Carbon Pulse

British Colombia will require an escalating amount of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be incorporated into its jet fuel mix, according to low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) updates released this week.

A Calgary-headquartered oil and gas company plans to acquire approximately a quarter of shares in a joint venture that focuses on investing in nature-based carbon credit projects, the firm has announced in a move intended to expand the latter's number of pipeline projects.

The Egyptian government will launch a pilot of its planned compliance carbon market in Q1 2024, according to local media sources.

Green hydrogen will still be a blip in the world energy mix by the end of the decade, but the US, China, and the EU have locked horns in a high stakes race for supremacy that could decide whether the dollar, the yuan, or the euro becomes the international trading currency of the fuel of the future.

A twice-weekly summary of our biodiversity news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).

Measurement, reporting, and verification initiative MRV Collective has been relaunched as non-profit Nature Tech Collective to underline its change in focus towards nature technology.

Oman Arab Bank (OAB) will advance-purchase carbon credits linked to projects selected by the First Carbon Investments (FCI) platform with the goal of accelerating the viability of alternative fuels, according to a joint statement issued by the companies upon the signing of their MoU.

A first demonstration plant in Sweden for the production of fossil-free sponge iron, a precursor to steel, has received government grant support in an example of a public-private endeavour to clean up the steel industry.

With nature-related announcements and outcomes firmly in the spotlight at COP28, stakeholders have taken stock of the outcome from the Dubai conference and what it may mean for the global biodiversity crisis.

After COP28 talks ended in turmoil, UN carbon crediting under the Paris Agreement's Article 6 provision is now not expected until 2026, with the way forward complicated by political divisions, attention may pivot towards the voluntary carbon market and scaling international trading arrangements.

France's second-largest listed bank will no longer finance fossil fuels, it said on Thursday, and will also triple the financing of renewable energy projects by 2030, in a move seen to align with the UN Global Stocktake outcome from COP28.

A carbon crediting standard has teamed up with an intelligence platform to help stakeholders understand and navigate new regulations and policy changes affecting the carbon market, including those underpinning Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, they said Thursday.

A Zurich-headquartered direct air capture (DAC) company and a US-based consulting firm have signed a 15-year agreement that entails the purchase of tens of thousands of CO2 removal (CDR) credits by the latter, in a move the two say is intended to help scale the nascent technology.

An Estonia-based carbon removal platform has obtained €5.5 milllion in seed investment from a trio of venture capitalist investors, the start-up announced on Thursday.

A major US-headquartered exchange operator Nasdaq is pivoting blockchain technology originally developed for cryptocurrency trading towards carbon markets.

The European Parliament and Council of EU member states have reached a provisional deal on rules setting obligations for large companies to identify and remedy risks to the environment, human rights, and health arising from their value chain, including an obligation for companies to adopt Paris Agreement-aligned climate plans.

European carbon prices were largely steady on Thursday morning, as traders digested the relatively light price impact of the options expiry on Wednesday, as well as the weekly Commitment of Traders data that showed investment funds extended their short positions, while Dec-23 positions continued to be rolled into the Dec-24 contract.

Several companies have announced a partnership to ship captured CO2 from an UK ETS-covered gas power plant in southeast England up to northeast Scotland to then pipe onto permanent storage below the North Sea using re-purposed gas pipelines.

Co-legislators for the European Parliament and Council of member states struck a deal to reform the EU’s electricity market design early on Thursday morning, aiming to reform the market so as to shield citizens from higher energy prices and enable increased investments in renewable capacity.

A major Japanese power company has inked an agreement with a global commodity trader for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) alongside investment in a nature-based carbon project in Australia, which it said was the first deal of its kind in Japan.