Announcing Carbon Forward Middle East – more details below.

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TOP STORY

UN biodiversity summit cut short amid delegate departures, but still scores successes

Sixteen hours on overtime the COP16 UN biodiversity talks in Colombia were abruptly suspended, after so many delegates left to catch flights that the meeting could no longer legally make decisions, though before that negotiators had approved a DSI fund and a special body for Indigenous Peoples.

FUTURE INVESTMENT INITIATIVE 2024

INTERVIEW – Global North compliance schemes should be open to Global South credits, says Kenyan DAC CEO

Compliance carbon markets in the Global North should be open to accepting high-quality carbon removal credits from Africa, with any argument to the contrary illogical, the CEO of a Kenyan direct air capture (DAC) project developer told Carbon Pulse.

AMERICAS

Panama imposes moratorium on forest carbon projects

Panama on Friday established a temporary moratorium on forest carbon projects and decided to apply state assessment procedures.

Argentine carbon markets bill centres national registry, empowers regulator

Argentina’s new carbon bill prescribes a revitalised national registry but defers key details regarding Article 6 and the voluntary market (VCM) to a domestic regulatory body, diverging from more explicit approaches seen in other Latin American countries.

Argentine congress debuts carbon markets bill -media

Argentina’s carbon industry organisation has partnered with members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate to present a carbon markets bill in both houses of the national legislature, according to local media.

RGGI emissions drop over 3% YoY in Q3, reversing year-to-date trend

Covered emissions under the RGGI regional power sector ETS fell over 3% year-on-year (YoY) in Q3, programme data showed Friday, following two prior quarters of precipitous growth.

CFTC: Financial entities build net CCA length ahead of Q4 auction, WCA holdings pick up as repeal vote nears

Financial entities increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings ahead of the final WCI quarterly auction, while Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) holdings rose amid expectations that a voter initiative to repeal the carbon market will fail at the Nov. 5 election.

US non-profit announces funding programme to advance field research on ERW

A US non-profit has announced a new funding programme offering grants of up to $200,000 to support research into enhanced rock weathering (ERW).

EMEA

PREVIEW: The climate tests awaiting EU commissioners-designate in Parliament hearings

From clean industrialisation, to money, to the justness of the energy transition, to the depth of emissions cuts — the two European Commission candidates most responsible for climate action are preparing to be grilled by parliamentarians on how they expect the EU’s next era of climate policy.

Most EU countries expected to fail under non-ETS obligations, need extra allocations

The majority of European countries are struggling to cut emissions from sectors outside of the EU ETS and risk needing extra permits, data shows.

INTERVIEW: German startup aims to take enhanced rock weathering from local to global

A German startup working with small farmers to remove carbon through enhanced rock weathering is planning to go global and launch its first projects outside Europe as soon as next year, its CEO told Carbon Pulse.

Azerbaijan boosts decarbonisation target, considers carbon tax -media

COP29 host Azerbaijan has boosted its decarbonisation target and is considering the introduction of a carbon tax, said ministers at an Azerbaijani conference, according to local media.

Euro Markets: EUAs lose 4.6% on the week after indecisive Friday sees all energy markets weaken

European carbon prices posted a 4.6% weekly loss after a day of indecision on Friday as energy markets weakened while traders waited for more information on reports that EU buyers were near to an agreement to buy gas from Azerbaijan, replacing lost volumes from Russia.

ASIA PACIFIC

Second Australian CBAM consultation considers starting with cement, lime, and clinker

Sectors including cement, lime, and clinker would likely be the first to be covered under an Australian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), according to a government paper published Friday, though no final decisions have been taken.

Korean PM unveils Hydrogen City plan, promises to become leader in liquid hydrogen shipping

South Korea has demarcated three areas for hydrogen development to support the clean fuel’s development as part of its Hydrogen Cities 2.0, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo confirmed Friday.

CN Markets: CEAs break new record again, prices likely above $14 until year end

Chinese carbon prices hit record highs again over the past week as the year-end compliance deadline draws near, with analysts expecting prices to stay well above the 100 yuan ($14.04) level throughout the rest of the year.

INTERNATIONAL

Climate adaptation significantly underfunded in low-income, low-emission countries -report

Climate finance flows from multilateral development banks (MDBs) are falling short on adaptation support for low-income, low-emission countries, according to a new report released on Thursday.

Climate damages have been underpriced within financial system, finds paper

Climate damages have been systematically underpriced within the global financial system, leading to a severe underestimation of the economic impact of global warming, according to a new paper presented Friday.

VOLUNTARY

Redesigning payments for forest conservation could boost cost-effectiveness, researchers find

New research suggests that redesigned contracts in forest conservation programmes could significantly reduce deforestation at a fraction of the usual cost.

BIODIVERSITY (FREE TO READ)

All our nature and biodiversity articles remain free to read (no subscription required). However, as of Oct. 24 we will require that all readers have a Carbon Pulse login to access this content in full. To get a login, sign up for a free trial of our news. If you’ve already had a trial, then you already have a login.

Biodiversity Pulse: Saturday November 2, 2024

A twice-weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

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EVENTS

*NEW* Carbon Forward Middle East – Jan. 16-17, Abu Dhabi – Announcing Carbon Forward Middle East in Abu Dhabi, a great new event to explore carbon markets in the MENA region. We’ll be releasing more details about this conference soon. For now, put Jan. 16-17 in your calendar and email info@carbon-forward.com to express interest in attending, speaking, or sponsoring.

Supercritical Webinar – Defining Biochar Quality – Nov. 5, 0900 EST (1400 GMT) – Essential insights for an impact-driven carbon removal strategy. Join Supercritical and panelists from Puro.earth, Isometric, and Exomad Green for this expert-led webinar. In the rapidly evolving landscape of carbon removal, biochar stands out as a method with immense potential. But not all biochar is created equal, and the lack of standardisation makes understanding quality critical for companies committed to having real climate impact. In this webinar, you’ll learn from industry leaders about the characteristics that set superior biochar apart, the tools and methodologies for quality assessment, and emerging trends shaping the future of biochar. Register

Calyx Webinar – How to buy high-quality carbon credits – Nov. 6, 1100 EST (1600 GMT): Buying quality carbon credits in today’s carbon market can feel like an obstacle course full of hurdles and roadblocks, but despite challenges, many sustainability leaders have done this successfully. We gathered experienced carbon market participants from across industries to share their processes, advice and secrets to success. If you’re purchasing carbon credits in the next six months, this is a discussion you won’t want to miss. Register here. If you register but cannot attend live, you will receive an on-demand recording after the webinar.

cCarbon’s Canada Clean Fuels and Carbon Markets Summit 2024 – Nov. 7, Toronto: Canada’s clean fuels and carbon markets face significant uncertainty as policy, regulatory, and market dynamics evolve. To provide clarity, cCarbon is hosting modeling-driven Canada Clean Fuels and Carbon Markets Summit in Toronto for businesses and investors navigating this landscape. The event will begin with a plenary session focused on policy, followed by two specialized tracks exploring clean fuels and carbon markets in depth. With over 40 experts sharing insights and nearly 200 business leaders and regulators in attendance, this summit offers an exceptional networking and learning opportunity for anyone interested in Canadian energy and environmental markets! Find out more

European Industrial Carbon Management Summit – Dec. 5, Brussels: The Zero Emissions Platform flagship event will bring together industry leaders, policymakers, civil society and scientific experts to discuss the future of industrial carbon management across Europe. Get ready for insightful keynotes, case studies from pioneering projects, and panel discussions on the deployment of industrial carbon management technologies. The Summit is the perfect space to connect with peers working at the forefront of industrial decarbonisation. Registrations are now open – do not miss your chance to be part of the conversation. 

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SURVEY

CDR.fyi has launched the first-ever durable Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Pricing Survey to gather insights on pricing perceptions within the CDR industry. The survey, open from Oct. 28 to Nov. 22, targets both purchasers and suppliers of durable CDR with separate versions for each. It covers 15 CDR methods, including biochar carbon removal, DAC, and mineralisation, and is aimed at gauging optimal pricing and acceptable price ranges for various methods. The survey aims to determine the prices purchasers are willing to pay, the pricing suppliers need to expand operations, and demand signals across methods for 2025 and 2030. Responses will remain confidential, with data reported in aggregate and accessed only by non-conflicted team members. Results will be published post-survey, with a full report available to survey respondents and CDR.fyi premium users. The initiative seeks to provide essential pricing benchmarks to support carbon removal market growth.

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Premium job listings

• Chief Commercial Officer, CarbonPool – Zurich
• Business Development, Carbon Markets (Market Intelligence), RepuTex Energy – Melbourne

See all listings or post a job

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

INVESTMENT

Look east – Climeworks, a Swiss company operating the world’s largest carbon capture plant, is in advanced discussions with Hong Kong investors to fund large-scale projects costing $2-3 bln, SCMP reports. These projects, which involve pioneering technology, demand investors with long-term outlooks, according to co-founder Christoph Gebald. The company has explored collaboration with a Chinese energy company to develop projects in Inner Mongolia and has secured carbon removal commitments from firms like Boston Consulting Group, Morgan Stanley, and UBS. With backing from the likes of Carbon Removal Partners, M&G, and Swiss Re, Climeworks raised $650 mln in 2022, pushing its valuation above $1 bln. Its Iceland plant captures 2,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, with a larger 10,000-tonne plant set to open soon and a 200,000-tonne project in the US under consideration. Climeworks aims to capture 2 Mt annually by 2030 and 1 bln tonnes by 2050. It said it is seeing growing corporate interest in carbon capture as a strategic investment rather than a purely image-enhancing initiative.

AMERICAS

Self-driving trucks delayed in Texas – The self-driving truck company Aurora Innovation said it has pushed starting the next phase of its trucking operations from April to later this year, E&E News reported. The company said on its Oct. 30 earnings call that its plans to start driving its driverless trucks between Houston and Dallas were delayed to complete testing. The company has been testing its trucks with safety drivers in the cab as it pilots its full driverless capabilities. Aurora executives said they expect to begin operating with a ratio of ten trucks under the guidance of a single remote assistant by the end of 2025, according to the earnings call.

Tribal support – The US Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday unveiled the Tribal Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Working Group, administered by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) to inform pathways to assist Tribal decarbonisation efforts and utilisation of their natural resources. DOE’s technical assistance will support Tribes’ economic development, provide workforce training, and help Tribal technical capacity to foster economic and community development opportunities. This marks the fourth working group the DOE has established to collaborate with Tribes. As a next step, FECM plans to convene representatives of the participating Tribes for a series of virtual information briefings across these identified priorities to prepare for the first formal meeting of the working group in 2025.

Whatever it takes – Green politicians from across Europe on Friday called on US Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to withdraw from the race for the White House and endorse Democrat nominee Vice President Kamala Harris instead, Politico reported. Stein is on the ballot in almost every critical US state and polls between 1.1-1.4%, meaning her candidacy could cost Harris critical votes in the tight race for the White House. But with voters heading to the polls as soon as Nov. 5 — and the relationship between Europe’s Greens and Stein’s party strained, the plea seems unlikely to sway her. There are divergent values and policies between the European and US Greens, according to Friday’s statement from the European Greens, including on key issues such as Russia’s assault on Ukraine.

A win for Brazilian sugarcane producers – The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved a bill (PL 3149/20) that will allow sugarcane producers who supply materials to biofuel producers to share proceeds from the generation of CBios. CBios are tradable commodities equivalent to one tonne of carbon often purchased by fuel distributors looking to reach their decarbonisation targets. Sugarcane producers’ share will be 60% of the revenue generated from the sale of the credits, although that share could be higher depending on the biofuel product, according to Camara Dos Deputados. This benefit-sharing proposal was originally crafted in a deal struck earlier this year between sugarcane producer unions and agribusiness.

Now, maybe? – The Brazilian National Congress intends to vote on its long-awaited flagship ETS regulation before COP29, which will take place from Nov. 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The goal is for Brazil to arrive at the event with the bill already approved, according to Folha de S. Paulo. The bill, passed by the Chamber of Deputies in Dec. 2022, has languished in the Senate in 2024 following back-and-forth between the two congressional houses that saw the Deputies re-approve the bill in Dec. 2023. The bill’s Senate rapporteur, Leila Barros (PDT-DF), has reportedly already had talks with the rapporteur in the Chamber, Aliel Machado (PV-PR), to arrive at a wording that pleases both houses and speeds up approval. In June, Beatriz Soares, coordinator of green finance for the Brazilian Ministry of Development, had said that the government was hoping for final passage of the ETS bill by the end of this year.

Not the star – Colombia’s environment ministry has released its regulatory agenda for 2025, and the COP16 presidency’s biodiversity plans appear to have eclipsed greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Of 29 items, two – environmental and social safeguarding for carbon projects, and rules for Paris Agreement Article 6 tranfers – appear to address GHGs directly. The regulatory agenda’s release comes amid cross-ministerial proposals to nearly triple Colombia’s carbon tax and plans to finally launch the country’s ETS in an ‘enrolment’ phase in 2025.

ASIA PACIFIC

More data, please – New Zealand’s Ministry for Environment published a literature review of carbon estimates for wetland vegetation in the country. It said total above-ground density, live and dead plant material combined, in herbaceous classes ranged from 4.82 – 27.16 Mg C ha, while the above-ground carbon density of mangroves were 31.58 tonnes of carbon per hectare. However, the report said its estimation of carbon stocks were highly uncertain, because the data available from the literature review were fragmentary, particularly for wood vegetation types, belowground pools, and coastal ecosystems. It recommended collecting new, empirical estimates of vegetation carbon stocks paired with an unbiased survey of vegetated wetlands.

New partnership – JERA Nex, a renewable arm of Japan’s largest power producer JERA, has formed a strategic partnership with Catalyst Energy Partners to accelerate clean energy deployment in the US, it announced Friday. The companies will work to develop renewable projects alongside conventional power plants to utilise existing grid infrastructure.

Biochar project – Tokyo-based project developer Ocean Inc has formed a consortium with Indonesia’s PT Enviro Misi Global for biofuel production and carbon credit project using waste from landfills, according to a statement released this week. Their project will utilise around 60,000 tonnes of organic waste every year to produce roughly 20,000 tonnes of biochar. The facility is set to start operation in 2027.

VOLUNTARY

Conflicts of climate interest – A new report reveals significant potential ‘conflicts of climate interest’ when it comes to clients held by the Big Six PR and advertising agency holding companies — Dentsu, Havas, IPG, Publicis, Omnicom, and WPP. For example, often clients of the same holding company have opposing objectives in their climate policy advocacy, such as WPP-owned agencies that represent both the Clean Energy Council, a renewable energy advocate, and Woodside and Senex, two Australian oil and gas companies that have lobbied to weaken renewable energy policies. The research by InfluenceMap found that  ‘Green’ clients – defined as those advocating in alignment with Paris Agreement goals in their climate policy engagement – make up the minority of clients for all holding companies except Havas. The research stressed that advertising and PR are key tools used by corporate interests to influence climate policy, which is especially true for companies in the fossil fuel value chain. It also found obstructive climate policy engagement to be particularly prevalent in the energy (oil/gas, renewables) production and automotive sectors. The report recommends these service providers assess their work and clients through the lens of climate performance, including corporate advocacy on climate policies.

Grace period given – Verra announced Friday that it is extending the grace period for ARR projects that are currently under validation in the VCS programme using either two CDM methodologies (AR-ACM0003 or AR-AMS0007). Verra previously announced that all projects using the methodologies must complete validation by December 28, 2024, as they are being replaced by VM0047. The standard said that projects using the CDM methodologies with a status of “under validation” must complete validation no later than June 30, 2025. Additionally, all new ARR projects and those in the pipeline that did not reach the status “pipeline listing requested (under validation)” (or beyond) by December 28, 2023, must use VM0047.

Let’s talk about LPG – Gold Standard is considering expanding its carbon credit eligibility to include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stoves, a potential shift that it said could benefit low-income communities but also raise environmental concerns – mainly via “locking in” emissions from continued fossil fuel use. Currently, LPG stove projects can only receive credits for efficiency gains, not for reduced GHG emissions. The proposed change would allow credits for both, acknowledging LPG’s lower emissions compared to traditional stoves, while imposing safeguards to prevent long-term fossil fuel dependency. The proposal outlines a phased approach, with full crediting allowed until 2035, limited crediting through 2040, and a complete phase-out thereafter. Public input is sought on the health benefits of LPG, the adequacy of these safeguards, and the feasibility of transitioning to renewable cooking options after the phase-out.  Feedback is being collected until Nov. 28.

AND FINALLY…

Lighting up the dark – London’s Tube could partly be powered by solar energy under new plans by Transport for London (TFL) to establish solar farms to power the vast underground network. Locations of these solar farms are yet to be identified but will likely be close to the network and could include rooftop solar panels. The initiative is part of TFL’s broader ambition to use 100% renewable electricity across its operations by 2030. TfL is the largest electricity consumer in London, with demand of about 1.6TWh per year — equivalent to the electricity consumed by around 420,000 homes. It estimates that solar farms could provide up to 64 MW of clean energy – about 5% of the electricity needed to run the Tube. TFL is inviting bidders to help deliver purpose-built solar PV farms for the network, and is also converting lighting across its network to LEDs. (Evening Standard)

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