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.

Adaptation opportunities - The UK's Government Office for Science published a study on Thursday about the country's economic opportunities within climate adaptation efforts. The UK could capture between £154-355 bln of a projected £3.5 trillion global climate adaptation market over the next decade, according to the report.  Insurance and reinsurance, climate risk modelling, and professional advisory services could drive £70-230 bln by 2035. The study identified 648 adaptation-related goods and services already offered by UK firms, while warning that government action will be needed to overcome barriers and secure a leading position in the fast-growing market.

UK-US tensions - The UK's plan to tackle illegal deforestation and align its policy on the issue with that of the EU is causing tensions with the US, E&E News reported. The UK plan would require British businesses trading in certain commodities, including beef, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood, to show their products are not linked to illegal deforestation, similar to the EU's anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) set to go into effect towards the end of 2026. The Trump administration has been a vocal critic of the EUDR.

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.

The UK's departure from the EU ETS and creation of a standalone domestic carbon market in Britain did not produce a statistically significant change in regulated companies' emissions during 2021-23, according to new research that adds evidence to the debate over linking the two schemes.

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.

A Canadian carbon offset provider is stepping into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) by opening a registry account in Spain, as part of the company's growth into Europe, it announced on Thursday.

A US carbon capture technology developer and a Danish thermal systems engineering company have agreed to standardise molten salt tank systems, aiming to make carbon capture projects more modular and easier to deploy for heavy industry.

European Energy Exchange (EEX) reported strong growth in environmental markets during the first half of 2026, driven by a sharp increase in secondary emissions trading.

EU carbon ended Thursday unchanged on the day, maintaining its largely rangebound trading as the market continued to focus on the upcoming ETS reform package, while energy markets reacted to the military escalation in the Middle East.

A European Parliament vote on revising the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has left major loopholes unresolved for the aluminium sector, the industry’s trade association has warned, calling for the scheme to be suspended unless the issues are fixed.

Evidence library - Isometric has launched a new feature that consolidates all project evidence into a centralised view within its platform, aiming to simplify carbon project verification and improve transparency, it said Thursday. The interface brings together documents, sensor data, calculations, images, and other supporting evidence in one place, allowing suppliers, auditors, and reviewers to quickly trace how certification decisions are made. The registry's new Evidence Library is organised by project requirements and linked directly to specific claims, reducing time spent searching across multiple files and improving consistency during validation. The update is designed to streamline project reviews, strengthen auditability and support faster, more reliable certification of carbon projects

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 Turkish court decided this week to annul an environmental impact assessment for Turkiye's last coal-fired power project, in a win for climate campaigners who argued the assessment had failed to properly study the plant's cumulative impact.

The European Commission published draft rules on the sale and repurchase of certificates accepted under the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on Thursday, which will be open for feedback for four weeks.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) found no significant concerns over the transparency or integrity of the EU carbon market, in an annual report published Thursday, despite auction participation remaining heavily concentrated among a small number of companies.

Nordic Quality - Nefco, the Nordic Green Bank, is seeking feedback on how to develop a framework, called Nordic Quality, for companies and investors to engage in international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Nordic Quality aims to provide a shared Nordic reference point by translating values such as transparency, trust and sustainable development into practical principles for high-integrity carbon market cooperation.

Conditionalities for free carbon allowances should not be overly prescriptive or based on rigid investment requirements, according to a think tank headquartered in Berlin.

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

A Swiss renewable energy company has injected its first biomethane into the Italian gas grid, marking the start of the company's expansion into renewable gas. 

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.

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has the resources, EU support, and investor appetite to speed up its renewables buildout, but weak political direction is still holding back parts of the region, experts told Carbon Pulse.

JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker that is under threat of legal action by an environmental group, is stepping back from a 2040 net zero emissions goal.

Brussels is set to propose a plan to electrify the bloc's economy that would require EU member states to devote a greater share of carbon market revenues to industrial decarbonisation, according to a leaked draft of the forthcoming Electrification Action Plan, which still leaves its headline 2040 electrification target undecided.

The European Commission is weighing the creation of a central purchasing authority for carbon removal units entering the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), a move supported by environmentalists, but which also has drawbacks.

EU's CRCF made easy –  CRCFProjects.com has partnered with SyndicatedCarbon to make the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) easier to follow for market participants, the founders announced on social media. The independent platform offers live updates on the EU CRCF, through the day and a searchable directory of CRCF projects, by method, country, developer and status. Founder Maximilian Venhofen said the EU CRCF is hard to keep up with, and described CRCFProjects as “an independent, plain language way to see what's real, what's coming, and what it means”.

French heat pump scheme – France has launched a heat-pump leasing scheme aimed at helping low-income households swap fossil-fuel heating for air-to-water heat pumps. The programme covers installation, maintenance, electricity and financing, with households paying no more than their previous heating bill for three years. The scheme is designed for individual homes and can be used by companies, consortiums, banks, insurers and energy suppliers. It is open from July 7, 2026 to May 1, 2027. Full details here.

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.

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.

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.