforts, even as emissions intensity worsens.

An India-based climate startup has raised $1.1 million in a funding round to help scale its carbon removals platform focused on nature-based solutions.

A report published Wednesday has urged trading partners in the Asia Pacific to move away from their fossil fuel dependencies as a way to reduce emissions and shore up energy security.

Relationship renewal - Insurance Australia Group (IAG) announced it has renewed its partnership with the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation for another three years to support greater awareness and adoption of Indigenous cultural land management, particularly cultural burning, as a way to strengthen community resilience to climate change and bushfires. The partnership has already helped expand Aboriginal-led cultural fire management and carbon farming initiatives, delivering environmental benefits while creating economic opportunities for First Nations communities, it said. The company said the collaboration will also help advance policy and industry discussions, as cultural burning—drawing on tens of thousands of years of knowledge—can reduce bushfire risk, lower emissions, and improve ecosystem health.

Tropical rainforest loss decreased by 36% in 2025 from the previous year, but remained 70% above the level required to meet the global target of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, according to a report.

Garlic can help - A natural feed additive containing garlic has been found to cut methane emissions from hanwoo, Korea’s native beef cattle, by more than 14%, according to Korea Herald. The additive was developed by Jeongeup city and the Microbial Institute for Fermentation Industry. The feed additive may help clear the national threshold for low-methane feed certification and raise the prospect of commercialisation, the report said. Commercialisation of the product is expected to reduce GHG emissions by 520,000 tonnes a year.

Grassroots climate action - South Korea’s climate ministry has established a preparatory committee to encourage grassroots climate action. The committee aims to promote daily habits that support carbon neutrality while building social consensus through voluntary private-sector engagement. It will facilitate open discussions across sectors, ranging from industrial and financial leaders to civil society advocates.

Plastic fantastic - Researchers at Australia's Adelaide University have developed a solar-driven process called photoreforming that uses light-activated catalysts to break down plastic waste into clean fuels like hydrogen and useful industrial chemicals, offering a way to tackle both pollution and energy needs, they announced. The method is more energy efficient than traditional hydrogen production because plastics are easier to convert, and recent experiments have shown promising results, including continuous operation and production of fuels and chemicals, according to their research published in Chem Catalysis. However, significant challenges remain—such as handling mixed plastic types, improving catalyst durability, and scaling up the technology—before it can be widely used in real-world applications.

Europe's climate saw one of its most extreme years yet in 2025, with record wildfires – and emissions from fires – as well as prolonged heatwaves and severe drought, according to the latest European State of the Climate report.

New supply - The New South Wales state government has opened new areas in the state’s Far West for gas exploration, it announced, effectively ending a long-standing freeze to help address forecast energy supply shortfalls. The move is intended to improve long-term energy security and support the transition to renewables by ensuring gas is available to firm electricity supply, with any gas produced reserved for domestic use. Exploration licences will be subject to strict environmental and planning approvals, and while development could take years, the policy aims to attract investment and increase future supply amid concerns about tightening east coast gas markets.

An Australian feed additive company reported further revenue gains in its quarterly report published Wednesday, thanks to growth in contracted volumes of its seaweed-based methane reducer.

The US Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on Tuesday two agreements with offshore wind developers to voluntarily end their federal leases and reinvest their multi-million reimbursements into oil and gas assets.