Two environmental advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the US DOE and US EPA regarding the creation of a climate report by a DOE-convened group, and the implications of that report on reversing the Obama-era EPA rule that allowed the agency to regulate GHG emissions.

The US has rejected an international agreement to reduce emissions from the shipping industry and said it would not hesitate to retaliate against nations that did not join its opposition efforts.

Argentina’s national government is unlikely to introduce regulations to boost demand in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), so provinces are taking the lead to legislate GHG mitigation measures, local experts have told Carbon Pulse.

While some real estate managers are taking climate action, only one of those surveyed in a recent study has concrete plans to strip fossil fuel infrastructure from its buildings, according to new research from a UK non-profit.

A British direct air capture (DAC) developer has brought a new system online in Canada, to recover up to 250 tonnes of CO2 annually.

A little help from kelp - Northern Portugal’s kelp forests store almost 16,500 tonnes of carbon and sequester nearly 1,900 tonnes annually, putting them on par with the country’s better-known blue carbon ecosystems when measured by area, new research has found. A team led by Portugal’s Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE) and the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) carried out in situ surveys along a 90-km stretch of the country’s northern Atlantic coast, focusing on the dominant subtidal species Saccorhiza polyschides and Laminaria hyperborea. While saltmarshes account for the majority of the country’s blue carbon stock and sequestration in absolute terms, the study found that kelp forests rival or exceed them and seagrass meadows on a per-hectare basis. The findings highlight the potential for kelp to contribute to climate mitigation strategies, with the authors noting that the habitat has so far been largely excluded from formal carbon offset frameworks due to uncertainties over sequestration permanence, export pathways, and monitoring standards. The authors emphasised that large portions of the Portuguese coastline remain unstudied and that national datasets for saltmarshes and seagrasses are incomplete and outdated, omitting key northern estuaries. They called for expanded in situ surveys, refined export and burial estimates, and better integration of field data with large-scale models.

Another audit – The US DOE’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its inspection report last month, finding deficiencies in the agency’s Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program. Part of the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), the deployment programme was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act to help energy-intensive industrial facilities implement GHG-reducing technologies. The inspection report found five programmatic issues in it: a lack of documented internal controls policies, procedures, and plans; a lack of risk assessments and processes; no plan to mitigate conflict-of-interest risks; a lack of a programme performance plan; and no plan to track community benefits requirements. The report marks the second time this summer the OIG has audited the OCED.

California cap-and-trade – The California Assembly and Senate aren’t on the same page about how to reauthorise California’s cap-and-trade programme beyond 2030, Politico reported Monday. The Assembly is closer to “straight” reauthorisation while the Senate is pushing for broader adjustments, the outlet said. Distribution of revenues also appears to be contentious as lawmakers seek more control over the split. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said that the state is still on track to reauthorise and extend the programme this legislative year.

Hot air – An analysis of 45 US insurance groups found that 87% have set broad climate goals but none provide the targets necessary to track progress on those goals, according to non-profit advocacy group Ceres. Companies are only providing minimal reporting on emissions targets, rarely report on full climate impact, demonstrate weak progress tracking, and aren’t applying analytical tools to measure key risks such as exposure to climate impacts, Ceres said. The group suggested a three-phase implementation plan, to wrap by 2030, for insurers to better address climate risks.

People in COP30 – In his fifth letter, published on Tuesday, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago urged the international community to remember that people are at the centre of the climate agenda. The ambassador said that “climate justice begins with people” and stressed the importance of leadership in driving a transition to a more sustainable development model. In previous messages to the global community, Correa do Lago called for faster implementation of climate commitments and emphasised the need for climate finance reform.

Target on trial – Ontario’s climate plan will be back in court in December for a renewed constitutional challenge from a group of young climate activists, Global News reported. Their lawyers allege that the province’s 2018 decision to replace its climate target with a weaker one locks in dangerously high GHG emissions and violates their Charter rights. In 2022, an Ontario Superior Court judge found the target fell well short of scientific consensus but ruled it was not unconstitutional. Earlier this year, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision and ordered a new hearing after the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the province’s appeal.

Voluntary carbon and Article 6 markets could provide Ukraine with a fast, flexible route to attract international green finance, without waiting for the implementation of a full compliance emissions trading scheme.

Mining for merit - BeZero Carbon, a global carbon credit ratings agency, has awarded a ‘AAA’ rating to a coal mine methane destruction project in West Virginia, the highest assessment of a project’s likelihood of meeting its climate claims. The project uses an enclosed flare at an active mine to abate emissions and follows California ARB’s Compliance Offset Protocol for Mine Methane Capture, making it eligible for the state’s cap-and-trade programme. The project is BeZero's second public ‘AAA’ ex post rating, following one given to a direct air capture project in 2024.

Regulatory limbo - A group of truck manufacturers is suing the California Air Resources Board arguing that the regulator continues to enforce its Advanced Clean Truck rule even after it was overturned by Congress. In the suit, Daimler Truck North America vs CA Air Resources Board, truck manufacturers argue they shouldn’t have to abide by the rule, which mandates sales targets for zero-emission trucks, since the US EPA rescission of the rule pre-empts state enforcement, Reuters reported. Truck makers argue that the regulatory uncertainty has caused harm because they cannot establish production plans without knowing what vehicles they will be permitted to sell.

War of words - A California environmental group has launched an ad campaign in opposition to oil and gas lobbying in the state, E&E News reported. The California Environmental Voters Education Fund announced a seven-figure buy of television and digital ads that pin rising gasoline prices on fossil fuel companies. It is the group’s second seven-figure ad buy this year. It is designed to counter an ongoing campaign by the Western States Petroleum Association representing several major oil and gas companies, which invested millions of dollars into ads earlier this year.

EUAs weakened for a second day in light trading amid a general sell-off in energy as traders weighed up the prospects of this week's US-Russian summit meeting to discuss the conflict in Ukraine amid talk of sanctions on gas being lifted, while demand for carbon appeared to be declining as natural gas-fired power consolidated its return to the top of the merit order.

CCS pilot - Georgia-based Block Energy has provided a new portfolio update. Commenting on its C02 injection pilot, the company said injection operations are set to start this quarter, that a detailed monitoring and verification programme has been developed, and data generated will support validation of CO2 mineralisation. If successful, the pilot will mark the region's first case of mineralisation-based CO2 storage, opening the door to future carbon credit revenues and broader decarbonisation partnerships, especially with companies exposed to the EU's CBAM, it said.

Low-concentration methane emissions from dairy livestock can be eliminated at a commercial scale, according to the findings from a real-world field trial of new technology in Denmark.

Large private equity companies have stakes in 600 fossil fuel assets across 19 countries, including 61 gas-fired power plants added in the latest update to a tracker by a climate data consortium.

A financial data provider has expanded its climate risk analytics to cover more than 5 million private companies worldwide, aiming to address data gaps in the assessment of portfolio-level climate risk.

Carbon neutral shipping lane - Finnish shipping company Wasaline has signed agreements that will make its route from Vaasa, Finland to Umea, Sweden the first international green shipping corridor in operation - five years earlier than its 2030 goal, the company announced on Monday. Wasaline signed a contract with Gasum, and a FuelEU Maritime pooling agreement with Stena Line, for high-quality certified biogas to operate its Aurora Botnia ship. It also intends to extend the ship's battery capacity in January to 12.6 MWh.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is the most promising carbon removal pathway to limit global warming to 1.5C and avoid the early closure of young coal plants by retrofitting them with the technology, a new report has found.

The fast-rising industry of carbon accountants is looking to professionalise itself, bringing international best practices, technical alignment, and regulation to a role that is still largely taught on the job – much like a game of ‘Chinese whispers’.

Offtakes take off - Offtake deals are trending upwards, MSCI Carbon Markets has found. In the first half of 2025, it tracked more than 55 offtake commitments for high-quality nature-based carbon projects - almost triple the number in H1 2024. Most deals remained private, and of those made public, Microsoft was the largest, contracting over 35 mln tonnes in the period. Offtakes commanded an average of $50/t, about three times the average spot price for similar project types.

Carbon removal (CDR) credit sales and clean fuel production credits turned Colorado-based renewables fuels company profitable in the second quarter of this year.

Tech's ESG accounting gaps - Service providers of artificial intelligence (AI) such as Microsoft and Google should be mandated to not only disclose their direct and supply chain emissions but the emissions stemming from their client work too, according to the Enabled Emissions Movement (EEM), founded by three former Microsoft employees. Many of the world's largest tech companies are helping fossil fuel clients to boost their yields and expand operations using AI tools, leading to increased fossil fuel extraction, but these 'enabled emissions' are not reported in tech company reporting. The EEM founders argue that such accounting gaps allow tech companies to present themselves as ESG leaders whilst avoiding accountability for how their tools are used. Such firms could be under-reporting their total Scope 3 (indirect) carbon footprints by 200%, they argue. (edie.net)

Treating greenhouse gas emissions and removals as interchangeable undermines climate policy integrity, a climate NGO has said, calling for EU policymakers to move away from like-for-like accounting approaches.

CCS assurance - DNV Inspection has been chosen to provide quality assurance to two of the UK's first carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, it stated in a release Tuesday. The assurance and risk management provider will deliver site inspection, quality assurance, and quality control services for Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) and the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) in northeast England. The three-year contracts will include the inspection of equipment and materials, ensuring they meet stringent industry standards, and providing on-the-ground support as the projects progress from construction to operation.

The calculated growth rates for primary forests under a UK-based standard are generally more conservative than those for secondary forests, according to a technical report released this week.

Charging ahead - New South Wales raised its 2030 renewable energy target to 16 GW of wind and solar, up from 12 GW, and lifted its 2034 long-duration storage goal to 42 GWh from 28 GWh, according to its infrastructure roadmap published Tuesday. The state, Australia’s biggest coal power producer, plans larger and more frequent tenders, including four in 2026-27 offering about 2.5 GW each, as coal plants are expected to shutter by 2034. Long-duration storage auctions will target 9.6 GWh by 2030. The roadmap claims it will deliver A$6.8 bln ($4.4 bln) in benefits to consumers over 20 years.

The operator of Israel’s Leviathan gas field has inked the country’s largest-ever export deal, a $35 billion agreement to supply gas to Egypt through to 2040 – a move that could ease Egypt’s energy crunch but likely to spark debate over the region’s decarbonisation.

Danske Bank, Denmark’s biggest lender, on Tuesday said it has cut the number of fossil fuel-related companies it can invest in by more than 85% to around 270 from roughly 2,000 last year, after tightening its policy to favour firms with credible low-carbon transition plans.

The government of Zimbabwe plans to set up a loss and damage fund financed by proceeds from carbon credit trading, with the aim of helping communities recover from the impacts of climate change.

Sued for climate policy - The UK government is being sued in a secretive 'corporate court' after a controversial proposed coal mine in Cumbria was blocked by the high court last September. If successful, UK taxpayers would have to fund a significant compensation claim to the mine's investors, Singapore-based Woodhouse Investment and West Cumbria Mining Ltd. This is the first such case to be filed against the UK government by a fossil fuel company as a result of climate policy, and is based on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) rules agreed in a 1975 trade agreement between the UK and Singapore. Experts have often warned that ISDS courts use threatens national efforts to cut emissions and fight climate change. (the Guardian)      

Carbon credits issued under the new Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) are to be formally considered for CORSIA, after an expert Article 6 body requested ICAO to clarify how new UNFCCC units may be integrated into the international aviation offsetting scheme.

Australia will need to ramp up both land-based CO2 sequestration and engineered carbon removal technologies from the next decade to offset hard-to-abate emissions and meet its net zero target, a study published in journal Nature this week said.

A climate tech startup has become the first Indian company to secure Gold Standard-certified carbon credits for sustainable rice farming across thousands of farms in the state of Telangana.

New policy - The Malaysian state of Sarawak on Tuesday launched an energy transition policy, aiming to add MYR 550 bln ($129.9 bln) to GDP and attract up to MYR 700 bln in investment by 2050, Borneo Post reported. The policy is anchored on renewables, hydrogen , CCUS, and low-carbon transport. Premier Abang Johari said the state may use blended finance to de-risk early-stage clean energy and infrastructure projects. The state is also working on a dedicated carbon market plan and launched a sustainability blueprint in May.

CBAM pressure - The EU's CBAM could hit Thailand's exports of worth over THB 300 bln ($9.3 bln) annually, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI). The warning came as FTI and the Thai Bankers’ Association launched a THB 5 bln transition finance scheme to help businesses, particularly SMEs, invest in clean technologies and cut emissions.

Going solar - The Global Carbon Council (GCC) has issued 173,783 carbon credits to solar projects in Turkiye’s Kahramankazan, Milas, and Sinanpasa regions, covering monitoring periods from 2018-24. Certified with Environmental No-net-harm (E+), Social No-net-harm (S+), SDG+ Silver, and CORSIA-Pilot Phase eligibility, these projects contribute clean electricity to the national grid while creating local jobs and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, the standard said. Turkiye now has 27 GCC-registered projects, with over 634,000 credits issued to date, and more than 1 mln in the issuance pipeline.

A group of farmers facing increasing climate-related losses have filed a lawsuit against Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), a historic first for the East Asian country.

Human rights considered - A group of Japanese companies have developed a framework that incorporates human rights impacts in the quality assessments of carbon credits, according to a statement released Tuesday by Tokyo Gas. The framework was jointly formulated by the gas supplier, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, and Nippon Koei. Tokyo Gas said it will add the new criteria to its internal assessments of carbon credits to improve the offset reliability.  

A construction materials producer covered by Australia's Safeguard Mechanism reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by almost 10% year-on-year (YoY) in FY2024-5, it said on Tuesday.

Pump for the future – Accelerating the uptake of heat pumps for residential heating would help free up gas for industrial users, said a report by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) on Tuesday. Replacing gas and inefficient electric heaters with heat pumps could avoid the use of 48 petajoules of gas per year, or around 40% of current production, said the group. It would deliver net electricity savings of up to 4,000 GWh and cut household energy bills by around NZ$1.5 bln ($891 mln) per year. The report noted that demand will soon outstrip supply, in the absence any policy actions to reduce demand. It also noted that there has not been any new commercial gas fields found in the country since 2000, and that exploration drilling had ceased by 2015 – before the now-repealed exploration ban came into force in 2018. Among its policy recommendations, NZGBC called for the government to subsidise heat pumps and hot water heat pumps, phase out gas hot water systems, and require new buildings to be fully electric.

You can't measure what you don't map - The Carbon Removal Standards Initiative has published a map that broadly tracks activity across the CDR ecosystem. The effort captures integrated projects and ideas that physically embed inside existing sectors of the economy and support non-carbon goals of such sectors, which the group said is needed to help build familiarity, trust, and scale in the industry.

Picking battles - The Trump administration has filed fewer civil lawsuits against major polluters for breaking environmental laws in its first six months relative to the former Biden administration, the New York Times reported Friday. 11 civil lawsuits were filed as of the current Trump presidency, compared with 30 under the former Biden presidency, as some environmental lawyers, activists, and former officials said that the enforcement slowdown has let polluters off the hook.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) future settlements hovered around the same price last week, as traders said that temperatures through the end of summer could challenge an anticipated pre-auction sell-off.

Not having a gas – Manufacturers in New Zealand are at risk of a deindustrialisation crisis if the gas shortage persists, BusinessNZ Energy Council executive director Tina Schirr warned. Her comments came as a survey of businesses relying on gas by the consultancy Optima found that half of the respondents had reduced headcount, increased costs, and reduced production due to a more than doubling of gas prices over the past five years, RNZ reported on Tuesday. Around 40% of businesses can switch to biomass or other alternative fuels, but an equal amount also said there is no commercially available options in the short term, Schirr said. Biogas is another option, although neither potential developers nor users are willing to financially commit to the fuel, she said. Resources minister Shane Jones last week was seeking advice on where the power system could use more coal and free up gas for industry. Both industrials and power generators have been increasingly turning to biomass in New Zealand, while the country’s gas reserves are dropping faster than expected. The government repealed the 2018 ban on new oil and gas exploration at the end of July.