The New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs more ambitious targets and mitigation measures to encourage methane emissions reductions at the state’s coal mines, according to a think tank. 

Emissions under Quebec's California-linked ETS dipped less than 1% year-on-year (YoY) in 2024, but still surpassed the cap for the seventh straight year, according to government data.

The development arm of a European bank has offered up to $60 million for a new investment fund aimed at India’s energy sector.

C+I workshop - Washington's Department of Ecology (ECY) will hold a public workshop on Oct. 30 regarding electric utility allocation under the state's cap-and-invest programme. The workshop will also inform ongoing rulemaking regarding linkage with California, as well as wider programme implementation and guidance. Interested parties can register here. Workshop materials will be posted on Oct. 29 at 1200 Pacific/1500 Eastern (1900 GMT).

A Tallgrass order - The renewable fuels producer Green Plains announced Tuesday that it has started up its CCS equipment on a biorefinery in York, Nebraska, which is delivering biogenic CO2 to the Tallgrass Trailblazer pipeline for permanent sequestration. Green Plains is also working to bring online two additional CCS systems at two other Nebraska facilities by the end of the year, which the company says it is on track to do.

Bot comments - The US EPA could use AI to sort and summarise thousands of public comments as it looks to repeal the endangerment finding, according to an E&E News report. The outlet reported the EPA said it may use AI in its sorting for certain rulemakings, which could help it speed up its race to deregulate GHGs.

No backstop - State officials are warning the US EPA’s plan to stop regulating tailpipe emissions could force states to compensate by clamping down harder on pollution within their borders, or risk violating the Clean Air Act, E&E News reported. The outlet wrote that officials are concerned that a patchwork of state regulations would cost more than current regulations and be less effective.

One man's trash is another's treasure - A Texas-based company converting non-recyclable waste into fuels announced that it is preparing to commission its first US-based waste conversion system. Waste Energy said Tuesday that it has received its first shipment of feedstock to power its facility located in the Texas Permian Basin. The company diverts non-recyclable plastics and tires into its conversion system that produces a range of co-products – fuels, carbon black, carbon credits, and other renewable energy products. The company said it is developing a patent-pending blockchain-based carbon credit automation and trading platform that will capture, verify, and monetise emissions data directly from its conversion systems in real time.

The UK needs to prepare itself for a global temperature limit of at least 2C by 2050, while also continuing to strive for 1.5C as long as it is still within reach, the country's independent climate change advisors warned on Wednesday. 

The world needs to build renewable power capacity at twice the speed to reach the 11.2-trillion watt target set out by the COP28 UAE Consensus, according to a Tuesday report.

A San Francisco-based startup that attracted major tech firms expects to issue its first batch of carbon credits using an enhanced rock weathering (ERW) approach in Brazil by the end of this year, Carbon Pulse has learned.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) futures rose over 4% last week amid spurts of compliance buying, but have since fallen back below the $23 threshold on thin activity, market participants said.

A carbon credit registry announced Tuesday it will develop two new protocols, one for oil and gas well plugging in the US and another for renewable energy generated from biogas at landfills or livestock projects.

Almost all participants in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) met their 2024 compliance obligations, with stationary operators maintaining a near-perfect record and aviation operators showing strong but slightly lower compliance, according to the UK ETS Authority’s annual report released late Tuesday.

The EU risks losing out in the race to make nuclear fusion energy a reality – despite pioneering its research and development – unless it creates a comprehensive, commercially-driven industrial strategy aimed at building a sector and power plants, a group of startups, research institutes, and civil society organisations has warned.

The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) announced Tuesday that it has certified Argentina’s first forest restoration project developer under its standard, allowing the company to access international buyers of traceable and sustainable forest products.

Japan bound – Carbon ratings agency BeZero is set to open a Japanese subsidiary, CEO and co-founder Tommy Ricketts told Carbon Pulse. The company has had a full-time employee in the country since last year, and is backed by Japan Airlines and Hitachi Ventures – with the former putting up some of the $32 mln BeZero secured in Jan. 2025. Ricketts added that the company has several local clients, so establishing a formal presence was a logical step.

Researchers have proposed a new global forest-finance mechanism to place tropical restoration at the centre of climate strategy, arguing that current approaches overlook a major mitigation opportunity ahead of COP30 in Belem.

Article 6 pathway – Brazil’s Ministry of Environment (MMA) published on Tuesday a regulation establishing the procedures for reviewing projects in the country that intend to transition from the now-defunct Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) under Article 6. MMA clarified that the transition of programmes and projects does not imply the immediate issuance of emission reduction units under Article 6.4 (A6.4ERs). Around 100 projects in Brazil have previously expressed interest in making the switch from CDM to PACM. Analysis released this week found that fewer than 15% of global CDM projects seeking to transition to PACM have received host country approval.

Electric exodus – The US DOE is reportedly considering terminating additional electric vehicle (EV) initiatives, according to a list circulating on Capitol Hill that would raise total federal funding cuts to about $24 bln, E&E News reported. The list, which has not been confirmed by the agency, includes grants for retooling auto factories, supporting battery startups, and expanding EV-charging infrastructure and education programmes. The DOE has already scrapped roughly $7.5 bln across 300 projects, though it has not released a full accounting of the 223 projects cancelled earlier this month, leaving unclear whether some of the EV programmes were part of the original cuts.

Brazil-ICVCM alignment – Carbon credits issued in Brazil should be aligned with international standards, such as the principles of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and IPCC guidelines, according to respondents to a public consultation carried out by Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) and the Ministry of Environment (MMA) on carbon credit certification in the voluntary market. Respondents also highlighted that stronger coordination between national certification bodies and international platforms could help ensure credit fungibility and facilitate trading across markets. BNDES said the full consultation report will be released soon.

With scalable low-carbon flight technologies still years away, the aviation sector is relying on CORSIA to bridge the gap to net zero - an effort now constrained by limited credit supply, financing and political risks, and the need for stronger methodologies and insurance mechanisms to unlock investment and restore confidence in high-quality reduction and avoidance credits.

California's electricity sector recorded the highest monthly emissions year-to-date (YtD) in August as the share of renewables continued to trend downward, data from the state's grid operator showed.

Budget battle – US Republican lawmakers are pressing Energy Secretary Chris Wright to spare green energy projects in their states from the Trump administration’s latest wave of grant cancellations, which already total nearly $8 bln, E&E News reported. A circulating list of potential additional cuts includes North Dakota’s $4.2 mln Project Tundra carbon capture retrofit and West Virginia’s ARCH2 hydrogen hub. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said they contacted the US DOE after learning these projects might be targeted, though officials insist no further determinations have been made. The review has sparked tension within the DOE and White House, with Democrats accusing the administration of using the government shutdown to justify politically motivated cuts, while Republicans push to protect projects seen as vital to local economies and energy research.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday signed legislation to accelerate the state’s carbon management market, authorising the development of pipelines to move captured CO2 for underground storage.

Amazonas REDD+ – Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) has filed a public civil action seeking the urgent suspension of carbon credit concessions launched by the State of Amazonas for REDD+ projects in conservation units (UCs) territories, it announced on Monday. After a meeting with UCs community leaders in August, the MPF concluded that the Amazonas State Secretariat for the Environment (Sema) has still not consulted the local communities and Indigenous People living in the affected areas. In the lawsuit, the office requested an injunction to suspend all ongoing administrative actions by Sema and the companies allegedly selected to implement the projects, as well as the public notice that chose those firms to conduct the purported consultations.

Brazil’s National Bank for Social and Economic Development (BNDES) has approved R$250 million ($45.7 mln) in financing for the world's largest market pulp producer to restore more than 24,300 hectares of degraded land with native forest in different biomes in the country.

Two regenerative farming developers have jointly submitted the US’s first set of regenerative farming carbon credits to Verra for approval under the registry’s Improved Agricultural Land Management standard, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The EU and UK need to agree a carbon storage deal in order to reduce costs and make projects more investable, a developer told an industry conference on Tuesday. 

New York’s GHG reporting programme will rely on a registry platform provided by the digital market infrastructure developer Xpansiv, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The EU delegation will travel to the COP30 UN climate summit in November without a 2040 climate target, as the European Parliament has postponed its vote on the issue yet again, it was announced on Tuesday.

The first storage well, which forms part of the North Sea oil and gas regulator’s CO2 storage licensing regime, has now been drilled, UK government authorities said Tuesday. 

European carbon prices continued to fall on Tuesday, reaching their lowest in eight sessions as macroeconomic turbulence again weighed on investor sentiment, leading to some liquidation of speculative EUA positions amid a general weakness in many energy markets.

Higher CO2 prices will be key for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry to wean itself off government subsidies, a financier told an industry event on Tuesday.

The EU's new Emissions Trading Scheme covering transport and heating fuels (ETS2) will see prices rise to €216 per tonne by 2034 as allowance supply tightens up around the turn of the decade, a carbon analytics firm has said.

The Colorado Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) will hold a series of online public meetings on proposed updates to its GHG trading programme for manufacturers, according to a press release.

German ministers have called for industries to keep receiving free carbon allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) until the bloc's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is functioning smoothly, and for new free permits to be issued after 2039.

REDD+ projects face deep methodological and governance flaws that undermine their claimed emission reductions, according to a report published Monday that drew on a decade of peer-reviewed research and independent evaluations on forest carbon projects.

Efforts to protect and restore the world’s forests are substantially underfunded, requiring an additional $216 billion annually to reach the levels the UN targets by 2030, according to a report published Tuesday.

Cooking up a storm - Calyx Global has awarded its first-ever Tier 1 GHG integrity rating for an improved cookstove project, Arborify Cookstoves Togo (GS12069). This marks the first non-metered cookstove project to achieve such recognition and one that could become eligible for the ICVCM’s CCP label in future issuances, depending on monitoring choices, the rating agency siad. Although its initial issuance narrowly missed CCP criteria due to a conservative wood-to-charcoal conversion factor, Calyx Global found the project’s credits to be high quality and low risk. Key strengths include full-fleet temperature monitoring, robust field testing, transparent additionality, and safeguards against stove stacking and drop-off, setting a new benchmark for integrity, the company added.

Germany has launched a tender to buy as many as 800,000 Article 6.4 carbon credits to offset the government's official travel, vehicle use, and other related federal activities.

The European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST) has proposed a new model for creating a viable agricultural emissions trading system (Agri ETS) in the European Union, stressing the need for a gradual approach that fits the sector’s unique characteristics and challenges.

Hydrogen bubble – Heating with hydrogen is expected to become so expensive, it could become irrelevant for energy suppliers and end customers, reported Tagesspiegel Background Energie & Klima on Tuesday, referring to a new report released the same day by the Fraunhofer Institutes IEG and ISI. The researchers calculated that hydrogen heating could increase heating costs for end customers by 74-172% compared to existing gas heating. The study was commissioned by Greenpeace and the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV). It came up with a retail price of 21.4-33.3 €cents/kWh in 2035, dropping to 16.3-38.2 €cents/kWh in 2045. Especially the production of hydrogen is expensive, the researchers found. They suggested it is risky for municipalities to include hydrogen in their heating plans. (Tagesspiegel Background Energie & Klima)

Nice blend - Centrica and National Gas have completed the UK’s first full-scale hydrogen blending trial, successfully injecting a 2% mix of green hydrogen into the National Transmission System and using it to generate electricity at Brigg Power Station. The Oct. 9 test confirmed that existing gas infrastructure and power plants can safely operate with hydrogen-gas blends. The trial marks a significant step toward decarbonising the UK’s energy system and developing a hydrogen economy. Both companies are urging the government to allow blending levels of up to 5% to accelerate emissions reductions and support the transition to net zero.

Swapping cells - Researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics, with support from the Swedish Energy Agency, have studied whether battery swapping - where a depleted battery is exchanged for a fully charged one in 3-5 minutes - can accelerate Sweden’s shift to fossil-free transport. The project, Power Swapping: Embedding the Battery Swapping Model in a Swedish Context, explored economic, technical, and business models based on international precedents, notably China. While battery swapping could relieve grid stress, enable battery reuse, and support smart energy systems, challenges remain around standardisation, business models, and the reluctance of Swedish automakers to cede control over battery design, it found.

EU emissions down – The three highest polluting members of the European Union - Germany, Poland, and Italy - did not emit as much CO2e from their power generation between Jan-Sep. 2025 as they did over the same months of 2024, according to Montel Analytics’ data. The three countries have so far emitted 148.1 mln tonnes CO2e while generating power in 2025. This is a collective 4% cut compared to the 154.7 mln tCO2e their power operations released in 2025. However, ​​this reduction was not driven evenly across the three countries: Germany has emitted 71.4 mln tCO2e this year to date, 3% more than last year’s 69.1 mln tCO2e. Poland has cut power generation emission by 5% while in Italy these emissions are down by a substantial 19%, according to Montel Analytics.

CDR insights – Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) protocols have rapidly developed over the last four years, but slowed down in 2025, according to a mapping tool developed in 2024 by the Grantham Research Institute and AlliedOffsets, and relaunched earlier this month. As well as the rate of protocol development, the Transparent Reporting and Certification for CDR tool (TRACEcdr), found monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) protocols for ‘land-based biological’ removal methods, such as afforestation, dominate the space rather than those for direct air carbon capture. Furthermore, the majority of CDR issuance is occurring under just a few methodologies, including Verra’s VM0033 and the California Air Resources Board’s Compliance Offset Protocol. The TRACEcdr tool has also collected data relating to CDR compliance markets, baseline and permanence criteria, and has plans to share more details in the coming months.

A global consultancy has partnered with a Munich-based carbon removal (CDR) company to scale up enhanced rock weathering (ERW) projects.

A coalition of more than 900 parliamentarians from 96 countries has issued a call to end all new oil and gas expansion across the Amazon Basin in a new roadmap published this week, warning that the world’s largest rainforest is nearing an irreversible tipping point.

A strong correlation between higher ratings and price premiums is emerging in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), according to a climate consultancy.

Nationally significant renewables - A large solar farm in Lincolnshire has become the 17th clean energy project approved by the UK government since Labour was elected in July 2024, which combined could power over 7.5 mln homes, DESNZ said on Tuesday. The latest nationally significant clean energy project to be approved, Tillbridge Solar Farm, could support 1,250 jobs and power hundreds of thousands of home, and help the UK government achieve its goal of becoming a clean energy superpower. Solar is the cheapest form of power available in the country, with rooftop PVs able to save as much as £500 a year on energy bills, DESNZ said. The government is also consulting on mandatory community benefits for communities that host ground-mount solar. The Tillbridge developers have committed to ensure that the project's local community benefits from it.

Icy hot - China and Iceland will work together on developing geothermal and green energy, Reuters reported Tuesday, China's national broadcaster CCTV. China this week also released six CCER methodology drafts to gather feedback from government bodies and academia, with one of them for medium-deep geothermal energy used in heating systems.

Industries will soon start to feel the full weight of the EU's carbon price, as free emissions allowances begin to decline next year and the lack of carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure leaves them with little viable option to comply, a former top EU official has warned, calling it “the dumbest policy you can possibly think of”.

Big bio – The EU’s efforts to scale up biogas and biomethane production lack adequate environmental impact assessment and could cause unintended negative consequences, according to a report published Tuesday. Profundo, a research consultancy based in the Netherlands, dug into the EU’s financing and policies under its RePowerEU target, on behalf of European NGO, Methane Matters. It calculated the EU has allocated about €37 bln of public money to the expansion of the biogas and biomethane industries, claiming this will help reduce the bloc’s methane emissions. However, the EU has not properly considered environmental risk controls, the report said, warning of possible methane leaks from biogas plants, increased air and water pollution, and even the potential lock-in of fossil fuel use. The report calls for the EU to pause public funding for biogas and biomethane until an environmental impact assessment of the RePowerEU targets is completed.

Nuclear fusion – A European industrial initiative is one step closer to building a first 1 GW nuclear fusion plant that could cost €15-18 bln, German science and technology magazine Golem reported on Tuesday. Gauss Fusion, a Munich-based consortium, unveiled its “conceptual design report” – a blueprint for building a commercial nuclear fusion power plant – late last week, just after the German government announced a €2 bln nuclear fusion action plan. Gauss will submit its report to the German government within ten days, it said. It is due to be reviewed by an independent committee in January 2026. Commissioning is targeted for the mid-2040s. (Golem and Gauss press release)

The UK’s National Wealth Fund has unveiled its inaugural impact report, showing that clean energy lies at the heart of its investment strategy with over half of the £7-billion portfolio channelled into renewable energy and green infrastructure projects.

Permitting delays – The European Commission has referred Sweden to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failing to transpose the accelerated permitting provisions of the latest EU renewable energy directive (REDIII). It now more than a year late. The European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF) flagged and welcomed this first of its kind legal action on Monday as a “long-overdue but important signal” that the Commission is prepared to enforce REDIII. The referral sets an important precedent for broader enforcement across the EU, it said. The original transposition deadline was July 1, 2024. Grid operator Tennet Germany’s new CEO raised concerns at the end of September about slow member state transposition and implementation of REDIII after emergency EU legislation for accelerated permitting expired in June. Slow permitting is one of the major barriers to grid and renewables build-out in Europe (EC press release and EREF reaction)

France's domestic carbon certification scheme, the Low-Carbon Label (Label Bas-Carbone) aims to eventually align with the EU's Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) framework, a recent committee meeting heard.

China has begun a new round of consultation on offset methodology proposals under its voluntary emissions reduction certification scheme (CCER), as it seeks to expand the project pipeline under the programme.

Only a small percentage of the nearly 2,500 activities that requested to transition from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to new Article 6 crediting have been formally approved by host countries, just months away from the deadline, according to new analysis.

More than 50 NGOs urged the EU to resist “skewed” calls from Finland and Sweden to weaken its Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) regulation, in a WWF-led open letter published on Tuesday.

A company's carbon footprint considerations have expanded further with the launch of the Scope 4 certification framework, which accounts for the carbon reductions achieved when a company's output displaces a higher-carbon alternative.

A new study has shown that quantifying the climate impact of an individual fossil fuel project reveals “major socioeconomic and environmental consequences”, contrary to claims by proponents.

Charging up - Chinese battery and system prices are dropping to record lows in the Asia Pacific region, according to a report by Wood Mackenzie, however, prices may increase after 2029 as demand growth expands lithium supply. The rapid fall in costs have been attributed to rapid tech innovation, stabilisation of raw material costs, massive scale, and intense market competition, with China being the cheapest market for utility-scale battery energy storage. The firm expects costs in China to drop 35% to $84 per KWh, but system costs across the region vary significantly due to import restrictions, local content requirements, certification standards, and grid requirements. However, it said India presents the strongest cost reduction potential, with turnkey costs expected to decrease nearly 40% by 2034, supported by government initiatives.

Most companies involved in carbon project development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have little history of working in forest conservation, but their initiatives have rapidly expanded to cover at least 130 million hectares of land, according to a report from a London-based advocacy group.

A dozen oil and gas majors invested $30 billion in 2024 to reduce emissions, including carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) projects, while increasing their own production, according to an industry coalition.

Marshalling change – The Attorney-General of the Marshall Islands has asked the country’s highest court to overturn a near-20 year old law that he claims risks undermining efforts to attract climate finance, RNZ reported on Monday. The law, from 2008, pertains to ownership of land on which landfills have been established, stating that any newly-created landfill becomes the property of the adjoining landowners – in conflict with the constitution, which authorises the government to reclaim land for public use. AG Bernard Adiniwin said this conflict affects the country’s ability to attract climate finance for landfill projects, as donors will not release funds if the land is at risk of being privately-owned. Adiniwin has asked the High Court to fast-track the case, but no hearing date has been set yet.

Commercial expansion - The Australian government has committed A$20 mln ($12.9 mln) to cut emissions and unlock energy cost savings by expanding its Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) programme, it announced. Releasing the CBD programme expansion roadmap, the government said the cash would go towards expanding the existing disclosure programme, as well as increasing the range of energy tools and services for the National Australia Built Environment Rating System (NABERS). The current programme requires office building owners of more than 1,000 square metres to obtain and disclose a NABERS rating at the point of sale or lease. The roadmap proposed to expand this requirement to large office tenancies and hotels, outlining the benefits of expanding disclosure requirements to more buildings, noting those that have boosted their NABERS rating from 4 to 6 stars have saved an average of A$280,000 per year.

More analysis has found Australia’s new savanna fire management (SFM) method could lead to a material uplift in carbon credit issuance, having detrimental impacts on the market and the Safeguard Mechanism. 

Climate amnesty – NGO Amnesty International is calling on the New Zealand government to establish a humanitarian visa for residents of Tuvalu and Kiribati affected by climate change. In a report last week, the group flagged that despite being the home of the largest diaspora of Pacific peoples, the lack of a dedicated climate risk pathway leaves those most at risk of displacement due to climate change trying to navigate New Zealand’s stringent immigration rules and other, limited routes to migration. Australia already has an agreement with Tuvalu for a so-called climate visa, which the BBC reported in June a third of the Pacific Island’s citizens has applied for.