Emissions under Washington’s cap-and-invest programme exceeded the cap by roughly 2% in 2024 despite dropping nearly 8% year-on-year (YoY), a recently updated compliance report showed.

Phase-out of commitment – New Zealand’s government has backtracked from its previous commitment to push for a global phase-out of fossil fuels, Newsroom reported on Wednesday, in a significant shift in position. The country did not sign on to a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels at COP30, with Climate Change Minister Simon Watts telling RNZ this was because New Zealand had already committed to transition away from them at COP28 in Dubai – and that this is the language the country supports. Newsroom noted that the minister’s comments contradict his previous statements to the outlet in support of a global phase-out. The lack of consensus in Belem on the roadmap is further reason why the government did not back it, Watts told the outlet, but instead continued to support the COP28 nuanced-language to transition away from fossil fuels.

A regional development bank has updated its energy policy, with revisions opening the door to financial support for nuclear power and methane management, as well as a broader remit on carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) and critical minerals.

Calling savanna experts – Voluntary carbon standard operator Verra has issued a request for proposals, seeking independent experts to review a proposed methodology for savanna fire management under its Verified Carbon Standard programme. The methodology, based on Australian Indigenous practices, aims to generate credits by avoiding methane and nitrous oxide emissions in global savannas with more than 10% canopy cover, as well as increasing CO2 sequestration by avoiding intense savanna fires. Proposals are requested by Dec. 16, 2025.

Global oil companies are failing to disclose their strategies for implementing and reporting progress towards meeting their own 2050 net zero goals, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Canada and Alberta have agreed to a deal that would strengthen the province's industrial carbon price and advance a multibillion-dollar carbon capture project in exchange for exemptions from federal climate regulations, national media reported on Monday.

A global financial services group has taken a minority stake in a New Zealand-based agricultural technology company, it announced on Wednesday.

The attempted reopening of Article 6 rules at COP30 surprised an already-skittish private sector, which needs regulatory stability and time to begin investing, according to a carbon-specialised banker speaking on a post-COP webinar Tuesday.

Carbon removal (CDR) buyers’ club Frontier will pay a Bavaria-based biogas company $41 million to remove 96,000 tonnes of CO2 between 2027 and 2030, according to a Tuesday press release.

A UN body is seeking to procure up to over 83,000 voluntary carbon credits through a tender that closes in early December.

The UK government is seeking feedback on its plan to bring emissions from international shipping into the UK Emissions Trading Scheme from 2028, in a new consultation opened on Tuesday.

European carbon strengthened on Tuesday morning, extending a rally that began on Monday afternoon after the market had fallen below a key psychological level, while energy prices fell away later in the day as traders reacted to positive statements in the ongoing negotiations towards a peace agreement in Ukraine.

A Brazilian federal court has temporarily suspended a move from the Amazonas state government that would permit carbon project development in conservation areas of the state, national media has reported.

Disproportionate impact - The average household in Germany spends about 0.4% of its net income on the country's national emissions pricing system for transport and heat, according to analysis by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) of 2024 data. The cost burden is disproportionately heaviest on poorer households, with the poorest 10% spending 0.7% of their household income for the CO2 levy, while the richest 10% spend 0.25%. Yet the 10% of richest households consume about three times as much fossil energy as the poorest 10%. Redistribution mechanisms such as heating cost coverage can help to compensate for the disparity of CO2 pricing, the UBA noted. Germany is set to freeze its national CO2 price in 2027 after an increase to as much as €65/t in 2026, in response to the EU postponing its launch of ETS2.

Carbon removal expertise - The IPCC panel agreed on the outline last month of the '2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories'. The report will be a single methodology report, and will address topics including soil carbon sinks, carbon removal in coastal wetlands, CO2 capture from combustion, direct air capture, CO2 utilisation, CO2 transport, and CO2 injection and storage. Over 150 experts are expected to participate in the writing process, to be completed by 2027. These contributors will be selected by the Task Force Bureau taking into account scientific and technical expertise, and the first lead authors' meeting will be held in Rome in Apr. 2o26.

EU ban on Russian gas – The EU may implement a ban on existing short-term Russian gas contracts from April next year instead of June, aligning with EU sanctions, according to draft compromise proposals floated by the Danish EU Council Presidency. The compromise proposal is being put forward as part of ongoing talks between the European Parliament and the Council of EU member states over the REPowerEU plan, put forward in May, which seeks to end Russian fossil fuel imports by the end of 2027. There’s no consensus on ending new or long-term contracts, according to the draft compromise plan, seen by news site Contexte. The European Commission is tasked with proposing alternatives on oil, with exemptions for landlocked nations, and sanction penalties still under discussion.

New Jersey clean power plan – New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) released the state’s 2024 Energy Master Plan on Monday, recommending a decade-long policy roadmap focused on clean power, affordability and grid reliability. The plan, developed over 22 months, updates the state’s 2019 strategy and presents “no-regrets” actions to accelerate renewable and advanced generation, expand efficiency and decarbonisation efforts, modernise the grid, continue transportation electrification, improve energy affordability for low- and moderate-income households, and strengthen regional coordination within PJM.

Blue carbon in Australia – Bentley’s Environmental Foundation, a subsidiary of Bentley Motors, announced funding today for a blue-carbon project to restore locally extinct crayweed forests off Sydney’s South Bondi Reef. The initiative, delivered with Seatrees, Operation Crayweed and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, will restore two sites totalling about 12,000 sq ft by transplanting healthy adult crayweed onto deforested reef using biodegradable mesh mats. Bentley frames the effort as part of its Beyond100+ sustainability strategy launched in 2023, while Seatrees calls the expansion a significant step in scaling global coastal-ecosystem restoration.

A global law firm and UK-based carbon brokerage have implemented a multi-year carbon removals procurement programme that capitalises long-term credit purchases as a balance sheet asset rather than a profit-and-loss cost.

Variable ERW – Soil type in enhanced rock weathering (ERW) carbon removal projects is as important as rock type, according to a recent study by the Carbon Drawdown Initiative. Following two years of ERW experiments in Germany, the researchers found alkalinity export that drives CO2 removal is highly variable, and soil context can completely change the outcome. They determined which materials best boost alkalinity, and that acidic soils export more additional alkalinity. Only a fraction of theoretical CDR seemed to be realised quickly – showing that though ERW remains promising, better models and experience are needed to really predict how much CO2 will be removed and for how long. The institute has started its next experiments involving more soil and rock variations, and is offering scientists access to more than 1,000 samples from the 2-year experiment.

Carbon removal (CDR) is no longer a fallback but a central pillar of climate strategy, though major barriers to scale persist, with biochar emerging as the most viable near-term pathway, according to a wide-ranging publication that examined how CDR could deliver nearly 10 billion tonnes of CO2 annually by 2050.

Corporates are planning to boost carbon credit spending this decade, but long-term investment in the voluntary sector is being hampered by regulatory uncertainty, a survey has found.

Climate adaptation grant - The African Development Fund has committed a $14 mln grant to scaling up climate resilience across the Sahel, with the new funding to support the dissemination of resilient and improved seed varieties. The $14.64 mln grant was approved by the ADF board of directors to support Project 2 of the Programme to Strengthen Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel in Abidjan on Nov. 21. The additional financing is provided through the Climate Action Window, a climate-focused funding mechanism of the ADF. The grant will cover 30 municipalities and support the creation of 60 climate-smart villages across the Sahel.

European energy market analysts expect carbon prices to surge toward the triple-digit mark in early 2026, supported by structurally tighter EU ETS fundamentals and a relatively soft gas market, but momentum is likely to ebb in the second half of the year as policy discussions loom into view.

Campaigners are hoping that the UK's Autumn budget announcement on Thursday proves pivotal in speeding up the country's energy transition, as four years of higher energy prices from fossil fuels, costing Britain £183 billion, have fuelled a wider cost of living crisis. 

An investment fund is investing in an agtech firm in India after securing $375 million to date from institutional investors, it announced Tuesday.

The European Union must bridge the funding gap for carbon removals (CDR) if it is to meet its climate neutrality target by 2050, according to a new report from the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST), a Brussels-based think tank.

Swiss Art. 6 deals - Switzerland’s Federal Council has approved the country's bilateral climate agreements with Zambia, Mongolia, and Uganda, enabling the country to count resulting emission cuts toward its 2030 target, the government said in a statement. Switzerland signed the world’s first such treaty under Article 6 with Peru in 2020, followed by agreements with Ghana, Senegal, Georgia, Vanuatu, Dominica, Thailand, Ukraine, Morocco, Malawi, Uruguay, Chile, Kenya and Tunisia. All deals include safeguards to prevent double counting and uphold environmental and human rights standards.

Curbing emissions from ships berthed at EU ports is being driven by EU legislation to electrify all container terminals by 2030, but achieving that goal will require significant grid expansion and an improved business case for ports to make the robust investment required.

EIB boost - Swedish utility Vaxjo Energi has secured advisory support from the European Investment Bank (EIB) through the European Commission’s Innovation Fund Project Development Assistance (PDA) programme. The PDA support will help Vaxjo advance POSCLIMB, a planned BECCS project at its Sandviksverket biomass-fired combined heat and power plant in Sweden. It will help mature the project technically and financially ahead of a possible application to the Innovation Fund, with the aim of capturing and permanently storing up to 200,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually for sale as carbon credits.

A US-based climate consultancy has proposed a new format for reporting electricity emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, arguing that current market-based Scope 2 methods no longer reflect actual impact or support decision-making.

UK industrial bills cut - The UK government is to reduce electricity bills for over 7,000 manufacturers by up to 25%, it said in a statement Monday. It will also increase support on access to finance for high-potential firms through the British Business Bank, as part of an optimistic vision for economic growth. Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle has announced the launch of an eight-week consultation for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) that will determine eligibility. High energy prices have consistently been flagged by UK businesses as a key issue, as well as securing access to finance to scale a business.

New position - Renat Heuberger has been elected chairman of European soil carbon company eAgronom, he announced on LinkedIn. Heuberger also holds the role of CEO of climate consultancy Terra Impact Ventures, and chairman of fintech startup MPower Ventures, as well as author of book the Carbonparadox, according to his profile. eAgronom works with thousands of farmers across Europe on regenerative agriculture, generating carbon removals in the process.

A US-based agtech company has launched a pilot to test its carbon measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) platform on grazing lands, it announced last week.

2026 will be a crunch year for implementing UN carbon markets, after Article 6 decisions at COP30 cleared up key administrative uncertainties such as funding shortages and the closure of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and affirmed previous agreements on crediting standards and trading rules, according to experts. 

Africa could generate nearly $50 billion in revenue from carbon removal (CDR) markets by 2030, with the continent’s theoretical CDR potential across various methods far exceeding global projections for 2035, according to a report published this week.

Biodiesel and renewable diesel produced from vegetable oils can deliver little or no net greenhouse gas benefit compared to fossil diesel in some instances, and in some cases perform worse, an expert said during a webinar on Friday.

China's new coal power approvals for 2025 are on track to fall to a four-year low, indicating a potential shift in the country's coal-permitting cycle, according to a new report published on Tuesday.

Asian losses from climate hazards – Climate hazards, such as rising heat and extreme rain, are already costing Asia’s 11 major energy utilities $6.3 bln each year, according to research published by the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) and MSCI Institute. The companies with the worst annual average losses are India’s NTPC, Malaysia’s Tenaga and Indonesia’s PLN. Estimated costs will rise 33% to exceed $8.4 bln by 2050unless global emissions fall and adaptation measures are taken, the paper showed.

Green H2 pilot in South Australia – Japanese trading house Marubeni has completed a demonstration project for the production of low-cost green hydrogen in South Australia, it announced Tuesday. The project demonstrated both the effectiveness of metal hydrides as a hydrogen transportation method and the feasibility of building a supply chain, the company said. Marubeni said it has entered into a hydrogen sales agreement with Iberdrola Australia, and will continue to supply low-cost hydrogen produced from surplus renewable power as a co-firing fuel for gas turbines.

Scaling up energy efficiency across Europe is critical to decarbonising the EU’s energy mix and meeting the objectives of the bloc’s new emissions trading system for buildings and road transport (ETS2), the Coalition for Energy Savings argued in a new report.

One of New Zealand’s big four energy generator and retailer has released its renewable energy strategy for the next five years, aiming to expand its portfolio of geothermal, battery storage, solar, and wind generation assets.

Fill the gaps – Fiji’s government is reviewing the country’s Electricity Act to ensure the legislation can accelerate the energy transition, FBC News reported on Tuesday. This follows a ministry study of the bill which found there were gaps, including a lack of definitions of indigenous sources and renewable energy, nor does it reference Fiji’s international commitments or national targets. The Pacific Island nation’s latest NDC eyed Article 6.2 deals to support the build out of large-scale renewables. The government will be establishing an energy investment advisory committee to support the acceleration of a just transition, the outlet said.

VCS credits for SA-le – WeAct will be auctioning VCS credits from its South African grasslands management project (VCS2710) next month, the developer said in a press release. The sale of the nearly 0.7 mln high-integrity units will take place from Dec. 8-10 on Xpansiv CBL’s platform and feature a $12/t floor price, with the credits eligible for compliance with the South African CO2 tax as well as voluntary use. The auction will be a closed, single-round, pay-as-bid format, with the minimum bid size set at 10,000 units. Australia-based WeAct added that higher priced bids will receive the most recent vintages, and buyers need to hold both a Verra and CBL account. The deadline to register for the auction is 1500 UTC on Dec. 3.

Not so slick – Executives from the oil and gas industry were given privileged and confidential access to draft legislation to repeal New Zealand’s ban on new offshore exploration, RNZ reported Tuesday, following the release of papers under an Official Information Act request. The briefing papers also showed how the companies lobbied for the government to weaken rules on the clean up of ageing oil fields, and that the government incorporated several requests from the companies into the legislative proposal, which passed at the end of July. Officials also warned the government about the climate impact of reversing the ban, warning that emissions could rise by 14.2 MtCO2e.

On the grid – Energy intelligence platform Kaluza has expanded its presence in Japan, it announced on Tuesday, working with car manufacturers, retailers, and energy providers. Working with Mitsubishi Corp, the project is using EVs to stabilise the power grid, allowing the batteries to absorb and release energy as needed – the first such V2X capability to be deployed in Japan. Kaluza said its software will enable the integration of more renewables into grids, lowering the cost of electrification.

A handful of countries are still keeping out of the race to trade carbon credits through Article 6 – although the number is dwindling, as even the most ideologically opposed see pragmatic business opportunities.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) futures continued last week's steady rise by jumping more than 5% Monday to surpass the $28 threshold, breaching all-time high levels for the benchmark contract.

US state and local official made up an informal climate delegation for the absentee nation, reaching international counterparts with a message of resilience in Belem.

Household chocolate products may be marketed as ‘sustainable’ despite risks of containing cocoa linked to the destruction of Liberia’s Upper Guinean Rainforest, an NGO report said ahead of a key vote on the EU's contested anti-deforestation law.