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The difference between potential revenues from selling off rainforest areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo to fossil fuel exploration or generating revenues from carbon sales is in the billions, according to a research paper seen by Carbon Pulse during COP28, underscoring the financial pressures forest-rich countries face when looking to protect natural assets. 

Carbon assets are emerging as a potential lever for international aid and development finance at COP28, suggest recent announcements and remarks by civil society actors at COP28.

A document establishing a framework for Pakistan’s involvement in the international carbon markets and laying the foundation for domestic activities is being held up in Cabinet due to a low level of awareness of the issues at the federal level, a representative from Pakistan has told Carbon Pulse.

Summit focuses on agriculture as critics say sustainable roadmap on food criticised does not go far enough

• China ‘would like to see agreement to substitute renewables for fossil fuels’

Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s climate envoy, made this call on Sunday morning:

“There is a real urgency of action to keep the planetary pain threshold of 1.5° in reach. Today is the day the presidency takes over primary responsibility for figuring out what the most ambitious version of an outcome package can be at this COP. The COP presidency has reiterated many times that they are here to facilitate an ambitious decision. This means there needs to be strong language on the phase out of fossil fuels in line with 1.5°C. At the same time, it is clear that least developed countries will not be able to go at the same speed as G20 economic powerhouses. They have to meet development needs but also have the opportunity now to leapfrog unsustainable decisions. This is why we need a package that combines energy transition and energy access. As the presidency takes us into “Majlis” (elder council formats), the question is: can we rise to the occasion and bring up the balance of the package to enable acceleration across the board. Or will we allow a small group of actors to tear down the chance of a historic decision that would give our businesses and our markets clarity about the long-term direction of travel.”

It’s great we finally have the global goal on adaptation text with adaptation targets included. But overall, the text is weak and doesn’t sufficiently address the aspiration for setting the required adaptation measures and indicators and mobilising adaptation financing. On the important question of setting these indicators to measure adaptation progress towards achieving the targets, it kicks the can down the road for another two years. Two years is too long and misses the opportunity to set the long-term finance goal (known as the New Collective Quantified Goal).

The adaptation goal is a playbook for how the world is going to adapt to the climate change that is already happening and will continue to happen, even if we stopped using fossil fuels today. Ending fossil fuels is about how to stop climate change – the adaptation goal is how we help people who are suffering from its impacts. We also remain far too low on funding. The goal for 2023 was to raise $300m for the adaptation fund, but at COP28 we’ve only seen $169m in pledges, a mere 56% of the intended amount. This is particularly galling considering that only last month, the UN’s environment programme published its adaptation gap report which calculates the difference between the world’s adaptation need and the amount of finance that has been committed. It found that this gap stands at around $387 billion. This is 10-18 times the actual finance flows to the countries and 50 per cent more than the previous estimate.”

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A carbon storage company plans to partner with biogenic emitters in order to help valorise their CO2 streams by burying emissions in nearby mine pits and generate revenues from the resulting carbon credits sales.

Two New Zealand NGOs launched a nature-based solution to restore and enhance 2.1 million hectares of diverse indigenous forest across the country, they announced on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai.

An initiative aiming to transform food and land use systems to be more climate resilient through mechanisms such as climate-smart agriculture, production intensification, and smallholder support was launched Sunday, with country commitments set to be included in national climate plans.

Canada plans to next year introduce legislation that would hold the government accountable for making progress towards and meeting its commitments on nature and biodiversity, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced Saturday.

Country negotiators on international carbon trade rules under Article 6 have run into trouble amid what they say is a toxic atmosphere at COP28, with a "bare bones" draft text published late on Saturday angering several parties, and time reportedly being wasted on theoretical issues rather than ensuring key safeguards and important technicalities are defined.

Targets include cutting methane emissions from livestock by 25%, halving food waste and managing fisheries sustainably by 2030

• Cop28 summit: live updates

Reforming the world’s food systems will be a key step in limiting global temperature rises, the UN said on Sunday, as it set out the first instalment of a roadmap for providing food and farming while staying within 1.5C.

Food production is highly vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis, with research suggesting that as much as a third of global food could be at risk from global heating.

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A bold genomic process is being harnessed to eliminate decades of interbreeding with domestic moggies

Scientists are preparing plans to restore the fortunes of Scotland’s threatened Highland wildcats – by identifying and removing DNA they have acquired from domestic cats.

Researchers have warned that the Highland tiger, as the wildcat is also known, is critically endangered because it has bred so much with domestic moggies. All animals now bear evidence of interbreeding, and many have little “wild” left in them.

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Scientists marvel at the fossilised head of an underwater 'killing machine' from the Jurassic.

It is Day 11 at COP28 and all eyes are on the next 48 hours of negotiations as a cautious optimism hangs in the air. The COP28 Presidency eyes a majlis - a ministerial gathering - today to find areas of agreement, followed by the first Global Stocktake (GST) text for delivery on Monday, ahead of the summit's formal close on Tuesday. Nonetheless, as the once-70,000-strong population of Expo City has begun to flock back to homelands, Carbon Pulse's team of correspondents continue to chase after news on the ground. In our daily running blog, we will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (Gulf Standard Time, GMT+4).

The CEO will help Gondwana build, motivate, inspire and retain a superb team of highly skilled, talented and motivated professionals and drive the successful expansion of the Gondwana brand across the globe.

Overemphasis on innovation and carbon removal risks distracting from main goal of stopping use of fossil fuels, say scientists

Machines to magic carbon out of the air, artificial intelligence, indoor vertical farms to grow food for our escape to Mars, and even solar-powered “responsible” yachts: the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai has been festooned with the promise of technological fixes for worsening global heating and ecological breakdown.

The UN climate talks have drawn a record number of delegates to a sprawling, freshly built metropolis, which has as its centrepiece an enormous dome that emits sounds and lights up in different colours at night. The two-week programme is laden with talks, events and demonstrations of the need for humanity to innovate its way out of the climate crisis.

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Turks and Caicos Islanders are helping protect the reef from the deadliest ever coral sickness.

Will the transition to a new clean energy system happen quickly, or will we fry the planet first?

Here's Carbon Pulse's summary of stories from the last Saturday at COP28 in Dubai. Our tireless team of journalists have now published more than 150 articles from this year's UN climate summit, providing our readers with unrivalled coverage. We reckon few, if any, other media outlets can boast more comprehensive reporting. Subscribe to CP Daily here or email admin@carbon-pulse to inquire about a subscription.

Trees are a public asset. When they are illegally destroyed in pursuit of better views or property prices, the losses are many and profound

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Woodford Bay on Sydney’s lower north shore, its exclusive white mansions and quaint boat sheds nestled into gnarly, urban bush abutting the harbour, has the type of serenity only lots of money can buy in Australia’s most ostentatiously wealthy city. Birdsong – of currawongs, magpies, kookaburras and gulls – is the bay’s bucolic daytime symphony, interrupted occasionally by the jarring cough of an outboard motor or car ignition.

By night you’d hear the metaphoric pin drop. And yet, confoundingly, nobody seems to have heard whoever, under night’s cover, recently illegally cut down almost 300 trees and hundreds of other plants on public bushland. Among the destroyed mature trees are eucalypts (including angophora), banksia and casuarina.

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But country’s climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, would not say whether it would support phase-out wording in climate deal

• Cop28 live – latest updates

China would like to see nations agree to substitute renewable energy for fossil fuels, the country’s chief climate official has said, as nations wrangled over the weekend on the wording of a deal on the climate crisis.

Xie Zhenhua, China’s climate envoy, would not be explicit on whether China supported or opposed a phase-out of fossil fuels, which more than 100 governments are pushing for at crucial climate talks, the Cop28 UN summit.

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