Carbon Pulse

EU carbon prices took back Tuesday's losses in a strong morning session on Wednesday, benefiting from a wider relief rally that followed calming overnight headlines, while UKA prices advanced to their highest in a month as optimism grew ahead of an EU-UK meeting that will see market linking discussed.

A responsible investment non-profit will call upon the board of a large UK bank to close the loophole allowing it to continue financing oil and gas companies without a credible climate transition plan, during its annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Biochar was the most purchased carbon removal method in Q1 2025, making up nearly a third of all contracted credits, with several new buyers entering the voluntary carbon market, according to a London-based carbon data platform.

Allowing international carbon credits to meet the EU’s 2040 climate goal risks dealing a fatal blow to the bloc’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), warns Swedish MEP Emma Wiesner, who is mounting a pushback in the European Parliament against the idea.

XPRIZE has awarded $80 million to six carbon removal companies developing "highly-scalable" technology, with a US-based Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) project developer taking the $50 mln grand prize, the non-profit announced Wednesday.

Nestle has partnered with a global cocoa supplier on an agroforestry initiative that aims to cut 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 over 30 years, the two companies announced Tuesday.

A New Zealand judge has rejected an effort to have the list of defendants in a landmark climate case for the Pacific country expanded, according to reports.

A coalition of US business groups requested the courts to scrutinise and enjoin California’s climate disclosure laws, favouring a preliminary injunction as immediate relief pending resolution of litigation.

As the IEA and UK government convene a summit on energy security, Poland, holder of the EU presidency, argues that access to low-carbon resources, technologies and their supply chains will be decisive for European energy – and economic – security. Other experts say the future of net zero and European prosperity lies in close cooperation with China.

A major US CO2 pipeline project faces uncertainty as South Dakota regulators rejected its permit application for the second time in a narrow vote Tuesday.

Climate experts are increasingly growing wary of the usefulness of global temperature targets and the “net zero” concept, both as a goal and as a metric for measuring climate progress, several policy academics have said.

Reducing synthetic fertiliser use in Brazil through regenerative agriculture and other means could curb the country's fertiliser-related greenhouse gas emissions up to 86% by 2050 — whereas inaction could see related emissions rise 89% by then, according to a report published on Wednesday. 

The global shipping sector's greenhouse gas emissions increased in the first quarter of the year, as the sector braces itself for continued uncertainty due to trade tariffs and conflicts, according to the latest report by a maritime technology company published on Wednesday.

New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission (CCC) has recommended small tweaks to the country’s ETS in its latest annual advice to the government, released Wednesday.

Accelerating the use of remote sensing technologies and standardisation of requirements between carbon credit methodologies could help improve monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) practices for forestry offset projects, experts said at a Tuesday panel.

Chilean ministries are discussing policies that could further increase and diversify carbon retirements against a national CO2 tax on the heels of unexpectedly large offset volumes, and contemplating a role for voluntary credits in ETS designs, according to a top official.

Low-carbon hydrogen should be directed towards hard-to-abate industries like steel, glass, and chemicals production, as well as heavy-duty vehicles and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), but avoided in any sector that can be electrified such as personal transport and most home heating, said experts on a webinar about next steps for the UK’s hydrogen industry.

Voluntary carbon market (VCM) standard Verra released Tuesday a new module for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) under its carbon capture and storage (CCS) methodology.

Transitioning to a net zero or negative energy system can be 14-20% more expensive without biomass for energy production, and may simply be unattainable if Europe aims to achieve negative emissions in the long run, according to Swedish and German researchers.

A British company director has been banned for 11 years after hundreds of investors lost more than £8.5 million in two failed schemes linked to "green" teak plantations in Brazil.