Brazil’s carbon market needs more diversified and predictable demand if it is to scale beyond a niche voluntary market and to attract long-term investment, speakers said at an event in Sao Paulo.

The UN General Assembly voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution to endorsing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on climate change issued in 2025, which found that states have a legal obligation to cut GHG emissions.

A Brazilian project developer and a British asset manager have signed a collaboration agreement to develop scalable contract structures for afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) credits, they announced on Wednesday. 

European carbon prices bounced back to the upper end of their recent range and posted a 0.6% gain on Wednesday but the market remained steadfastly unimpressed by the continued rangebound trading.

Demand for carbon removal (CDR) may be stalling, despite rising corporate net zero commitments and growing recognition that they will be needed later this century for wider global climate goals, a new policy brief based on interviews with corporate sustainability leaders has found.

Wood wide – Deep Forestry, a Swedish robotics and AI company, has raised €3 mln in a funding round led by Fairpoint Capital to scale its autonomous under-canopy drone system for precision forest mapping, an Australian publication reported on Wednesday. The company said its drones have completed more than 1,000 autonomous flights globally and can measure stem diameter with a mean absolute error of 1.6 cm against harvester measurements, independently verified by a third-party government forestry authority. Deep Forestry said the fresh capital will be used to expand its technical and commercial teams, deepen partner integrations, and establish a stronger presence in key global forestry markets.

Bas Eickhout, the co-chair of the Greens group in the European Parliament, has resigned as an MEP with immediate effect after acknowledging that he had engaged in relationships that he said were incompatible with his role.

Brussels has approved a €1.3 billion German state aid scheme to boost the production of renewable hydrogen, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.

A carbon removals marketplace is aiming to help developers advance projects with "promising fundamentals through to signed deals" with large-scale corporates, which it says is urgently needed to scale the market in order to meet looming climate targets.

A certifier of methane emissions has launched a new registry for reductions from crude oil operations, and expects to certify its first crude oil production facility in the coming weeks, it announced on Wednesday.

Deeper dependence - The recently announced joint venture (JV) between TotalEnergies and EPH - named TTEP - will deepen Europe's dependence on costly imported fossil gas, slowing down the continent's energy transition and pushing up energy bills, found a report by Beyond Fossil Fuels (BFF). TotalEnergies plans to use the JV to dispose of 2 Mt per annum of LNG, which over five years, could end up costing Europe between €6.68 bln and €7.56 bln, mostly to the benefit of US and Russian fossil fuel industries. Meanwhile, the JV is greatly exposed to regulatory risks linked to capacity markets because more than €4 bln of subsidies through capacity market contracts were secured by TotalEnergies and EPH for the plants included in the JV from 2015-24. Based on 2025 generation figures, over the next five years, BFF estimates the JV will produce climate emissions rivaling those Ireland or Denmark produce in a year.

Allowing EU importers to deduct international carbon credits from their Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fees is an endorsement of the UN’s Article 6 carbon markets – but some worry it may come at the expense of the mechanism's climate integrity. 

Solar will become the world’s largest generator of electricity by 2032 amid a rush to energy self-sufficiency, and there is still a chance to limit global warming to 2C by century-end if countries become "serious" about net zero goals, according to a new report.

Climate awareness - Just over half (51.5%) of the Russian population are aware of the country's goal to reach net zero by 2060, according to a survey of internet users conducted by the Ministry of Economic Development. Almost 20,000 people (19,885) took part in the survey over a week from Apr. 30 to May 6, which was anonymous, and found that 74% of respondents approve of the development of renewables. Some 67% of respondents consider climate change an important issue requiring attention of the authorities, 63% believe that the climate affects the stability of the Russian economy as a whole, and 45% knew or have heard about carbon units trading. Planting forests and restoring ecosystems was considered important among companies that can influence GHG reduction by 65% of participants, while 36% considered public reporting on GHG emissions the most important, said the release on the Russia registry of carbon units website.

Turkiye's incoming COP31 presidency is calling to speed up electrification around the world, arguing that the energy crisis underscores the importance of renewable energy, as well as diversification of sources.

The UK government's delivery model for its new conventional nuclear plant places more risk on taxpayers and consumers than other electricity projects, and relies on big assumptions of projected benefits, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report.

A Swiss carbon removal (CDR) company announced Wednesday it had appointed a new CFO to lead its financial strategy as it expands its direct air capture (DAC) and CDR businesses.

Spanish PPA - Commodity trader Trafigura has signed a 10-year hybrid power purchase agreement (PPA) with power producer Nadara for 434 MW of renewable capacity in Spain, according to a press release Wednesday. The electricity will be supplied by five solar PV projects and six wind farms, thereby producing a complementary production profile that stabilises output and supports financing of additional capacity. The deal forms part of Trafigura's strategy to build a diversified power portfolio across key European energy markets including Spain.

A Denmark-based project developer has signed a seven-year agreement with Microsoft to deliver 650,000 carbon removal units from its bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility.

More than 5 million credits from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are expected to sign up to a new carbon registry this month that hopes to attract up 800 million of the UN registry’s units before they face oblivion at the end of the year.

Cancelled credits - Ireland was unable to use 702,000 of carbon credits purchased by the State over recent years because they couldn't be used towards compliance under the EU Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) and hence were seen as nil value and cancelled. This is according to Ireland's Department of Climate, Energy, and Environment, which sent a briefing document to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week, explaining that the unusable credits had been stored in the State's carbon fund. The credits were cancelled in Apr. 2025, making the fund now effectively dormant. Ireland had spent well over €100 mln on carbon credits since 2007 to meet emissions targets under the Kyoto protocol, according to PAC chairman, John Brady, though the department didn't specify the original cost of buying the cancelled credits. Between 2013-20, for compliance under the EU ESR, which sets member states’ national emissions reductions targets out to 2030, Ireland used both carbon credits and annual emission allocations (AEAs) from other EU countries to comply. (the Irish Times)

Far-right wants to dump EU ETS - The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has intensified its campaign against the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), calling for a parliamentary debate on revising the scheme to support European competitiveness, Politico reported Wednesday morning. While many industry groups and political factions want adjustments to the ETS during the European Commission’s upcoming review, the ECR stands apart in seeking to dismantle the bloc’s flagship carbon market entirely. ECR co-chair and Polish MEP Patryk Jaki argued in April that EU climate policies and the expansion of renewables have sharply increased energy prices, claiming the ETS and Green Deal harm Europeans’ living standards. However, today’s debate is viewed in Brussels as more symbolic than consequential. Major political groups, including the dominant center-right European People’s Party, alongside much of European industry, continue to support the ETS as the EU’s primary mechanism for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, even if some reforms are considered necessary, the news outlet said.

Carbon pricing now covers nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, with government revenues from carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETSs) topping $107 billion in 2025, according to a World Bank report published on Tuesday.

Electric car (EV) sales will surge this year as drivers respond to spiking petrol and diesel pump prices amid the energy crisis sparked by the war against Iran, finds the International Energy Agency (IEA).  

Industrial competitiveness has moved to the centre of the European climate debate, with the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) now judged as much by its impact on energy‑intensive industry as by its emissions cuts, according to this year’s State of the EU ETS Report, published on Wednesday by a Brussels think tank.