Carbon Pulse

Beef production by Brazil's three biggest meatpackers is fuelling illegal deforestation in the Cerrado region, with an area bigger than Chicago cleared between 2008 and 2019 within ranches supplying the companies, an NGO investigation has found.

The regulatory backbone of compliance mechanisms will help to support and scale the voluntary carbon market (VCM) as the two increasingly overlap, with buyers moving away from individual project assessment to rely instead on the oversight of schemes like CORSIA and Article 6 as a benchmark for credit quality, experts told a webinar Wednesday.

Several improved forest management (IFM) methodologies present a high risk of overstating emissions impacts, according to factsheets released Wednesday alongside a new set of carbon credit quality scores by a German think tank in partnership with NGOs.

South Africa’s treasury on Wednesday proposed increasing the national carbon tax rate from 190 rand to 640 rand per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent after the country's new climate change bill comes into effect.

The next European Commission term should unleash “a Juncker plan on steroids” to spur on climate investment, the Commission's top climate official said in Brussels on Wednesday.

RePlanet is partnering with other companies on five biodiversity credit initiatives around the world that could each generate “$10 million or more", via an impending blockchain process, an executive has estimated.

Microsoft has signed an offtake agreement for 350,000 tonnes of voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) credits over six years from an agroforestry project in Kenya - the company's second deal this month.

EU carbon prices stabilised at slightly lower levels on Wednesday morning as the market digested weekly Commitment of Traders data that showed a small change in speculative traders' positions, leaving bulls and bears lacking strong support for their preferred price direction.

The Bezos Earth Fund will pledge $5 million to the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) to support its conservation efforts in the Congo Basin, the US-based organisation has announced.

Gold Standard has epanded activities under its soil carbon methodology, announcing a new module for zero tillage alongside consultations for cover crops and managed pastures, in what will see the scope of projects eligible for crediting increase.

Taiwanese emitters are likely to enjoy special discounts if they propose Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi)-aligned emissions reduction plans under the upcoming carbon levy scheme, which could see more clarity by the end of this quarter.

Some of the EU’s biggest polluting sectors say they are on board with cutting the bloc’s emissions by 90% by 2040 but warn it will not happen without the policy and financial incentives to maintain their global competitiveness. 

Australia’s two largest iron ore miners have disparate views on the green transition of the steel industry their commodity supplies, reports released this week showed.

A large global bank has become one of the first to set goals for the emissions of its capital markets activities, it said Wednesday.

A senior carbon and biodiversity sourcing specialist has left South Pole to join a rival project developer.

A policy paper has called for the UK to include voluntary carbon credits issued under the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) as part of its domestic compliance carbon market.

Nearly 300 European, international, and Ukrainian NGOs have written to the leaders of the EU and G7, urging them to tighten their control over Russia's fossil fuel exports.

Investment in the clean transition must reach €813 billion a year this decade - double the amount spent in 2022 - if the EU is to meet its 2030 climate target and ensure the European Green Deal is a success, according to the first comprehensive analysis on the bloc’s climate investments.

A major trading house in Japan has launched a performance-based payment scheme that encourages the use of anti-fouling paint for ship bottoms with the view of driving down emissions in the shipping sector, it announced Wednesday.

Australia’s second largest oil and gas company said Wednesday it sees CCS as the main way forward to control its carbon emissions, while committing to closer monitoring of its Scope 3 emissions.