Tropical moist forests across 18 African countries removed enough carbon to offset most land-use emissions between 2015 and 2019, though researchers said uncertainty means the region's overall carbon balance remains unresolved.

EU member states and the European Commission have condemned this year's host of the international climate talks, Turkiye, for inviting only 26 of the 27 countries of the bloc to the COP31 conference and excluding Cyprus from preparatory climate talks.

Longer historical reference periods could improve confidence in estimating emissions reductions from reduced deforestation initiatives, according to new research.

The European Commission is preparing a broad overhaul of the EU ETS that would introduce more dynamic controls over allowance supply, recalibrate the market's emissions trajectory, and extend support for industrial decarbonisation, according to a media report citing people familiar with the plans.

A group of 12 EU climate ministers met separately on Thursday to discuss a joint stance on reforming the bloc’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and on whether to again delay the EU’s second carbon market for heating and transport (ETS2).

A Paris court has ordered TotalEnergies to overhaul its climate vigilance plan within six months, ruling that the French oil major breached its legal duty to address the climate risks posed by its activities and products, including so-called Scope 3 emissions generated when its oil and gas are burned.

The UK can be an ally in Japan's long-running effort to promote transition finance, pushing investments towards emission cuts from polluting sectors, according the executive director of FinCity.Tokyo, Tokio Morita.

Carbon looked to be heading higher on Thursday, posting a healthy early increase even as energy markets extended their week of declines amid a gradual lessening of supply worries around the Strait of Hormuz, before a steep sell-off wiped out the day’s gains and left carbon with a 0.3% daily loss, while the European Commission was reported to be mulling a softening of the market stability reserve's parameters.

Royal food waste - King Charles III visited a pop-up takeaway during London Climate Action Week that threw the spotlight on methane emissions from food waste, the NGO WRAP announced. The Methane Takeaway installation highlighted thew ays in which the food industry can change quickly to reduce methane emissions. In the UK, for example, food waste costs the average household of four £1,000 a year.

The EU's 27 environment ministers remained divided over plans to relax car CO2 rules on Thursday, while Wopke Hoekstra, the EU's climate chief, said the recent boom in electric car sales is a sign that weakening the cars CO2 target may not have been necessary after all.

Platts will remove the annual vintage roll for its Renewable Energy, Nature-Based Avoidance, South America, and Household Devices carbon credit assessments on July 1, the price assessor said Thursday.

A French project developer is offering voluntary credits across biodiversity, carbon, water, and soil from regenerative agriculture and forestry initiatives, an executive told Carbon Pulse.

Greater use of engineered wood products in construction could deliver savings equivalent to around 7% of projected annual emissions from the global buildings sector, a UN-backed report has found.

The European Commission will soon publish detailed guidance on certain requirements under its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), while working with India to narrow differences between the border levy and the country's upcoming emissions trading, officials said on Thursday.

CCUS forum launched – The Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) has launched the European CCUS National Associations Forum to step up cooperation and alignment among national and EU-level carbon capture, utilisation and storage organisations, it announced on Thursday. The informal platform aims to boost knowledge-sharing and coordinated advocacy as CCUS momentum builds across Europe. National CCUS groups are increasingly involved in shaping policy, supporting project and market development, and tackling deployment barriers, and the Forum will help them exchange best practice and inform regulatory frameworks, including in countries that lack dedicated CCUS associations.

The United States, Qatar, Nigeria, and Algeria have warned that the EU’s methane regulation risks disrupting Europe’s oil and gas supplies unless Brussels swiftly freezes the law and amends it to prevent widespread non-compliance.

Average carbon emissions from new cars and vans in Europe, due to be included in the delayed ETS2 cap-and-trade scheme, fell sharply last year amid the switch to electric vehicles (EVs), according to provisional data on Thursday.

The clearest route to scaling carbon markets is to penalise emissions using carbon border fees and reward low-carbon intensity products through the use of market instruments such as book-and-claim and environmental attribute certificates (EACs), according to a representative of a global commodities trading house.

Extreme heat - Peak temperatures would hit 45C in England, 41C in Wales, 38C in Scotland, and 30C in Northern Ireland under the Met Office's 2056 scenario at around 2.5C of plausible global warming. On the 50th anniversary of the legendary 1976 heatwave and as the country swelters in a heatwave, the projection paints a brutal picture of prolonged heat lasting two weeks, with nine consecutive days exceeding 40C somewhere in the UK. The Met Office issued 'a Red Extreme Heat National Severe Weather Warning' for parts of the UK on Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures this week forecast to shatter June records - bringing severe risks to health, infrastructure, energy, and water supplies. Average UK summers have warmed by about 1.4C since 1976, with even stronger extremes. The latest scenario underlines the need for urgent climate action to avert the worst cases of human-induced climate change, said the Met Office. (Express)

Climate NGO Carbon Gap has urged EU governments to set binding national targets for permanent carbon removal (CDR) under the bloc’s 2040 climate framework, warning that a single, EU‑wide net emissions goal will not deliver the volumes needed to reach net zero.

Kenya, a regional frontrunner in the race to attract carbon trading, took many in the market by surprise this month when it announced it would limit its Article 6 credit transfers despite already having a big existing project pipeline – in another sign of the uncertainties surrounding Sub-Saharan Africa’s up-and-coming carbon markets.

A German engineering company and a climate technology startup have partnered to scale Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems, with one named as the other’s preferred automation and digitalisation partner ahead of the inauguration of the country’s largest DAC facility in Berlin.

Direct exposure to carbon markets is limited for food and beverage manufacturers because most fall below emissions thresholds covered by compliance schemes, leading to investment decisions driven largely by fuel-credit programmes, tax incentives, and energy savings, according to a new report.

A new Finnish consortium aiming to scale up hydrogen adoption has been launched, seeking to unlock Finland’s €34 billion hydrogen market, announced a consortium member on Thursday.

The UK government needs to lean into the City of London's rise as a hub for global carbon trading, and help to harness existing financial infrastructure to strengthen global carbon markets, experts said on Wednesday.

Algeria pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 14% below business-as-usual levels by 2035, according to its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), with the country signalling its intent to use the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 cooperation mechanisms.

Companies across the EU and US could mobilise around $17 billion annually for climate action if they adopt the 'advanced' level of the Science Based Targets initiative’s ongoing emissions framework under its newly updated corporate standard, said Gold Standard on Thursday as it released a report setting out how such emissions could be dealt with. 

Good old times - Global natural gas markets are expected to begin stabilising in the third quarter as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Iran ceasefire restores energy flows, the secretary general of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) told Reuters. Benchmark crude fell to pre-war levels earlier today. Philip Mshelbila said gas prices and export volumes could return closer to pre-conflict levels by the fourth quarter, although Asian prices may remain elevated in the near term. He added that China's LNG demand would continue to grow despite expanding renewable energy and domestic gas production. Mshelbila also urged the European Union to delay implementing methane-based LNG import rules until globally coordinated standards are agreed.

Chinese multinational technology conglomerate Tencent has unveiled 16 winners for its global initiative designed to help promising climate solutions grow and scale.

Turkish delight – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $175.48 mln for Turkiye’s state-owned development and investment bank servicing municipalities, Iller Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (ILBANK). The cash will be used to support ILBANK’s Municipal Renewable Energy Transition Program, ADB said in a press release, which is designed to support the national goals to increase renewable capacity to 120 GW by 2035 and reach net zero by 2053. ADB noted that municipal buildings and utility services account for 31% of power consumption and 30% of GHG emissions across the country’s districts. Earlier this week, a Turkish official said that the country’s ETS will kick off its pilot phase this year, covering sectors subject to the EU’s CBAM – including electricity.