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The US CO2 removal (CDR) industry is facing challenges as political support decreases, investors grow cautious, and federal funding becomes uncertain, according to a recent article by an ex-DOE employee.

A new prize recognises the power of storytelling to address the biggest issue of our time

No novelist should ignore the climate emergency, Paul Murray, author of the bestselling novel The Bee Sting, told the Observer last year: “It is the unavoidable background for being alive in the 21st century.” In recognition of the vital role of literature in responding to the Anthropocene moment, this week the inaugural shortlist was announced for the Climate Fiction prize.

The five novels include Orbital by Samantha Harvey, set during one day on the International Space Station and the winner of last year’s Booker prize; time-travelling romcom The Ministry of Time from debut novelist Kaliane Bradley; eco-thriller Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen; And So I Roar, about a young girl in Nigeria, by Abi Daré; and a story of migrants in an abandoned city in Téa Obreht’s The Morningside. All the shortlisted authors are women.

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The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) took a strong step towards cleaning up the cookstoves sector, according to the experts behind a critical research paper that claimed a large share of projects had been heavily over-credited in the past.

Political announcements on the possibility of negotiations between the UK and Europe over linking their carbon markets have triggered significant price volatility in UKAs in the last two weeks, but analysts have cast doubt over the likelihood of meaningful talks leading to an agreement in the near term.

Future prices under the EU's emissions trading system (ETS2) targeting heating and road transport fuels will largely depend on how quickly five European countries can decarbonise, with road transport playing a key role, a think tank has found.

A large Brazilian bank announced on Thursday it has raised R$1.4 billion ($250 million) with a bond aimed at funding biodiversity conservation and social programmes across the country.

The signatories of the ASEAN Common Carbon Framework (ACCF) met this week to discuss the modalities of a common carbon market for the region, expecting to launch a pilot by Q4 2025.

Brazil must engage non-carbon market instruments and more traditional finance flows to conserve and restore its forests, the chair of a Brazilian private social investment foundation has said.

The status of Australia's environment slightly improved last year, though habitat destruction, invasive species, and the ongoing climate crisis continue to threaten native ecosystems, according to an annual report released this week.

Permit prices in China's national emissions market fell slightly this week with the closing price remaining below the 90-yuan mark for the third consecutive week, while the CCER market saw continued interest amid fresh supply.

Bucharest has an obligation to provide 10.3 million tonnes of annual CO2 storage capacity under the EU’s Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), representing about 20% of the EU’s objective by 2030, according to figures circulated in Brussels by the country’s national regulator.

European carbon prices opened with a gap higher on Friday morning as energy prices also jumped on reports of an attack on infrastructure at the Sudzha gas transmission facility in western Russia, before falling back amid steady selling for much of the morning, while UKAs hit a nine-month high after yet another update that the UK government was considering linking to the EU ETS.

European retail banks largely overlook plastic pollution in their lending decisions, which is poised to expose them to increasing financial risks, according to a London-based think tank.

Broadcaster and nature campaigner claims Labour’s attack on wildlife in push for economic growth is ‘PR disaster’

Bats are being “scapegoated” by Rachel Reeves, Chris Packham has said, after the chancellor suggested the winged creatures were getting in the way of economic growth.

Reeves recently said she wanted businesses to “focus on getting things built, and stop worrying about the bats and the newts”, and this week the press release announcing her shake-up of all the UK’s regulators mentioned bats six times. A very niche directive to Natural England, the nature watchdog, to take advice from the Bat Conservation Trust out of a planning document, became the linchpin of Reeves’s deregulation plan.

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Subsidiaries of two publicly-listed Thai companies have partnered to develop a mangrove reforestation project aimed at generating blue carbon credits, the companies announced this week.

Campaigners welcome long-delayed proposals to reduce pesticide-related harms to pollinators

The use of pesticides on UK farms is to be reduced by 10% by 2030 under government plans to protect bees and other pollinators.

Campaigners welcomed the news, but said they were disappointed that the target applied only to arable farms and not to urban areas and parks.

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Marine engineering company Seatrium, formed from the bones of a dissolved Keppel and Sembcorp, is bullish on renewables, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and ammonia while seeing a central place for hydrocarbons in the energy transition.

Four Japanese companies have been selected to help advance a digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system for the country's carbon offset programme.

Most of the carbon absorbed by land over the past three decades has ended up in non-living reservoirs rather than in growing trees and plants, according to a study that challenges previous models of Earth’s carbon cycle.

Thanks to breathtaking negligence, the liquid fertiliser used to help grow our food bubbles with a lethal cocktail of toxins

If humanity has an epitaph, it might read something like this: “Knackered by the things we missed.” It is true that several existential threats are widely known and widely discussed. But some of the greatest dangers we face appear on almost no one’s radar.

How often have you thought about this one: spreading sewage sludge on farmland? I would guess very few would include it in their top civilisational hazards. Despite the best efforts of a handful of us, it trundles on, unknown to most. Surprising as it may seem, new research suggests that it could help call time on us.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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