Carbon Pulse

A group of former Pacific national leaders have railed against Australia’s performance at recent UN talks attempting to establish a loss and damage fund, as the Federal Court has ordered oil and gas company Santos to halt pipeline work at its Barossa gas project.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

A US bioethanol plant operator will bring its CO2 removal credits to the voluntary carbon market using a removal standards and marketplace’s methodology, it announced Wednesday.

Startups specialising in climate tech raised a record $7.6 billion in venture capital (VC) funding in the third quarter of 2023, in a show of robust health for the US sector amid signs elsewhere of an overall slowdown in VC fundraising.

Australia will task its national think-tank to focus on achieving the country’s energy transition and climate goals, as the government looks to “complement, not copy” the US’s Inflation Reduction Act to incentivise clean energy and tech investment.

The US Northeast and Mid-Atlantic RGGI power sector cap-and-trade system saw overall CO2 emissions decline in Q3 compared to the same quarter last year, programme data published Wednesday showed.

Spot credit prices under the Alberta Technology Innovation and Emission Reduction (TIER) programme climbed in October on significant volume as vintage value differentials continue to rise, according to a report published Wednesday.

A Canadian EV charging solutions provider launched a new initiative to allocate carbon credits for its EV charging station use, the company announced Wednesday.

A small representative set of California residents called for the cap-and-trade allowance budget adjustment to achieve at least 55% emission reductions by 2030, alongside recommendations for cost containment measures echoed by stakeholders, according to public comments submitted to state regulator ARB.

Data and market infrastructure provider Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is making amendments to the California Carbon Allowance Advance Auction Clearing Price (ACA) futures contract and also adding new vintage futures and options contracts effective December, the bourse announced Wednesday.

Singapore-based Climate Impact X has taken a step towards providing benchmarked indices for the voluntary carbon market by passing the first external audit of its Nature-X assessment, paving the way for the creation of a swaps market as it confirms adding another REDD project and consults on launching other contracts.

FedEx, General Electric, and Rio Tinto are among companies targeted by a campaign launched Wednesday that aims to push the highest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases to adopt science-based targets in line with the Paris Agreement.

A Pennsylvania court on Wednesday halted the state's plans to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), ruling that it constitutes an illegal tax in that the state does not have the authority to collect revenue through the cap-and-trade scheme.

Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will delist the Moss Carbon Credit (MCO2) altcoin on Nov. 14 due to asset-related and compliance concerns.

The UK will have a smorgasbord of emerging nature markets in forthcoming years, but concerns persist around the underlying integrity and market infrastructure, according to an industry coalition.

A major European oil and gas company is teaming up with a Californian ocean carbon removal startup to launch a larger-scale pilot plant for the emerging field of direct ocean capture (DOC) of CO2, with an eye to building commercial plants in key regions globally as the technology advances.

UK-headquartered non-profit Wallacea Trust has updated its methodology for measuring uplift in biodiversity credits with the inclusion of a peer review process to verify claims.

A Canadian banking group has agreed to purchase 27,500 tonnes of CO2 removal credits from Occidental-owned 1PointFive’s first direct air capture DAC plant being built in Texas.

European carbon prices briefly rallied on Wednesday after data released by ICE and EEX showed investment funds continued to amass short positions last week, triggering a burst of buying that pushed EUAs to a key technical and psychological level.

A landmark Australian legal opinion released Thursday has found that company directors who fail to adequately consider, disclose, and manage nature-related risks could be held personally liable.