Join the Crew - Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) has entered a long-term partnership with Crew Carbon to deploy a calcium carbonate-based process intensification technology at two wastewater treatment plants in Norfolk, Virginia following a successful pilot phase. Initial testing showed improved biological nutrient removal, lower operating costs, and verified permanent GHG removal. The combined use of Crew’s system and HRSD’s own technology is expected to further enhance plant performance, reduce reliance on conventional chemicals, and deliver both operational and capital cost savings. The approach works by optimising alkalinity through calcium carbonate dosing, improving treatment consistency, settleability, and effluent quality, while also lowering carbon emissions and supporting regulatory compliance. HRSD is positioning the project as a case study for aligning environmental benefits with cost efficiency, and becomes one of the first major US utilities to deploy wastewater alkalinity enhancement at scale.

Origen story - Climate-tech firm Origen has completed a pre-FEED engineering study, carried out by Hatch, for its first commercial-scale zero-emission lime facility, confirming the technical feasibility, cost profile, and scalability of its DAC technology. The company’s oxy-fuel kiln design captures all process CO2 as a pure stream during production, avoiding the need for post-combustion capture and enabling near-zero emissions. The study indicates the plant could produce up to 315,000 tonnes of lime annually, with costs competitive with conventional production and improving at larger scale. Engineering analysis, supported by prior demonstration testing, suggests lower execution risk due to the use of established industrial equipment and supply chains. A lifecycle assessment found the process can reduce emissions intensity by around 90% compared to traditional lime production. With pre-FEED complete, Origen will move to site selection and detailed FEED engineering, as demand for low-carbon industrial materials grows under increasing regulatory and corporate pressure.

India’s upcoming compliance-based carbon market will have built-in “stability mechanisms” to manage both credit shortages and oversupply, a senior government official said on Saturday.

India on Saturday formally launched its long-awaited carbon market portal, taking a step in rolling out the country’s domestic carbon credit trading scheme.

India is fast-tracking the process of accrediting verifiers and upgrading a pool of nearly 20,000 energy auditors to ensure compliance with the upcoming emissions trading system, a senior official said Saturday, dispelling concerns about verification bottlenecks.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed sweeping changes to the state’s landmark climate law that would ease compliance requirements and delay key regulatory timelines, citing mounting cost pressures and shifting economic conditions.

Europe's largest industrial carbon capture facility is expected to come online by Q3 2026 with capacity to permanently store up to 12 million tonnes of CO2 over 15 years, according to the developer.

Emitters extended their net long position in California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) and expanded their net short in RGGI Allowances (RGAs), while investors did the opposite, and both groups reduced their net short in Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs) after weaker-than-expected Q1 auction results, the latest US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed.

Resignation nation - More than 10,700 employees left the US EPA, Interior Department, and DOE under the Trump administration’s deferred resignation programme, which offered incentives for voluntary departures, according to new data from the Office of Personnel Management, E&E News reported. The figures, covering Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 31, 2026, show significant net workforce declines across the three agencies, including a loss of over 4,200 staff at the EPA, 11,000 at Interior, and 2,800 at the DOE, despite some new hiring.

Wisconsin biogas bust - A biogas project by BC Organics in Wisconsin has emitted nearly 5,000 tonnes of methane in 2024, the New Lede reported on Friday. The outlet said a 2025 filing with the Wisconsin Air Management programme showed the project emitted some 4,900 tonnes of methane in 2024. Critics have argued anaerobic digesters, which are increasingly common in the US, still emit a large amount of methane into the atmosphere despite being touted as a climate solution.

DAC diversion - Two large-scale direct air capture (DAC) hubs in Louisiana and South Texas, backed by over $1 bln in US DOE funding, have stalled amid prolonged federal audits under the Trump administration, leaving developers uncertain about the status of up to $550 mln in subsidies, E&E News reported on Friday. Project Cypress and an Occidental Petroleum-led hub, both intended to remove at least 1 MtCO2 annually, have seen little progress or public updates since 2024-25, with officials citing a lack of clear federal strategy and ongoing funding reviews. The delays come as broader clean tech investment declines and several DAC projects lose federal support following a wider review of Biden-era climate spending. Developers are now weighing options including scaling down projects, seeking private investment, or shifting operations abroad, with some already expanding into Canada and other markets with more supportive policy frameworks.

Patchy protection – Developing countries, despite contributing relatively little to global GHG emissions, have become increasingly active participants in multilateral environmental agreements while climate risks intensify for these regions, a study published in Journal of the Knowledge Economy on Friday said. Using panel data from 72 countries between 1995 and 2018, it found that such agreements generally reduce climate vulnerability, though they can worsen outcomes in food and health sectors. The impact also varies by region, with vulnerability increasing in African countries but declining in Asia, Europe, and more rapidly developing or oil-producing economies.

Insurance requirement repeal? - The Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill (2055/25) that would revoke a requirement under Brazil's national carbon market law that mandates insurance companies, open-ended supplementary pension entities, capitalisation companies, and reinsurers to invest at least 0.5% per year of their technical reserves in carbon credits or funds. Supports of the proposal say the provision in the carbon market law is unconstitutional, creates artificial demand that could encourage the generation of low-quality credits, and violates the 'polluters pay' principle. The proposal will be analysed by other committees and would still need the approval of both chambers of Congress. The carbon market law's requirement is also the subject of ongoing litigation.

Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (CDHPE)’s Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) published a series of rulemaking concepts on Friday aimed at reducing methane emissions under the state’s regulation for oil and gas operations.

Brazil, India, and Kenya have the geology, renewable energy and industrial base to support large-scale carbon removal (CDR), but a lack of regulation, financing, and workforce capacity is holding back deployment, researchers and industry experts said on Thursday.

The Q2 California-Quebec joint WCI auction will offer just under 9% less allowances than the previous quarter, according to a Friday notice.

The UK government’s decision not to extend its planned carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to cover refined oil products has triggered warnings from industry that the country’s remaining refineries face an increased risk of closure, potentially accelerating reliance on imported fuels.

Peatlands in British Columbia store far more carbon per hectare than surrounding forests yet remain poorly mapped, with their carbon stocks largely unquantified, according to a new study.

Pipe dreams – French tubular solutions firm Vallourec announced this week it had secured a contract to supply corrosion-resistant pipes and connections for an offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Indonesia. The company will deliver materials and services to Indonesian BP subsidiary BP Berau Ltd.'s Tangguh CCS development, including lifecycle technical support.

Fee fixin' - Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will ask its director to approve fee increases for air permitted facilities under state GHG reporting requirements, it announced Friday. The agency is proposing that fees be raised permanently from 15% of a Title V permit with a $4,500 cap and 7.3% of an Air Contaminant Discharge Permit, to 20% of any annual air permit base fees, with a minimum of $500 and a maximum annual fee of $9,000 per source. The DEQ is seeking public comments on the proposal, which can be submitted by Apr. 24. The agency will also hold a virtual public hearing on Apr. 22, a link for which can be found here.

European carbon prices jumped by 6.3% on Friday, the biggest one-day rise since May 2024 and wiping out much of the week's losses after prices set an 11-month low on Thursday, as traders reacted with relief to the outcome of the EU summit, at which leaders called on the European Commission to hasten proposals for reform of the carbon market and in particular the Market Stability Reserve, and brushed aside calls to suspend the market.

Satisfactory outcome - Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed confidence the European Commission will approve Italy's energy reform, following lengthy negotiations in Brussels. Italy has secured key language in the EU Council conclusions allowing for rapid national measures to mitigate electricity price components, including carbon costs, she said. This paves the way for immediate talks with the Commission on Italy's energy decree, she said. The energy reform aims to cushion the impact of energy costs, including by removing the impact of EU carbon costs on gas-fired generation. (Montel News)

Suspend CBAM - Irish farmers are facing prohibitively expensive fuel and energy prices due to the effects of the war in the Middle East, with the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) calling for the suspension of the EU's carbon border fee immediately, in addition to support for rising prices. Average urea costs have risen by €200 per tonne and other fertilisers by €100-150 per tonne in recent weeks, wrote ICOS president Edward Carr in a letter to the govt. The cost of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on top of imported fertiliser costs has become prohibitive, he said. The bloc's attempts to offset the effect of CBAM are insufficient, and instead, the EU should "immediately suspend the CBAM tax on fertiliser”. (Irish Farmers Journal)

A large lignite-fired power producer has reported a heavy fall year-on-year in its power generation covered by the fuel under the EU ETS in 2025.

Voice of reason - Understanding more about how carbon removals can bring the world back from the 1.5C temperature overshoot likely to happen in coming years will be a key topic addressed in the IPCC'S next set of reports - AR7 - due to be released between 2028-29, said the organisation's chair Jim Skea. He spoke to Bloomberg about the more challenging environment the IPCC now operates in due to climate misinformation and the US withdrawal. Some 50 US scientists are involved in the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) who are funded by philanthropic bodies. The IPCC is resilient and continues to operate despite the challenges, said Skea. The first report of the cycle - the special report on climate change in cities - will be released by Mar. 2027. Under current policies, the world is on track for about 3C of warming by 2100, but implementing all the NDCs would reduce the temperature rise to 2.5-3C, he said. Higher warming levels would entail negative effects including reduced agricultural productivity leading to higher food prices. "The decisions that are taken or are not taken in the next few years will influence where we are," - "the gap lies in action", not science, said Skea. The biggest challenges ahead lie in engaging much larger numbers of people on actions such as reducing consumption and changing land use, which will be harder than the emissions reductions achieved so far through electrification and renewables.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the forthcoming launch of a €30 billion industry decarbonisation “investment booster” at an EU summit in the early hours of Friday morning, which will draw on 400 million allowances from "existing reserves" in the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Green hydrogen producers rushed to apply for the EU’s latest Innovation Fund auctions before the war in Iran drove up gas prices, the European Commission said on Friday.

Just 16% of European companies are pulling ahead on addressing environmental issues, according to a new report, which found they cut emissions about 60% faster than peers in the last year.

Japan is interested in developing blue compliance credits in addition to its government-backed J-Blue scheme, the Japan Blue Economy Association (JBE) said on Friday.

SBCE downloading - Brazil's Extraordinary Secretariat for the Carbon Market (Semc), which is overseeing the development of the country's future ETS (Portuguese: SBCE), held a second technical workshop this week on the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of GHGs. Held in coordination with the Secretariat of Green Economy of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, and Services and the Consortium of Energy-Intensive Sectors of Industry, the aim of the workshop hosted by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) was the development of objective of regulations that are viable and aligned with sectors that are intended to participate in the SBCE. This second workshop deepened discussions related to the cement and aluminium sectors. Topics discussed included: the limited network of laboratories available to perform specific analyses such as biogenic carbon analysis of alternative waste; the use of waste in cement production processes; and the differences between primary aluminium production processes and those from recycling.

Offset your pharmaceuticals - Brazilian pharmaceutical distribution company Grupo Proformas has launched Compensa+, a programme it said supports certified carbon offset projects, neutralising the CO₂ generated by transportation carried out by Locafarma, the company’s logistics operator. The initiative is meant to promote more responsible logistics in line with best environmental practices, and the first five participant partners in the programme will receive training related to emissions inventories, Grupo Proforma said.

As governments tighten their grip on carbon credit supply to align developers with national climate strategies, analysts say this shift will drive a surge in Article 6 activity under the Paris Agreement.

Carbon credits cooperation - Taiwan and St. Kitts and Nevis announced plans to set up a technical working group to advance cooperation on carbon credits and renewable energy ahead of COP31, following ministerial talks last week. The two sides are also planning to sign a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation, with preliminary negotiations targeted for completion by end-2026, local media Rti reported.

GX in Aus - Japan's Hitachi, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and technology service provider NTT Data signed an MoU to establish a strategic partnership to expand Green Transformation (GX) businesses in Australia, they said. Under the agreement, the UTS campus will be used as a lab to develop, verify, and commercialise GX solutions. The first initiative will be localising Hitachi's ESG data management solution, EcoAssist-Enterprise in Australia. The companies said the partnership underscores a shared commitment to positively impact society through responsible innovation.

Methane measurements – The Appalachian Methane Initiative (AMI) and academic partners said on Friday that the Appalachian Basin retained the lowest methane emissions intensity nationwide after monitoring thousands of sites. Working with the University of Texas at Austin, Colorado State University, and others, AMI reported a 0.52% methane loss rate across the full supply chain based on nearly 17,000 measurements covering 31,800 square miles (82,360 sq. km.) in 2025. The coalition found conventional wells account for nearly two-thirds of emissions despite producing under 2% of gas, while coal mines and landfills emit more methane per site than oil and gas. Future work will target high-frequency monitoring of coal mine complexes and closing data gaps, according to a press release.

False narrative - Right-wing media narratives in the UK are fuelling a false backlash against climate action, with political elites from Reform UK and the Conservative party out of step with the public appetite for net zero. This is according to recent analysis, jointly prepared by think tank the IPPR and non profit Persuasion UK, who found the country's increasingly assertive far right caricatured net zero as a threat to British sovereignty. Media coverage of net zero is more than twice as likely to be negative than public attitudes actually are - driving a false narrative. Instead, polling shows some 40% of voters remain firmly behind net zero, almost double the 24% who are staunchly opposed to it. (the Guardian)

Peru has authorised its first bilateral deal for selling carbon credits internationally under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement after striking a deal with Switzerland.

A 12% EU ETS Market Stability Reserve (MSR) intake rate could add nearly 100 million EUAs to the market by 2027 and lower carbon prices by around 13% over the period, according to analysis published this week.

A data platform for carbon removals has launched a buyer’s guide for high integrity removals in order to scale the market.

The European Commission has launched twin consultations to redesign the EU’s post‑2030 renewables and energy efficiency laws, in a move intended to align the bloc’s energy legislation with its new 2040 climate target.

India could emerge as a major global supplier of durable carbon removals (CDR), but it must first address policy gaps, weak demand, and high costs to scale the sector, a policy brief published this week said.

A London-based carbon removals registry has published a draft protocol for managing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and ozone-depleting substances (ODS), inviting comments until mid-April.

Blue credits - Japan’s Kansai Airports said it has obtained new J-Blue Credit certification for carbon absorbed by seaweed beds surrounding Kansai International Airport island. The certification reflects expanded blue carbon capacity, with seaweed coverage reaching 66 ha in Mar. 2025, up around 20% from 2022, the company said. The operator said 58 species of seaweed were identified, with improved monitoring and broader data collection indicating higher CO2 absorption than in previous certification.

A sustainable aviation trade body in the UK has committed to support the purchase of more than £2 million worth of carbon removals to help close the sector's net zero gap, as an industry taskforce urged for policy intervention to avoid a looming supply shortfall.

Benchmark EU carbon futures jumped nearly 10% on Friday morning after the European Commission confirmed it would imminently propose tweaks to the market to help ease prices in the near term, as well as planned medium-term reform measures including a €30 billion 'investment booster' for decarbonisation, as participants said they now consider fundamental changes to the Emissions Trading System, or a possible suspension of the scheme, to be off the table.

EU heads of state and government have urged the European Commission to present a review of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) “by July 2026 at the latest” and to finalise the legislative process by the end of 2027 – a year marked by the high-stakes French presidential election.

Italy’s push to suspend EU carbon costs may sound like a quick fix for spiking power prices – but it will come at the expense of low-carbon technologies that bring greater energy independence, and help industries cut emissions, experts warned. 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called on governments, businesses, and households to take immediate action to curb oil demand, as the supply disruption linked to the war in the Middle East has tightened global markets and pushed crude prices above $100 per barrel.

Australian and New Zealand forestry industry bodies on Friday published a valuation standard to provide guidelines for the physical and financial description and valuation of commercial plantation and natural forests.

The Australian government has put forward an exposure draft to expand its Guarantee of Origin Scheme to cover biogas, biomethane, and iron ore production.

Plan presented - Advocacy group GasNZ has presented a biomethane strategy to government, arguing that producing renewable gas from organic waste could significantly reduce emissions while helping address New Zealand’s declining natural gas supply, it announced. It sets staged targets—1 PJ in the short term, 5 PJ by 2035, and 25 PJ by 2050—potentially meeting up to half of future gas demand using existing infrastructure. The plan outlines policy and investment actions needed to scale the industry, emphasising biomethane as a practical, low-carbon alternative that also supports regional economies and hard-to-electrify sectors.

Life extension - Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) will extend the operation of the Tuas South Incineration Plant to 2035, with major upgrades to its systems to improve reliability and handle higher-energy waste, it announced. The upgrading works, scheduled from 2026 to 2027, will be carried out while the plant continues operating, with waste redirected if needed to maintain overall capacity. This extension supports Singapore’s long-term waste management strategy by ensuring continued waste treatment, reducing waste volume, generating energy, and contributing to a circular economy, the NEA said.

The European Commission will propose reforms to the EU carbon market, including tweaks to the Market Stability Reserve, a €30 billion industrial decarbonisation fund, and plans to extend free allocations from 2035, as the bloc weighs short-term interventions to cushion the impact of surging energy prices triggered by disruption in global oil and gas markets linked to the US-Israel war against Iran.

The New South Wales state government has put forward a plan to no longer approve new coal mines at greenfield sites, but will still consider extensions and expansions of existing mines. 

Record output – Norwegian energy company Equinor reported adjusted operating income of $27.6 bln, and adjusted net income of $6.43 bln in its annual report for 2025, alongside record production, in spite of lower commodity prices. Output rose 3.4% YoY to 2,137 mboe/d and renewable generation increased 25% to 3.67 TWh, helped by new fields and tie-ins. The company advanced CCS and offshore wind projects but reprioritised parts of its low-carbon portfolio and updated its transition plan amid external market developments causing low-carbon solutions to mature at a slower pace than anticipated. Equinor also reduced operated Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 34% from 2015-25.

Colorado coal – Public interest groups including Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, and Vote Solar, alongside the state of Colorado, have filed a federal court challenge against the Trump administration’s emergency order extending operations at the Craig Unit 1 coal plant this week. The petition, lodged in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, targets a Dec. 2025 order that forced the unit to remain available for at least 90 days despite a planned retirement. Challengers argued the move will raise electricity costs, increase pollution, and impose unnecessary repair and operating expenses on utilities and ratepayers, while critics say it reflects a broader effort to delay coal plant closures despite cheaper renewable alternatives.

Front-month California Carbon Allowance (CCA) futures settled below the 2026 price throughout the last week as programme uncertainty and costs concerns continued to cast a shadow over the market, traders said.

13 angry AGs - Attorneys general from 13 Democrat-ed states wrote to US EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin demanding the agency rescind a Dec. 2025 memo they said effectively strips environmental enforcement by requiring staff to escalate every legal objection raised by regulated industries regardless of merit. The letter, signed by New York, California, Washington, and ten other states, said the policy gives polluters a roadmap to delay compliance and will increase harmful emissions in overburdened communities.

California emissions from diesel and gasoline consumption in 2025 continued their year-on-year (YoY) decline in December, state data showed.