Two UK-based investment advisory and management firms have merged to accelerate investment in large-scale nature restoration projects across the Global South, they said on Tuesday.

Day one of the Bonn intersessional (SB64) UN climate summit saw parties avoid major disputes over the agenda and resist the urge to reopen old negotiations, refocusing on implementation – though the COP31 co-presidents appeared to skate around transition away from fossil fuels.

A carbon removal registry and standards developer has launched a public consultation on a new framework designed to quantify CO2 removal from enhanced weathering projects using a combination of field measurements and predictive models.

The UK government will need to subsidise a fixed price for carbon removal credits when it integrates them into the country's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), at a cost of around £147 million per year, and more in the future, according to new research.

Peter Liese, a senior German lawmaker tipped to lead the forthcoming revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in the European Parliament, said he aims to forge a broad majority for the next reform of the bloc’s carbon market, ranging from the conservative right to the radical left.

European carbon prices recovered to end the day flat on Monday, after trading started with bearish pressure, following on from last week's selloff, with some sources noting that EUAs appeared to be drifting back again towards €75, which has acted like a magnet for much of the last two months.

Premiums for insuring the carbon market could reach at least $1.8 billion by 2030 and up to $30 bln by 2050, claims a report.

Dimming the sun could soon move from theoretical science into mainstream political debate as the world seeks to combat the expected overshooting of the Paris Agreement's 1.5C warming goal – but the risks of rollout remain significant due to unintended consequences or misuse of the technology, experts say.

Stick to it - Campaigners have urged the UK govt to resist calls to further water down sale rules for electric cars, following analysis showing that vehicles on the country's road will emit an extra 17 Mt of CO2 by 2030 largely due to the govt's weakening of rules last year. Industry lobbyists have been calling for the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate to be further watered down, after 'flexibilities' were introduced last year to allow carmakers to sell more cars with petrol engines. There's been a 48% rise in sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles this year as a result, and there will be an extra 59 bln miles drive using petrol and diesel engines in cars and vans compared with forecasts before the ZEV mandate was changed, according to industry analysis. Based on UK govt average emission figures, those extra miles would add an extra 17 Mt of direct CO2 to the atmosphere. The govt has pledged to review the mandate again by early next year. (the Guardian)

CORSIA futures stabilised after months of price declines, with benchmark contracts on ICE holding around the $10 per tonne mark last week as selling pressure appears to be easing, as participants appeared to have found on a floor amid demand uncertainty.

A flying start - Germany is planning to back the scale-up of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) with €2 bln between 2030 and 2039, according to business daily Handelsbatt. During the International Aerospace Exhibition from June 10-14 in Berlin, the govt is set to outline support for SAF as well as other climate-friendly propulsion systems such as hydrogen. The govt is also reportedly planning to work with European partners to ensure the sector reduces its dependences on raw materials and fuel supply from outside of Europe.

The three UN negotiating blocs comprising mostly wealthy countries are collectively on track to fall short of their emission reduction pledges in the next decade, with emissions set to exceed the 2035 targets by nearly 20%, according to a study published on Monday.

Countries are relying too heavily on bioenergy to reduce carbon emissions in their national Paris Agreement pledges, which spells bad news for forests and climate as huge swathes of land are eaten up for growing biomass, according to environmental and social justice groups.

The European Commission has approved an Italian scheme to spend €23 billion to increase the country’s renewables capacity by 50%, under state aid rules.

The UK government is proposing a new planning policy for cutting-edge fusion power generation, which it says will help the sector move from research to commercial take-off. 

A UN expert review of Tunisia's climate tracking report found "significant" inconsistencies and lacking transparency in the country's international carbon market arrangements, as well as its plans to set up a national carbon crediting registry, and to trade credits with Japan.

Six EU countries have urged Brussels to prioritise strengthening the international aviation sector’s carbon offsetting scheme CORSIA rather than extending the bloc’s carbon market to international flights.

Indian steelmakers with higher CO2 emissions are losing market share in the EU under the bloc's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), while cleaner producers have largely maintained their position, according to new research that showed the mechanism already appears to be working.

Airlines may need an easier climate target because “hope was fading fast” of meeting the net zero 2050 goal, an industry body has warned.

Go Luxembourg! – Luxembourg could significantly boost energy security and cut emissions through tighter long-term planning and targeted sectoral measures, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Monday in its latest Energy Policy Review of the country. The IEA urges Luxembourg to strengthen whole‑system planning tools and public communication on energy measures, while stepping up efforts to curb fuel use and emissions in transport and to ensure the EU’s new ETS2 delivers after 2027. The Paris-based agency also recommends policies to accelerate uptake of electric heavy-duty vehicles, derisk hydrogen infrastructure, and guide low‑carbon heating investments via a national municipal heat‑mapping framework and minimum energy performance criteria for home retrofits.

A majority of EU member states have rejected a European Commission proposal to set binding national targets for zero-emission vehicles in corporate fleets, instead signalling support for non-binding “guidelines” at a meeting of EU transport ministers on Monday in Luxembourg.

A South African rangeland restoration programme is seeking a Verra-approved validation and verification body (VVB) to assess an initial project area covering more than 173,000 hectares, it announced last week.

Maritime partners - OceanScore and Anglo-Eastern Univan Group are joining forces to support the shipping sector comply with the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime regulation across vessels under Anglo-Eastern's management, according to a press release Monday. The sector is facing growing pressure to report on its GHG emissions, and this partnership aims to establish consistent data management processes, cost allocation, and regulatory reporting across a diverse fleet and ownership base.

UN observers anticipate that already-agreed initiatives, or ones conceived in parallel to formal COP negotiations, will shape the SB64 climate talks in Bonn this week and next – and that forward momentum on these fronts could itself be a determinant of the summit’s success.