The UK's largest biomass power plant - the Drax biomass station - was the country's heaviest emitter for the 11th year running in 2025, with record emissions of 14.1 million tonnes of CO2e, according to analysis by a think tank.

The UK government has struck an initial deal to extend the life of an existing nuclear power plant by 20 years, which it says will ensure large volumes of clean electricity and skilled jobs. 

Climate in court - A submission by the London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute to the UN Special Rapporteur argued that courts have several tools for climate cases, but direct emissions-cutting orders against governments or companies remain rare and difficult to secure due to separation-of-powers concerns, judicial capacity limits, and scientific complexity. The July 8 submission said courts have been more willing to require governments to strengthen climate governance frameworks, improve legislation, and incorporate climate considerations into existing administrative processes such as environmental impact assessments, while business and human rights claims based on duty-of-care and polluter-pays principles may offer a path for corporate accountability and compensation. The submission also said judges need more sustained climate training, while climate lawyers face growing pressure from anti-climate backlash, deregulation, shrinking civic and judicial space, SLAPPs, harassment, and violence.

A climate strategy that scales carbon removal (CDR) alongside rapid emissions cuts could reach net zero CO2 seven years earlier than pathways that prioritise either removals or decarbonisation alone, but would face a major geological storage constraint, according to a recent study.

Spain, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden on Wednesday called for a stronger EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), including aligning the ETS’ annual emissions cap with the bloc’s 2040 climate goal of reducing net emissions by 90%.

The European Parliament on Wednesday blocked a European Commission proposal that would have stripped soy-based biofuels of their renewable status.

The European Commission remains divided over whether to include emissions from departing flights in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) as part of the upcoming overhaul of the bloc’s carbon market, an official said Wednesday.

June saw the durable CDR market consolidate as developers digested an announcement from the Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) that will see a demand boost in the long term, as monthly contracted tonnes fell to around 350,000 tonnes in deals.

European carbon prices fell sharply on Wednesday as the European Commission announced some details of its reform package that suggested a boost in supply from as early as next year, after earlier having posted modest increases despite US President Donald Trump announcing that the ceasefire with Iran was over.

French fossil ad ban – France will enforce a ban on advertising imported fossil fuels by end‑2026, five years after adopting its Climate and Resilience Act, which has remained dormant without a decree. The announcement was made on Tuesday, during the government’s update on its electrification plan. Green groups say the long‑delayed measure is weak and falls short of their proposed Evin-style climate law that would broadly restrict fossil‑linked marketing, including SUVs and air travel. Regulators are also targeting GRDF’s “green gas” biomethane campaigns, warning they blur the line with fossil gas at a time when green gas covers only 3.2% of French consumption. (Le Monde)

A proposed Kenya land restoration and renewable biomass initiative could advance into carbon project development if a new feasibility assessment finds it technically and commercially viable, a Canada-based carbon offset provider said on Wednesday.

Investment into GHG capture technologies shrunk 49% year-on-year (YoY) in the first six months of 2026, finds a new report.

A Singapore-based price assessment platform has linked up with a futures exchange to ease trading hedging risk in carbon markets, it was announced Wednesday.

The European Commission is weighing whether to give international carbon credits a narrow, delayed role in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) after 2035, as senior officials insist they will not be allowed as standard compliance units for regulated companies.

Grid solution - UK-based Axle Energy, an energy flexibility platform that turns EV chargers, batteries, and heat pumps into grid-balancing capacity, has raised $25 mln in Series A funding, it announced on Wednesday. The company’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform enables manufacturers, utilities, and fleet operators to connect EV chargers, batteries, and heat pumps to electricity markets. Axle currently coordinates more than 300,000 connected assets and manages more than 2 GW of connected capacity, comparable in scale to a nuclear power plant. The funding will support Axle's expansion across the UK and international markets. Axle estimates there are 75 mln eligible energy assets across Europe and the US, representing around 375 GW of potential capacity.

Great British solar - The UK government has approved the country's second largest solar farm, and its 30th nationally significant clean energy project in the two years under PM Keir Starmer, DESNZ announced on Wednesday. The 50-plus-MW One Earth Solar Farm's developers say the project could power over 200,000 homes a year. Its approval comes a week after the government OK'd the Peartree Hill and Dean Moor solar farms, too. The UK saw its strongest solar deployment on record in 2025, with 269,000 installations, according to recent government data.

EU supervisors should require banks to hold extra capital against fossil fuel and other high-carbon lending, as climate-related financial risks remain underpriced, according to a report released Tuesday.

Norway is seeking public views on whether it should ask to extend the EU's incoming ETS2 for road transport and heating fuels.

EU grows cooler - The EU's energy use for cooling has steadily increased in recent years as temperatures have warmed, roughly doubling to 80.4 TJ in 2024, from 40.5 in 2018, according to the European Commission. Energy use for cooling increased every year in that period except in 2020 and 2023. Italy, Spain, and Greece are the biggest energy users for space cooling, although Cyprus and Malta have the highest shares of energy used for cooling in final household consumption.

The European Commission will propose a targeted amendment to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) next week that is expected to provide industry with an additional €6 billion worth of free carbon allowances over the 2026-30 period, while outlining other elements of the reform meant to give more leeway for industries to continue emitting into the 2040s, also clarifying that some 400 million permits as part of an 'Investment Booster' will not be monetised by the bloc.

Germany’s emissions from power and industrial plants covered by the EU ETS fell by 3.2% in 2025, as weaker industrial output and reduced lignite-fired power generation outweighed higher hard coal and gas use, a German government report published Tuesday said.

The European Commission is overhauling its pilot auction for industrial heat decarbonisation, after last year's first round drew strong interest on paper but ended up using less than half of its €1 billion budget – a result Brussels now frames as a warning for the future EU Industrial Decarbonisation Bank.

A Qatar-based voluntary standard has become the latest body to integrate an industry-led carbon capture and storage (CCS) framework into its crediting programme.

An Irish native woodland restoration project has entered independent third-party validation under the Origin Xero Carbon Programme, marking another step towards the issuance of what its developer says will be verified domestic carbon credits and highlighting progress in Ireland's nascent voluntary carbon market.

Two tenders have been published for carbon credits under the UN's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) on behalf of Asian airlines searching for 614,000 tonnes of CO2e.

Governments should delegate control over carbon pricing to independent climate institutions modelled on central banks in order to insulate long-term emissions policy from electoral cycles and provide greater certainty for investors.

The two registries that will operate the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 mechanism will be operational by the end of this year, the UNFCCC said Tuesday.

Climate researchers have proposed a new way of interpreting the Paris Agreement's commitment to keep global warming "well below 2C", arguing that the widely used practice of expressing the target as a probability of staying below the threshold could gradually weaken climate ambition as scientific uncertainty declines.

Environmental groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have called on the government to halt its proposed carbon market legislation, warning that the draft law risks undermining existing governance reforms and investor confidence by advancing without sufficient consultation.

An international advisory company and think tank announced on Tuesday a new scenario-based simulation model to help governments designing their own carbon market frameworks.