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.

Front lines - Residents of Ascension Parish, Louisiana, are relieved that the CO2 pipeline and storage project by chemicals company Air Products has been cancelled, local news Verite reported on Wednesday. Parents that were interviewed expressed concern about the health impacts of a CO2 pipeline leak, particularly on children. Many embarked on a pressure campaign on Air Products’ business partners, though leaders in parish government expressed disappointment that the project will no longer go through.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) futures edged slightly higher over the last week but remained in recent ranges as the market continued to be quiet, traders said.

RGGI Allowances (RGAs) pulled back on Thursday from a mid-week spike to the upper $40s as the power price surge that drove the rise reversed course, with RGA futures returning to previous levels in the $45 range.

Projects for more than 20 GW of new capacity from solar, wind, and battery storage have been cancelled during the second Trump administration, according to an economic analysis released by a US-based nonpartisan business group on Thursday.

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.

Plug-in solar stride - New Hampshire has become the latest state to approve a law establishing guidelines for plug-in solar devices, reported the New Hampshire Bulletin. Governor Kelly Ayotte (R) signed the bill (SB 540) last week, which caps the technology at one unit per metred customer, with a maximum power output for each device of 1,200 watts. It also requires balcony solar installed in the state to comply with safety standards set by a national testing laboratory, while the New Hampshire Department of Energy is tasked with communicating rules and requirements for balcony solar to the public. Three other New England states, namely Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut, have also approved regulations for plug-in solar, while nearby Massachusetts and Rhode Island are also considering similar measures.

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.

Canada’s sustainable finance taxonomy would include a separate category for select oil and gas emissions-reduction investments, setting up a later fight over guardrails for fossil fuel-related projects seeking climate-aligned finance, according to a draft published this week.

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.

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.

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.

Green lawyers - UK law firm Shoosmiths has signed a five-year pre purchase forward offtake agreement for carbon removal credits provided through the firm Carbonaires. The credits are sourced from HUSK, a women-led biochar producer operating in Cambodia and Vietnam. After reducing its operational footprint by over 70% across Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2 emissions, Shoosmiths net operational emissions are zero after this deal. But the law firm does not yet claim to be net zero because it has not yet reached the 90% reduction threshold. Every credit is monitored through Carbonaires’ digital-twin, real-time tracking, and retired with full end-to-end traceability via Carbonaires’ integration with Carbonplace, from issuance through to retirement, the company said.

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.

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.

Build green - California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 1350 into law on Monday, expanding the use of green hydrogen. The bill takes effect immediately after sailing through the state Senate and Assembly with near-unanimous approval. Green hydrogen will be accepted as a transition fuel for natural gas power plants in the state, to help California achieve its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), a 100% renewable energy by 2045 goal. SB 1350 explicitly allows natural gas plants using green hydrogen to qualify as clean energy sources for RPS credit. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power already plans to retrofit several of its natural gas plants to run off renewable hydrogen fuel by 2045, according to CalMatters. The bill was supported by the Green Hydrogen Coalition and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. (Fuel Cell Works)

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.

Colombia’s incoming environment minister has pledged to revive the country’s carbon market by reversing key policies introduced under the outgoing administration, including a cap on the use of carbon credits to offset the national carbon tax and controversial draft regulations governing carbon projects.

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.