Carbon Pulse

The New Zealand government has announced it will begin charging an annual fee of NZ$30.25 ($17.90) per hectare on post-1989 forest land in the emissions trading scheme, as well as thrusting a litany of service fees on participants, sparking outrage from forestry groups.

A Tokyo-based offset project developer is planning to work with a smart agricultural solution provider to expand its credit-generating business in Japan, eyeing rice cultivation projects.

Australia has opened consultation on a guarantee of origin scheme for clean hydrogen, as the nation has ambitious hydrogen plans for both a domestic and export industry, with its roadmap for development closing last month. 

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Potential investors in biodiversity credits must engage effectively with Indigenous peoples or risk sub-par returns, as the wider financial sector moves towards building nature into their decision-making, according to the co-lead of a UN finance initiative.

Homegrown clean and renewable electrification remains the answer for the EU's decarbonisation and security of supply, but more investment and infrastructure upgrades are urgently needed to enable a tripling in electrification rates by 2050, a according to an industry group report published on Thursday.

Futures contracts for carbon credits tagged with its Core Carbon Principles (CCP) moniker could appear soon, a member of the Integrity Council on the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (ICVCM) executive body said Wednesday, as the cross-stakeholder group has introduced working groups that could fast-track some offset categories for labelling.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which oversees Norway’s NOK15.3 trillion ($1.4 trillion) sovereign wealth fund, on Friday published stricter climate action guidelines for companies in which it invests, highlighting that climate risk equates to financial risk but also offers opportunities.

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) on Friday evening announced it had approved, in principle, a set of administrative measures that will underpin the relaunch of its national carbon offset programme, which has been suspended for more than six years.

In a webinar Friday, a panel of labour representatives cautioned the state against over-zealous regulation in its forthcoming cap-and-invest programme, while urging the protection of workers and jobs.

California and Quebec will offer more carbon allowances at the November auction in comparison to the Q3 2023 sale in August following the inclusion of past vintage units, according to a government notice published Friday.

Compliance entities moved their positions on the California Carbon Allowance (CCA) market to the current year while selling off RGGI Allowances (RGAs) , while speculators rolled their CCA positions to next year and picked up RGAs over the past week, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

A US-based agricultural technology firm providing carbon services and products has raised over $250 million to advance its suite of offerings for sustainable agriculture, according to a release published Friday that follows reports of a steep drop in the company's valuation.

A  carbon credit certifier announced a partnership with two international institutions to develop  methodologies for blue carbon and blue economy on Thursday, while signalling a long-term aim to broaden its work beyond carbon. 

Bamboo could be the next market to boom in nature-based removal solutions as a startup developer in Uganda expects its first batch of afforestation carbon credits to trade at $20, although the company’s expansion plans into Kenya may be at risk from the country’s new revenue sharing demands for local communities.   

Verra has largely welcomed the latest academic bashing of REDD methodologies because it says the criticisms are addressed in its upcoming VCS methodology updates, although the standard body has also pointed out some areas that need to be clarified.

In the nascent and fragmented biochar market, more could be done to tie the carbon credit price for a project with how the biochar will ultimately be used, such as in concrete or as a soil amendment, and subsequently how long the carbon will likely be sequestered.

More than a trillion dollars have now been committed to boost renewables and access to electricity and clean cooking technologies by 2030, although it falls far short of the funds needed to meet the Paris Agreement climate target, warns a report released Friday ahead of a UN summit.

The UK’s approach to using biomass to produce electricity will be closely examined by the country’s National Audit Office, following ongoing critique about where the fuel is sourced and concerns by environmental activists that burning biomass is not truly renewable.