Blue carbon boost - Solomon Islands Environment Minister Wayne Osopo Ghemu called for stronger national policies to support blue carbon financing at a UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Committee on Environment and Development event in Bangkok, where ESCAP and the Landscape Alliance launched a Regional Learning and Exchange Platform on Blue Carbon Finance. Ghemu said governments need clearer legal frameworks, stronger scientific and technical capacity, more innovative financing tools, and people-centred approaches that include Indigenous Peoples and coastal communities as partners in projects protecting and restoring mangroves, seagrass meadows, and tidal wetlands.

Microsoft's greenhouse gas output rose 25% in fiscal year 2025 as the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure drove higher emissions across its value chain, but the technology giant reiterated its commitment to become carbon negative by 2030 through a combination of operational decarbonisation and one of the world's largest CO2 removal (CDR) procurement programmes.

Perusing public dollars - The national development banks (NDBs) of G20 nations average roughly $36 bln annually in clean energy finance, larger than the international public finance from those nations and the multilateral development banks combined at $29 bln, according to analysis published Thursday by Oil Change International of 2016-2024 data. The advocacy organisation said that NDBs could provide an additional $28 bln for the just energy transition annually, if all NDB fossil fuel and other energy finance was shifted to support the buildout of affordable renewable energy systems. The organisation based its analysis in data from the Public Finance for Energy Database.

Revenue recycling mechanisms such as direct household rebates, tax cuts, and visible environmental investments are the most effective way to increase public support for carbon pricing policies, according to a systematic review published this week by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), which also found that how carbon prices are communicated can significantly influence public acceptance.

Mining goals - A former chief economist at mining giant BHP has called for governments to adopt stronger climate policies, including a robust carbon price, arguing that voluntary corporate commitments are insufficient to drive deep industrial decarbonisation. Huw McKay, now a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, told the Guardian newspaper that an effective carbon price would encourage mining companies to invest more quickly in cutting emissions from hard-to-abate operations. His comments follow leaked internal BHP documents revealing the company delayed or cancelled several decarbonisation initiatives, including major renewable energy projects in the Pilbara, fleet electrification plans, and a low-emissions ironmaking project.

Voluntary carbon certification body Gold Standard has published two new methodologies on Thursday as it continues to align its crediting programme with the principles of the Paris Agreement.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced $900 million in new commitments to expand clean cooking in Africa, unveiled alongside its Clean Cooking in Africa 2026 report.

A new digital carbon registry has launched, aiming to bring building decarbonisation projects into carbon markets.

Europe dominates worldwide sustainability performance due to its progress on energy transition and other areas, but still few countries are on track to meet the global goal of achieving net zero by 2050, according to an index published Thursday.

A substantial volume of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) were retired in June, according to data released by the Clean Energy Regulator, doubling the amount of credits retired in the first half of 2026, year-on-year.

A Tokyo‑based digital measurement, reporting, and verification (dMRV) software developer on Thursday set up a consortium to develop methodologies for recognising transport emissions reduction results as tradable "environmental value".

Go wild - Australian biofuel tech company Wildfire Energy has received A$18.56 mln ($12.8 mln) from the Queensland state government to support a new project in Brisbane. Funding was sourced via the A$180.6 mln Sovereign Industry Development Fund, with the cash to go towards establishing a waste-to-energy biogas project, with future stages to unlock sustainable aviation fuel, the government said. It follows the company earlier this week receiving A$2.3 mln from companies including Qantas and Airbus to go towards the development. Wildfire has developed a novel gasification technology that converts unprocessed waste into synthetic gas that can be used for power, heating, and low-carbon fuels.  

An Indian carbon project developer is deploying bioacoustic monitoring across its agroforestry projects, betting that hard data on biodiversity can convince cautious corporate buyers to enter the voluntary carbon market.

South Korean companies are scrambling to invest in new offset projects in anticipation of rising domestic carbon prices, according to an expert.

China has the potential to become a major buyer in the global carbon credit market as its emission trading scheme evolves, a conference heard Thursday.

SAF deal - Pertamina has signed an MoU with airplane-maker Boeing to jointly advance the development of Indonesia's sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry, the state-owned oil and natural gas corporation said. Through this collaboration, the two companies will explore opportunities across the SAF ecosystem. The agreement will include identifying potential feedstock sources and developing technologies to support policy frameworks that will accelerate the implementation of policies and help drive Indonesia’s aviation sector toward net zero emissions.  

Adding "co-benefit premiums" to carbon markets to reward nature-based climate projects that deliver measurable adaptation, biodiversity, and social benefits alongside carbon sequestration, could redirect investment towards higher-impact projects that are currently overlooked.

Tokens - Thai conglomerate CP Group has partnered with the Mae Fah Luang Foundation to tokenise forest carbon credits, with the pilot project expected to generate around 10,000 credits, the Bangkok Post reported. CP has committed THB 30 mln ($930,000) to purchase the tokens, which will initially be available through the TrueMoney app for consumers to offset emissions from travel and daily consumption. The pilot covers forest across Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Tak provinces, with plans to expand the model and develop a fully tokenised system, subject to regulatory approval, the report said.

A group of German researchers has proposed a new framework for classifying carbon offset projects based on the underlying mechanisms by which they reduce or remove greenhouse gases, arguing that existing taxonomies obscure important differences in project quality and accounting approaches while lumping together fundamentally different activities.

Singapore sovereign investor Temasek recorded 7% year-on-year growth in its sustainability portfolio value to S$49 billion ($37.8 bln) and opted to maintain its focus on enabling carbon market solutions as a pillar of its net zero goal, according to financial year-end figures published on Wednesday.

Wealthy countries inflated the 'true value' of climate finance they provided to low- and middle-income countries in 2024 by about $100 billion, with some 65% of the total delivered as loans, many on market terms, according to a non-profit.