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California's electricity sector emissions in September rose year-on-year (YoY), even as the share of natural gas in the power mix decreased, according to a report from the state's grid operator.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries could be on the verge of a historic agreement on international carbon markets at COP29, after presidency proposal texts were published late on Friday and multiple sources said that consensus may now be present on the key outstanding technicalities of international carbon trade under Article 6.

Talk grows of a walkout from poor countries in response to ‘unacceptable’ and ‘insulting’ finance proposal

Developing countries were being urged by civil society groups to reject “a bad deal” at the UN climate talks on Friday night, after rich nations refused to increase an “insulting” offer of finance to help them tackle the climate crisis.

The stage is set for a bitter row on Saturday over how much money poor countries should receive from the governments of the rich world, which have offered $250bn a year by 2035 to help the poor shift to a low-carbon economy and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather.

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Greece has unveiled an multi-billion-euro investment vehicle with the EU to decarbonise its islands’ energy sources, raising funding in part from the sale of 25 million carbon allowances.

Chancellor understood to be determined to keep policy despite Treasury analysing ways to soften impact

Rachel Reeves is holding firm against a U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers, despite the Treasury analysing ways of softening the impact.

The chancellor is understood to be determined not to drop the policy even though some Labour MPs – and even ministers – are worrying about the political fallout of the policy that has seen farmers protesting in Westminster this week.

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The UK risks facing a tax on electricity exports to the EU in the range of £40-50 (€43-55) per megawatt-hour under the bloc's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), experts told a webinar Friday about the UK's need for electricity market reform.

Great British Energy, the UK government-owned company being set up to spearhead the country's energy transition, will make investments in risky technologies that governments usually avoid, a conference heard this week.

The Bahamas government has signed a deal to refinance $300 million of its external debt, in a move that is expected to unlock more than $120 mln for marine conservation over the next 15 years.

A new climate finance goal of $250 billion by 2035 was proposed in a draft presidency text published on Friday at COP29, falling well below the $1.3 trillion figure requested by developing nations, while provisions that would encourage carbon markets were deleted from the latest version.

India is in talks with the governments of South Korea and Singapore to sign agreements on a framework for the transaction of Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, sources have told Carbon Pulse on the sidelines of COP29 in Baku.

Food and garden rubbish is sorted and then cooked to produce rich compost at this waste management centre

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Ash Turner sizes up a four-metre-high, 60-tonne mound of food waste and garden rubbish and points out the problematic interlopers amid the grass clippings, hedge trimmings, mango seeds, calla lilies and biodegradable bags full of food.

“So that’s a biodegradable bag … that’s not … that’s oversized,” he says, pointing to a tree stump that will be too big to be broken down by the various machines in the plant.

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European carbon prices were modestly weaker at midday on Friday amid some end-of-week profit taking that also pushed natural gas prices down, despite a shift in power generation economics that analysts said puts coal above gas for the next three months.

Cop29 is taking place in a country whose economy has long been dependent on its oil reserves

Oil runs deep in Azerbaijan, the host country of this year’s UN climate summit. Just 30 minutes south-west of the Cop29 conference centre lies the site of the world’s first industrially drilled oil well, opened in 1846.

Just metres away sit a handful of operating oil wells, nodding away. The Guardian spoke to an employee of Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, who was working on one of the wells. Asked what oil meant for Azerbaijan, the 47-year-old worker said: “Too much!”

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A late-stage presidency text for the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) has eliminated any mention of the Paris Agreement's global warming limit goals, and repeated its exclusion of ‘fossil fuels’ or ‘renewables’ language, reversing course on last year’s landmark COP28 Global Stocktake (GST). 

Draft text under fire as poor nations wanted more of the money to come directly from developed countries

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Developing countries have reacted angrily to an offer of $250bn a year in finance from the rich world – considerably less than they are demanding – to help them tackle the climate crisis.

The offer was contained in the draft text of an agreement published on Friday afternoon at the Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where talks are likely to carry on past a 6pm deadline.

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What it means for the global climate effort if another superpower comes to the fore, just as Trump steps back

A Mexican state has partnered with a Franco-Mexican environmental credit company to kickstart a programme aimed at advancing the local biodiversity and carbon market.

Ongoing work to finalise outstanding rules for certain tax credits within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will be completed before the end President Biden's term, a top US Department of Energy (DOE) official said this week, although work on final rules for other credits may be left in the hands of the new Trump administration.

CO2 allowance prices in China’s carbon market remained stable over the past week, with a surge in the weekly trading volume as compliance demand continues to grow.

Levels in people’s blood for 37 chemicals linked to health issues declined after they were designated under Prop 65

California’s nation-leading restrictions on toxic chemicals in consumer products reduced the population’s body levels for many dangerous compounds linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive harm and other serious health issues.

New peer-reviewed research showed levels in residents’ blood for 37 chemicals the authors analyzed had declined after the substances were designated under Proposition 65, which regulates toxic chemicals in consumer goods.

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