Clean industry projects worth an estimated $43 billion secured financing over the past six months, more than double the pace recorded in the same period a year earlier, as China accounted for most new projects, according to a report published Monday.

An afforestation initiative has become the first-ever project to register on Portugal’s voluntary carbon market (VCM) platform, launched last October.

EU carbon prices posted their first weekly loss since the start of May, even as the market consolidated on Friday and only posted a modest 0.2% decline amid wider weakness across many asset classes, after early dip-buying had brought prices back from a two-week low.

Delivery offset – A large Russian online retailer, Wildberries & Russ, has called for unified market recommendations on reducing carbon emissions from the e-commerce sector, according to a statement shared to the Russian Carbon Units Registry on Friday. The retailer has seen customers offset 3.7 tonnes of CO2e from delivery services since launching a voluntary compensation initiative in mid-April with Moscow-based petrochemical company, Sibur. The initiative is aimed at allowing online customers to make their orders 'carbon neutral' with Russian carbon credits. Demand for offsets from Russian companies has increased since the start of 2025, according to analysis from AlliedOffsets.

ETS2 watch – Carbon Market Watch called on EU policymakers to bring back a time limit on ETS2 allowances during negotiations set to kick off on June 10. The Brussels-based non-profit set out its policy asks on Friday, urging decision makers at least partially reinstate a 'sunset clause' that would see ETS2 allowances automatically expire if unused by Jan. 1, 2031. It also advocated for an impact assessment on the climate effects of MSR2 changes, complementary policies aimed at compensating for additional member state emissions, and an extension of both the Social Climate Fund and the Frontloading Facility. The ETS2, for heating and transport fuels, will start in 2028, following a one-year postponement.

Italy has urged the EU to introduce new, softer sector-specific benchmarks that determine the number of free CO2 permits industries receive from 2027, saying it wants these changes applied retroactively to 2026 as well. 

A forest finance facility launched Friday is targeting an initial $50 million raise to provide early-stage and continuity capital for Indigenous and traditional community-led forest conservation projects.

The investment arm of the Brazilian COP30 presidency’s flagship Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) will be hosted in Luxembourg, the TFFF’s newest contributor, it was revealed Friday.

Carbon Market Watch has urged EU lawmakers to reject a European Commission plan to scrap the EU ETS Market Stability Reserve’s invalidation rule, warning it would “neutralise” the reserve’s core function and risk a new period of structural oversupply and depressed carbon prices.

France is trying to rally other EU governments to oppose the extension of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to flights departing the bloc, and plans to raise the issue at a ministerial meeting on Monday, Carbon Pulse understands.

The European Commission has endorsed Lithuania’s Social Climate Plan, making it the second country after Sweden to secure approval under the EU’s Social Climate Fund, which is designed to cushion the impact of extended carbon pricing on households and small businesses.

Stamp of approval - The European Commission has approved a €100 mln Austrian scheme to support cleantech manufacturing capacity, in line with the goals of the Clean Industrial Deal. The scheme will take the form of subsidised loans open to companies of all sizes that invest in strategic sectors such as batteries, solar, or wind in Austria, with aid granted until Dec. 31, 2026. The Commission concluded that the scheme is necessary, appropriate, and proportionate to support the net zero transition, and that it's in line with the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF). The latest scheme also complements another Austrian scheme, approved by the Commission in Dec. 2025 that already unlocked €100 mln for cleantech manufacturing capacity.

A centrist alliance in the European Parliament is pushing to adopt their position on the revision of the EU ETS Market Stability Reserve (MSR) in September, paving the way for a final deal with EU member states in the same month.

The EEX exchange will stop auctioning carbon allowances to fund the bloc’s plan to exit Russian fossil fuels as soon as the €20 billion target is hit, the CEO of the exchange told Carbon Pulse, which could mean around 20 million fewer allowances are auctioned in 2026 than currently scheduled, assuming EUA prices remain at their current levels.

London’s Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the world’s largest marketplace for environmental derivatives, has lost a legal tussle this week over its world famous acronym, after a Dutch court ruled that a crypto trading company, owned by an environmental markets firm and using a similar branded registration, did not infringe on the bourse's trademark.

The news that Zimbabwe’s carbon credits are barred from the international aviation offsetting scheme CORSIA has sparked concerns elsewhere in Africa of a disconnect between Paris Agreement and ICAO rules – and may dissuade others from following a similar model for their national carbon registries.

A UK energy-from-waste operator has completed a major upgrade at a West Yorkshire plant earmarked for carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment, it said Monday.

Member states will for the first time be able to use EU-certified permanent carbon removal credits to meet their national climate targets for agriculture, forestry, and other non-ETS sectors under proposals due to be presented later this year, a senior official has said.

Last month's change of government in Bulgaria could sharpen Sofia’s tone on EU climate policy, adding to wider Eastern European pressure for more flexibility on carbon costs, industrial rules, and border carbon fee exposure.

Europe risks repeating a damaging cycle of reacting to energy crises rather than preparing for them, after climate investment stagnated for a third consecutive year and covered barely three-fifths of what is needed to meet the EU’s 2030 climate and energy goals, according to new analysis from the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE).

Ambitious climate targets, robust carbon pricing instruments in the works, and substantial emissions reductions potential make Latin America and the Caribbean one of the best regions to supply the EU's future demand for international carbon credits, a representative from the bloc's climate taskforce said this week.