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Environmental Protection Agency rule seeks to curb ‘super pollutant’ more potent than carbon dioxide in short term

Oil and natural gas companies for the first time will have to pay a federal fee if they emit dangerous methane above certain levels under a rule being made final by the Biden administration.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule follows through on a directive from Congress included in the 2022 climate law. The new fee is intended to encourage industry to adopt best practices that reduce emissions of methane – the primary component of natural gas – and thereby avoid paying the fee.

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All bird species have declined in number, after suffering habitat loss, pesticide use, climate breakdown and bird flu

Wild bird numbers in the UK are continuing to fall despite government promises to halt nature decline by 2030.

Data released by the government on Tuesday shows that over the past five years, all bird species have faced population decline after suffering from habitat loss, pesticide use, climate breakdown and bird flu. Overall, bird species have declined in number UK-wide by 2% and in England by 7% in the five years since 2018.

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Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions have surged by 40% since 1980, driven mainly by agricultural practices, and are set to climb another 30% over 2020 levels by 2050 if left unchecked, according to a UN-backed report released on Wednesday at COP29.

Shell has won an appeal against a landmark climate ruling in the Netherlands that would have forced the oil and gas giant to radically cut back its greenhouse gas emissions, including indirect scope 3 emissions, to comply with the Paris Agreement.  

The UK will slash its emissions by 81% in the next decade under an updated Paris Agreement pledge, which many on Tuesday cautiously welcomed as a "shining example" of leadership at the start of tense COP29 negotiations while warning that it needs to be backed up with actual policies.

A US programme for improved forest management (IFM) carbon projects has published a report outlining the key steps developers must take to ensure the quality and integrity of their projects, tackling issues of additionality, permanence, leakage, and social integrity.

European carbon allowance prices were modestly lower at midday on Tuesday after early weakness tested a key technical support and gave way to to a steady rally along with the main energy markets.

A regional government in England has launched the country's first local nature recovery strategy, eyeing nature markets to mobilise private financing towards biodiversity conservation and restoration activities.

Ofgem gives green light to five interconnectors capable of powering millions of homes

• Business live – latest updates

Projects to lay five subsea power cables capable of powering millions of homes have been given the green light as Great Britain prepares to use its giant offshore windfarms to become a net exporter of green electricity in the 2030s.

The energy regulator, Ofgem, has approved three subsea cable projects linking Great Britain to power grids in Germany, Ireland and Northern Ireland to help share renewable electricity across borders.

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Indonesia on Tuesday launched a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) to formalise bilateral carbon trading, with Japan the first nation to sign up and others expected to follow.

Singapore on Tuesday announced it will commit $500 million in concessional funding to its Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P), as it laid out the next steps of its plan for coal power plant transition credits.

A group of three organisations have launched an ocean fund to enhance efforts for protecting 30% of Southeast Asian seas by 2030, seeking to catalyse conservation actions in one of the world's most biodiverse marine regions.

More and more buyers in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) are moving towards offtake agreements and increasingly buying to retire rather than resell, new data seen and analysed by Carbon Pulse suggests.

Brexit, the cost of living and the climate crisis are all making farmers’ lives much more difficult. Taxing us is not the answer

• Tom Fairfax farms Mindrum Farm in Northumberland

Last year, Keir Starmer looked farmers in the eye at the annual National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference and said he knew what it meant to lose a farm. It is “not like losing any other business”, he said. “It can’t come back.” Since then, Labour has announced a number of new measures aimed at farmers, including dropping the inheritance tax exemption that many have enjoyed. This is a drastic shift for an already strained sector and has sparked heated debate among farmers I know. But one thing has been missing: an understanding of farming and the pressures it faces.

The modern UK farming industry has been shaped by decades of government policy aimed at ensuring we have enough food to survive. While agriculture isn’t directly state controlled, the government’s influence is felt through regulation and incentives. If you are old enough, you may remember rationing, which marked an era when governments prioritised access to cheap calories, driving the shift toward intensive farming. This focus, backed by successive governments, led to farmers ramping up production by using new technology and infrastructure, and chemicals such as DDT and glyphosate. But cheap food had vast environmental and social costs, posing a drastic threat to the sector’s sustainability and resilience in the long term, as soils were depleted and biodiverse habitats gave way to monocultures.

Tom Fairfax farms Mindrum Farm, a regenerative mixed farm in the Cheviot foothills in Northumberland

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A state-backed Saudi company created to scale up the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in developing countries launched Saudi Arabia’s first voluntary carbon market exchange platform on Tuesday on the sidelines of COP29 in Baku.

China can reduce huge amounts of methane at a profit with the greatest short-term potential available in the energy sector, though the long-term abatement outlook will depend on government support for agriculture to explore its mitigation opportunities, according to a recent study.

'2024 – a masterclass in climate destruction.' That is how the UN secretary general, António Guterres, started his address to world leaders at Cop29 on Tuesday. 'Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; floods tearing through communities, and tearing down infrastructure; children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops. All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change,' he said

• Cop29: 2024 has been ‘masterclass in climate destruction’, says UN chief – live updates

• Critics say approval of ‘climate credits’ rules on day one of Cop29 was rushed

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A newly released platform will connect biochar startups with investors, financiers and buyers looking to purchase carbon credits.

It is Day 2 at COP29, the start of the two-day World Leaders Summit. In our daily running blog, Carbon Pulse will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (GMT+4).

Keir Starmer and Viktor Orbán among the delegates expected to address the UN climate conference

The UN and the Cop presidency have celebrated last night’s early breakthrough on carbon credits rules that pave the way for a carbon market. “Yesterday we secured critical progress on one of our key priorities, article 6” said Azerbaijan’s lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev, referring to a fraught section of the Paris agreement that has frustrated climate negotiators for nearly a decade. The move is a “gamechanger to direct resources to the developing world and save up to $250bn a year to implement climate plans,” he said.

Carbon markets let rich countries and companies pay poor ones to cut emissions and count the savings on their own. It’s a process that can speed up climate action by plucking cheap and low-hanging fruit first, but runs the risk of being abused when underwhelming or harmful projects are credited, or when projects are double-counted.

NGOs reacted with anger to the way in which the rules were pushed through on Monday night, describing it as a “backdoor deal”. The supervisory body adopted new standards ahead of the summit and recommended the parties to approve it, breaking with previous years in which it had given negotiators a set of recommendations to discuss.

Maria Aljishi, chair of the supervisory body, said further work was being done to develop standards at a press conference on Tuesday. “We absolutely must follow due process at all times. The CMA [parties to the Paris agreement] are free to give the supervisory body any guidance, and we are more than happy to receive that guidance and act on it.”

The world leaders in attendance have posed for the traditional “family photo” before the high-level segment gets under way.

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