NGMI - A representative from Occidental Petroleum’s carbon removal arm has warned that direct air capture (DAC) startups will struggle to scale without moving beyond traditional financing models. Speaking at BloombergNEF’s Houston summit, 1PointFive President Anthony Cottone said lenders seek long-term revenue certainty, while voluntary carbon market buyers are reluctant to sign lengthy contracts. He noted that sequestration firms bear disproportionate risk with limited upside, creating “asymmetric risk” that hampers growth. Cottone suggested that an integrated approach, where one entity owns the full chain from capture to storage, could be more viable, and added that a shift from voluntary markets to a regulatory framework with mandates would support investment. Occidental’s 1PointFive is developing what is set to be the world’s largest DAC plant in Texas, designed to remove 500,000 tonnes of CO2 annually once it begins operation at the end of this year. The company sees DAC as a way to boost growth in its core oil and gas business. (Bloomberg)

An ocean-based CO2 removal (CDR) provider announced on Thursday a custom-built tool to expand its measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) deep underwater, according to a press release.

Joining together in Japan - London-headquartered Carbon market intelligence firm Abatable and Tokyo-based information provider Exroad announced Wednesday to expand carbon credit procurement services and boost information access in Japan. Through the partnership, Exroad will leverage Abatable’s comprehensive global pricing benchmarks, which cover 10,000 projects across multiple carbon registries, delivering them to its network of Japanese buyers and intermediaries. In return, Abatable will gain increased visibility in the country's market and access to procurement insights. The partnership will also include regular knowledge-sharing sessions on evolving market dynamics, policy developments, and procurement opportunities in Japan.

Stax on stacks - California-based Stax Engineering, a startup capturing shipping vessels' emissions, announced Thursday its plan to expand its UK operations with an investment of up to £38 mln across the country's ports. Building on a partnership with Associated British Ports (ABP) Southampton, Stax said it is in discussions with Harwich Haven Authority to help meet growing demand for flexible, immediate emissions reduction solutions. The company raised $70 mln earlier this year.

A US renewable fuels producer announced Thursday that it has partnered with a bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) developer to commercialise $26 million worth of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits generated at its North Dakota ethanol plant.

The number of participants in Washington's cap-and-invest programme breached the 200 mark as a few general market entities joined the programme and account holdings increased, Department of Ecology (ECY) reports showed.

Rally against RGGI - The Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus - the state chapter of a national group that backs conservative state legislators - has listed pulling out of regional power sector ETS as a condition required to reach a final deal on the state budget, SpotlightPA reported. Budget talks are being held up primarily by issues around transportation funding, with the impasse heading towards a third month. Democrats hold the governorship and the state's House of Representatives, while Republicans hold a majority in the Senate. A previous court decision striking down Pennsylvania's RGGI participation remains in litigation.

The alternative investments arm of a global asset management giant has acquired a stake in a newly-launched nature-based solutions firm developing carbon credit projects from the restoration of peatlands in the US.

Getting prepared – The Swiss consultancy SGS is preparing an “EUDR certificate” for agri-producers to attest that companies are in compliance with the regulation. The expectation is to offer this solution to clients by 30 Dec., when large companies will have to prove that soy, cocoa, beef, and four other commodities have not been produced in deforested areas since 2020. In an interview with AgFeed, Julio Natalense, sustainability business development manager for SGS in Latin America, noted that the EU has not yet established a standard framework for producers to follow.

Problem (almost) solved - The US bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus unveiled a permitting reform framework on Thursday aimed at accelerating energy project approvals, though no legislation has been drafted, The Hill reported. The proposal seeks to curb lawsuits that delay projects, shorten legal challenges to as little as 150 days, and require the US DOE to decide on power line applications within 90 days, with some lines deemed in the national interest. It would also streamline nuclear approvals, expand geothermal development, and restrict states from blocking projects in their waters. While the caucus framed the plan as a balance of energy demand, cost reduction, and environmental stewardship, its path through Congress remains uncertain, particularly in the Senate, where restrictions on renewables led by the Trump administration have become a sticking point.

Gust of trouble - Connecticut and Rhode Island asked a federal judge Wednesday to block the Trump administration’s stop-work order on the nearly complete Revolution Wind project off New England, E&E News reported. The Orsted- and BlackRock-backed development, halted in August when it was about 80% finished, includes 65 turbines. The states argued in their motion for a preliminary injunction that the Interior Department’s order was issued without warning or justification, with Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha warning that there is no time to waste getting the project back online.

From branches to ranches – The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has allocated $1 mln to the Southwestern North Carolina Resource Conservation & Development Council to convert trees that were downed by Hurricane Helene into biochar and spread that on farmland damaged by storm. Hurricane Helene devastated more than 800,000 acres (324,000 hectares) of forestland across western North Carolina, leaving behind debris that increases wildfire risk and erosion. In an effort to avoid overloading landfill capacity, the DEQ hopes to use the mobile technology to convert the surplus biomass into biochar for application on flood-impacted agricultural soils as a means of restoration and nutrient recovery.

Rollback cheerleading - Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have sent a letter to US EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin supporting the agency’s plans to repeal the Biden-era Clean Power Plan 2.0. The agency initially announced the repeal in June, which would remove emission regulations on certain fossil fuel-fired power plants and replace them with rules that would no longer force the sector to reduce emissions. The Republican senators wrote that the Biden Administration overstepped its authority without a Congressional mandate to do so.

CCS pushback in Louisiana - Residents of a Louisiana parish are pushing back against a recent decision made by a local government to rescind two ordinances against carbon capture projects, reported local outlet KPLC. On Sept. 15, the Vernon Parish Police Jury voted to reverse two resolutions that expressed opposition to CCS projects and requested that the state legislature postpone issuing any CCS permits. The jury reversed these resolutions to signal support for any industry that can bring economic development into the jurisdiction, whether or not they require CCS. The decision provoked local residents, who have opposed CCS projects over health, safety, and eminent domain concerns. CCS projects have remained highly contentious across the state.

Blue carbon projects are beginning to gain ground in carbon markets, but financing shortfalls and questions about credit quality remain barriers to scale, panellists said during a webinar on Wednesday.

The US government would see Vermont’s polluters-pay law axed without a trial, according to court documents filed this week.

Renoster is looking to take its experience in rating nature-based carbon projects to supplying carbon removal (CDR) credits, announcing its first offtake agreement Thursday, the company’s founder told Carbon Pulse.

After fraught negotiations, the EU’s 27 environment ministers agreed Thursday on a provisional greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 66.25-72.5% by 2035, ensuring the EU does not attend next week's UN climate meeting in New York empty-handed.

Six European countries, including four EU member states plus Norway and Iceland, have urged the European Commission to assess how permanent carbon dioxide removals (CDR) could be incorporated into the EU’s 2040 climate framework and carbon market, according to a joint statement seen by Carbon Pulse on Thursday.

California gasoline sales continued to show a year-on-year (YoY) decline in June, reaching a five-year low as diesel consumption nearly reached a year-to-date (YtD) high, state data showed.

No drill, baby, no drill - The oil industry possesses a trillion-barrel opportunity within existing fields that could meet global demand through 2050 without major new discoveries, according to new analysis from Wood Mackenzie. "The oil industry's challenge is enormous," said Andrew Latham, SVP Energy Research at Wood Mackenzie. "Total liquids demand under our base-case Energy Transition Outlook scenario is just less than 1 trillion barrels through 2050. Without upgrades to current development plans, today's onstream fields are set to fall short by almost 300 billion barrels. This deficit would grow by another 50 billion barrels under our delayed transition scenario." Better recovery from producing fields could yield an additional 470 billion to over 1,000 billion barrels. This potential only requires the application of established best practices already deployed successfully across the industry, not unproven technologies.

Aluminium smelters will need to fit carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems to their smelting sites by the mid-2030s if carbon prices rise as predicted, the head of a consultancy working for an aluminium industry body said today. 

Most EU countries agree that international carbon credits should contribute to the bloc’s 2040 climate target, but they remain divided over the scale, scope, and timing of their use, according to public statements made during a meeting of EU climate ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

EU carbon allowance prices recovered from Wednesday afternoon's sell-off and flirted with a key price level on Thursday as bulls consolidated their position, while energy markets also moved higher after North Sea supplies were temporarily reduced and the EU proposed a faster phaseout of Russian gas.

The prime ministers of Finland and Sweden have written to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, warning that the two countries are set to miss their upcoming objectives under the EU regulation on land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) unless the rules are relaxed.

A clean cooking project developer has raised $15.5 million to scale its rollout of 'smart' carbon credit-generating cookstoves, it said Thursday.

The sooner African countries aim for net zero emissions, the greater the immediate costs and disruptions – but the later the continent leaves the transition, the higher the emissions will go, and the more delayed the climate benefits will be, according to research published Thursday.

A removals registry has released a draft protocol for carbon removals via improved forest management (IFM) for public consultation.

A Swiss-based direct air capture (DAC) firm has released modelling showing that carbon removals (CDR) will need to shift sharply from nature-based solutions (NbS) to engineered technologies by mid-century as land and resource limits are reached.

The latest permanence standard proposal under discussion for new Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) rules risks excluding countries that could provide huge volumes of forestry credits, which would weaken wider Article 6 participation, market stakeholders have reiterated, while UNFCCC experts this week defended their approach to the crucial document.

A big Big Apple - This year's Climate Week NYC will be the biggest in its 16-year history, with more than 1,000 events registered across the city – up from 900 this year, the Climate Group announced on Thursday. Confirmed participants at the event, from Sep. 21-28, include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UN climate chief Simon Stiell, Kenyan President William Ruto, Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne, and actors and activists Mark Ruffalo and Jane Fonda. The news puts to rest speculation earlier this year that more organisations were putting their resources into London Climate Action Week in June, and sending fewer, if any, people to the US.

A European bank continues to increase the number of sustainability deals it supports – many of which tie loans to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and environmentally-friendly goals – in an effort to tackle its own indirect emissions, it said in an update on Thursday.

A sustainability intelligence platform has launched a new database in a bid to make tracking carbon emissions from materials in the food and agriculture sector easier.

Turkish ETS - Turkiye's National Emissions Trading System (NESS) is nearing completion, according to a statement on the government website. This follows the enactment of the Climate Change Law previously. The Climate Change Presidency is currently carrying out studies to improve the quality of the “Verified Greenhouse Gas Emission Reports” that will form the data source of the ETS, the statement read. In August, Turkiye published new draft carbon credit and offsetting rules for emissions reduction and removal projects outside its ETS.

Reverse-turn - French President Emmanuel Macron is hitting the brakes on climate action - making a reverse-turn on his previous stance of environmental crusade. He's spent the last few months urging fellow leaders to hit pause on setting the EU's next climate goals, finishing in last week's cancellation of a vote to set the EU's targets for 2035 and 2040, wrote Politico. Despite his insistance that more time is needed, his efforts put him in the same camp as climate blockers such as Poland and Hungary. The EU's position is being watched closely in an environment of an US administration hostile to climate action and rising geopolitical tension. Macron's recent campaign to postpone a decision on the 2040 target adds to his calls for regulatory pause on green lawmaking, and his defense of the Paris Agreement has also become more muted.

Gold Standard has released updated Climate Responsibility Framework, as it aims to offer companies clearer guidance, stronger safeguards, and a practical roadmap to contribute credibly to global net zero emissions.

Small island developing states (SIDS) this week urged major emitters to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) before the September deadline, warning that the world is on the verge of “a point of no return” unless climate pledges are scaled up.

An international energy company announced this week it has signed a deal with tech giant Microsoft to speed up the development of CO2 transport and storage networks and the carbon removal (CDR) market in Europe and the US.

The co-founder and former CEO of Carbon Streaming Corporation is countersuing the company, rejecting allegations of misconduct brought against him by the Toronto-headquartered offsets financier and seeking more than C$35 million in damages.

Carbon credits from tree planting and energy efficiency activities should rocket higher up to 2040, compared to those from household devices and renewable energy, analysis has found.

A French energy giant has struck a deal to buy 31,0000 tonnes of carbon removal by 2039 from a major developer in the direct air capture sector.

A developer of water resilience projects financed by carbon credits has secured up to $10 million of fresh capital to expand its work - half of which comes from a US public body, and a third from a construction company.

Where the wind blows - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has delivered a $74.1 mln finance package for Infinity Power's 200-MW wind farm in Ras Ghareb, Egypt. Co-financing has been provided by the Green Climate Fund, Proparco, and JICA, they announced in a release Thursday. The project is jointly owned by Infinity Power and Masdar, and the package includes an EBRD senior loan of up to $60.7 mln, a concessional loan of up to $3.38 mln from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and an investment grant of up to $10 mln. Construction will start in coming weeks and once complete, it shall contribute to Egypt’s goal of achieving 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2028. When operating, it's expected to reduce the country’s annual CO2 emissions by 390,000 tonnes.

Ad-Tos no more - The A$36.4 bln ($24.2 bln) takeover deal for Santos from the investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc and US private equity Carlyle fell over late Wednesday night, with the suitor citing business concerns and commerciality over foreign investment review concerns. Hitherto, Canberra blocking the deal had been seen as the largest hurdle. According to Australian and energy industry news, Adnoc was concerned about an ongoing methane leak at Santos’ Darwin LNG facility - which it had to read about in the media as the takeover target had allegedly not disclosed it - and tax payments in Papua New Guinea. The Emirati company wanted to expand its LNG portfolio but would have also taken over Santos’ CCS projects, a boon given its track record in sequestering CO2.

The pace of decarbonisation across global investment benchmarks is lagging behind climate goals, even as disclosure and climate commitments improve, according to new research.

A Dutch startup has presented its first direct air capture (DAC) machine, a prototype it says demonstrates the technical viability of its sorbent-based approach and offers a pathway towards large-scale deployment over the next decade.

Emissions from electricity generation in the Middle East and North Africa are set to decline over the next decade despite a continued rise in demand, as the share of oil-fuelled generation shrinks and more efficient gas-fired plants come online, alongside renewables and nuclear, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

State aid - The EU Commission has approved a €7.9 bln budget increase to Germany’s biomass and biogas support scheme, first cleared in Dec. 2022. The amendment expands tender volumes, creates a quota for biomass plants linked to heating networks, caps biogas hours eligible for aid, shortens the switch-over period for older plants, and raises payments for flexible power generation. The Commission found the changes proportionate and necessary under EU state aid rules, ensuring support is limited to what is needed to encourage renewable electricity production while minimising impact on competition and trade.

Stepping on the gas – ExxonMobil and Chevron are expanding their energy trading business to capture a boom in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and catch up with rivals Shell and BP who have dominated the $70bn sector, the FT reported. The two US supermajors are focusing on LNG, which consultants at McKinsey believe, together with gas and power, will soon eclipse oil as the biggest driver of commodity trading profits. Both companies have appointed new heads of LNG trading, based in Asia. Exxon hired Sid Bambawale to run its LNG trading business, while Chevron promoted Frankie Lee, formerly its UK manager, to lead its global desk. The two companies have also struck a series of deals with third parties for roughly 7mn tons a year each of US LNG to expand their trading portfolios.

Cookstoves listing – California-based data platform Centigrade has listed four cookstove projects from London-headquartered developer Bridge Carbon on its marketplace. The initiatives, located in Kenya, Cambodia, and Laos, focus on replacing traditional three-stone fires with high-efficiency rocket stoves, reducing emissions and indoor air pollution while easing household cooking time and labour burdens. All four projects are registered under Verra’s VCS programme using methodology VM0050. Two are located in Kenya, with one carrying the ICVCM’s CCP label, while the Cambodia and Laos projects have also obtained CORSIA eligibility.

Northern Ireland has launched its first-ever strategy aiming to set the course for enhanced peatland conservation and recovery through 2040.

Limestone-based DAC - Following last month's commissioning of a proprietary zero-emissions limestone kiln at a demo facility in North Dakota, British carbon removals developer Origen has announced the launch of the system's second key component - a proprietary air contactor. Together, the two technologies complete its full limestone direct air capture (DAC) at large scale for the first time. Origen’s process relies on heating limestone to release a pure stream of CO2 for permanent storage while producing high-reactivity lime. That lime is then processed and exposed to atmospheric CO2 in an air contactor, reforming limestone that can be fed back into the kiln, completing the cycle. The company claims that its lime processing method allows it to operate with larger batches, longer carbonation cycles, and simpler structures, reducing the cost of removal and avoiding operational bottlenecks and risks. Lime-based DAC boasts low technical risk, cost-effective materials, and a widely abundant supply chain, it stated in the release.

Knowledge is everything - Carbon data platform Sylvera on Thursday launched a new market intelligence solution, delivering quality assessments, real-time pricing data, and advanced market analytics. The new offering is expected to help users identify where high-quality credits are commanding price premiums in order to connect quality and price for better decision making. Capabilities include spot and forward price projection, credit volume insights, and country and methodology profiles. It will be available through tiered subscription packages, with forward price projection features available as add-ons in Q4, Sylvera stated in a press release. The solution will formally launch at Climate Week NYC, with early access possible for qualified event attendees. Sign up here for more info.

The European Union sharply increased its reliance on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) during the first half of 2025, more than compensating for the stoppage of Russian pipeline gas transit through Ukraine, according to fresh data released on Thursday.

A US environmental organisation has published a new list of principles to support financial institutions, in particular public pensions, on how to make good investments in climate solutions, excluding carbon offsetting from its list of best practice.

Australia released its Net Zero Plan Thursday, alongside its six sectoral decarbonisation plans, which see the government largely rely on strengthening and expanding existing policies.

CORSIA concerns - Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s sustainability chief, warned the Financial Times that any move to create a wider global emissions tax for aviation poses an existential threat to the sector, equating it to throwing a nuclear bomb into the system. She argued higher costs and competitive imbalances could destabilise the sector. The EU will review next year whether the UN's global carbon offsetting scheme for aviation is effectively driving decarbonisation. If deemed not to be, Brussels may extend its carbon pricing in the sector, currently applied to flights within the bloc, to international routes. The UK could then follow with a similar measure. IATA this week urged countries to back CORSIA amid a rise in nationally-driven carbon pricing schemes facing the industry. The news comes ahead of an ICAO Assembly beginning Sep. 23 at which CORSIA among other things is to be reviewed.

Hong Kong is seeking to deepen its collaboration with the authorities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), one of China's most heavily industrialised and urbanised regions, to build a carbon market ecosystem, the city's chief executive announced Wednesday. 

India’s power sector emissions dropped by 1% in the first half of 2025, marking only the second such decline over the period in nearly 50 years, according to new analysis.

Australian carbon prices were volatile Thursday in the lead up and aftermath of the government announcing its 2035 climate target, despite the overall bullish sentiment in government papers about the role its carbon market will play in achieving them.

Australia has announced its it will reduce emissions by 62-70% below 2005 levels by 2035 as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Stand your ground - Purpose Investments CEO Som Seif defended his firm's activities in a video posted to LinkedIn this week, in response to an enforcement proceeding filed by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). Seif said that the firm had the ambition to embed ESG consideration across all of its practices and that there were no regulatory guidelines at the time. Purpose has decided to contest the action as per a press release issued last week.

Disappearing act - RJ Reynolds Vapor Company, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that it misled consumers by charging a premium for “carbon neutral” Vuse vape products involves offsets from forestry offsets projects in Uruguay and China. Documents uploaded to the US Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system show that attorneys on behalf of the company have proposed a hearing in Feb. 2026 on the motion to dismiss.

Today's the day - Australia will announce its 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) on Thursday, following cabinet deliberations. The ABC reported that final advice from the Climate Change Authority (CCA) recommended a slightly lower emissions reduction range than the 65-75% recommendation it put forward in draft advice last year. The CCA advice and Treasury modelling will be released on Friday. The Australian Financial Review reported that sectoral decarbonisation plans, also expected to be released Thursday, will include tightening of the Safeguard Mechanism, along with strengthening existing policies.

Massachusetts’ power sector Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) auction in early September for current and future vintages cleared at its highest levels since auctions began in 2018, according to results published Wednesday.