Feed aggregator

A carbon analytics firm has said it expects nearly 200 million tonnes CO2 in voluntary carbon market (VCM) retirements in 2025, with the possibility of substantially more if demand from the UN’s CORSIA international aviation offsetting scheme is factored in.

Greenpeace says PM has ‘swallowed industry spin whole’ after plans unveiled to expand in England and Wales

Keir Starmer has channelled his inner Donald Trump and promised to “build, baby, build” in his push for more nuclear power stations, despite warnings from environmental groups about the industry’s record for soaring costs and long delays.

A day after the prime minister unveiled his plans to revamp planning rules to bring in a series of small modular reactors (SMRs) across England and Wales, Greenpeace said Starmer had “swallowed the nuclear industry spin whole”, and Friends of the Earth described the plans as “overblown, costly hype”.

Continue reading...

Brazil's Pantanal biome - which represents the world's largest wetlands area - has the potential to host carbon credit projects on 1.2 million hectares, according to a report by a Brazilian think tank.

A sluggish shift to clean heating risks derailing the EU's 2030 decarbonisation targets adopted under the Emissions Trading System for buildings and transport (ETS2), which is due to kick off in 2027, researchers say.

Middlewick Ranges in Colchester considered to be of national importance for nightingales and acid grassland

A council is proposing to remove the second-best place for nightingales in the UK from its local plan for 1,000 new homes, in a win for community campaigners and environmentalists.

Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range on the southern edge of Colchester, is set to be dropped from the city council’s allocated housing sites after councillors heeded a growing array of ecological evidence highlighting its national importance for nature.

Continue reading...

On almost every level the chancellor’s decision to expand the London airport looks naive, if not foolish

For 20 years, politicians, industry leaders and campaigners have fought in courts, parliament and public meetings over the idea of building a new runway for Heathrow. For some, a third runway would not only boost passenger numbers at the airport but would be a symbol of the country’s determination to seek economic regeneration. For others, it would demonstrate, in vivid terms, our complete failure to understand the grim, global threat posed by further increasing carbon emissions.

Last week, Rachel Reeves chose to enter the fray. Remarkably, for a supposed green chancellor, she elected to back the project and seek the expansion of Heathrow to raise its annual passenger capacity by 50% to about 140 million. “A third runway at Heathrow would unlock further growth, boost investment, increase exports and make the UK more open and more connected,” she claimed. It was a bold move. It is unlikely history will view it as a sensible or justifiable one, however. On almost every level – political, local or environmental – her decision looks naive, if not foolish.

Continue reading...

The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) is seeking feedback on a new code of conduct to ensure responsible financing in the sector, as it waits to discover if any carbon crediting methodologies pass the Integrity Council of the Voluntary Carbon Market's (ICVCM) quality test in the coming months.

The European Commission adopted a draft regulation on Thursday to calculate the annual price difference between sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and fossil kerosene, so that airlines can obtain funding support from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

US tech giant Google spent over $100 million on contracting carbon removal last year, three times more than it had initially planned, the company said Thursday, hinting it would continue to scale up investment in the sector this year.

The international emission trading association IETA has said more clarity is needed on how the EU’s Carbon Removals Carbon Farming (CRCF) will be implemented so as to facilitate the uptake of high quality carbon removal.

Washington has suspended funding for the forest finance LEAF Coalition initiative as part of a wider withdrawal from foreign aid under the new administration of President Donald Trump.

An environmental standard announced on Thursday it has opened a public consultation on its framework for Nature Stewardship Credits (NSCs), setting out eligibility criteria for biodiversity conservation and restoration projects with demonstrated social benefits.

Madagascar is keen to get involved with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and is aiming to develop a national registry and standards to start generating credits, the country's Designated National Authority (DNA) said on Thursday.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has seen the first trades of carbon credits, which are eligible to be used as offsets against the country’s carbon tax, the exchange announced Thursday.

The UK is on track to reduce emissions by 82% by 2050, lowering household energy costs along the way, even though carbon prices would increase significantly to $250/tonne, according to a report by an industrial risk management company.

The European Commission’s legislative proposal for a 2040 climate target plan, initially expected early in the year, is now slated for the second quarter of 2025, according to a leaked document suggesting the proposal could be put forward after the Polish presidential election in May.

The world’s biggest offshore wind developer Orsted has slashed investment by 25% up to 2030 in the wake of challenges to the renewable energy industry and the decision by US President Donald Trump to suspend new leases for offshore wind in the US.

A member of the European Research Council has endorsed the use of nature credits to address the biodiversity crisis, provided that the mechanism is developed 'cautiously', she told the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) on Thursday.

The European Commission has awarded approximately €120 million to support the development of a liquefied CO2 receiving terminal at a planned storage site in Greece, the project developer announced on Thursday.

European carbon prices edged higher on Thursday morning amid further gains in gas and power with traders still questioning the bullish trend, while reports that the European Commission is considering ways to water down the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism for small and medium-sized enterprises triggered speculation over what the impact might be for demand and free allocation.