Carbon Pulse

The US Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday clarified submission guidelines for its forthcoming purchase of $35 million worth of carbon removals, as the government revealed what it is aiming to pay in price per tonne.

A new evaluation of government decarbonisation efforts ahead of the UN's first-ever ‘global stocktake’ paints a grim picture of the current state of climate action, leading the authors to urge nations to 're-strategise' international cooperation at the upcoming COP28 summit to bridge the gap between ambition and implementation.

New York announced Tuesday that 25 projects will be granted awards to promote the development of offshore wind and other forms of renewable energy, in a move that seeks to revitalise developers struggling under economic pressures and protect the state's climate goals.

California and Quebec will host a public workshop shortly after the Q4 auction next month to discuss how different cap reduction scenarios will affect allowance prices in the WCI-linked carbon market, the jurisdictions announced Tuesday.

Adding pulverised volcanic rock to cropland, even in severe drought conditions, could significantly contribute to carbon removal from the atmosphere, according to a new study.

The UNFCCC has come under criticism from project developers for proposing a broad brush approach to improving cookstove carbon crediting methodologies, which the industry says lacks sophistication and fails to use accurate local data in calculating carbon savings.

Despite the uncertain future facing the voluntary carbon market, early-stage investment has held relatively firm in 2023, with some in the market pointing to an emergent 'flight to primary' trend, as investors seek to avoid reputational risk in secondary and tertiary credit buying and instead channel capital directly into project development.

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).

California electricity sector CO2 year-on-year output decreased at an even faster pace during September, reaching a ten-year low for the month as shares of renewable energy and hydroelectricity continued to build on their 2022 levels, according to data published Monday.

Nations are to start procuring carbon dioxide removals at the upcoming UN climate summit for use against their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), an expert in the sector said Tuesday.

The European Parliament's environment committee (ENVI) on Tuesday formally adopted a provisional political agreement to phase out by 2050 fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) and adopted a draft report to strengthen EU CO2 emission standards for new heavy-duty vehicles.

The European Commission unveiled plans to bolster the EU's faltering wind power capacity rollout on Tuesday, while reporting that the bloc was on track in its efforts to exit Russian fossil fuels despite patchy national progress on decarbonisation.   

RWE reported a drop of almost a quarter in its ETS-covered thermal power output over the first nine months, according to preliminary results published on Tuesday that showed an acceleration of coal decline over the past quarter.

A new study produced by a collection of NGOs, think tanks, and academics said that international commitments to halt deforestation have not yet been backed up by sufficient action or funding to tackle the challenge.

Three sets of guidance for measuring biodiversity covering direct operations, supply chains, and ecosystem conditions have been launched by the EU Commission-funded Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature (Align).

China on Tuesday published methodologies for four project types that will be eligible to generate Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions (CCERs), providing clarity for developers and investors.

European carbon prices made a small recovery on Tuesday morning after the market had dropped to a two-month low on Monday, as prompt gas prices ticked up despite a generally bearish fundamental outlook and weaker TTF prices further along the curve.

Biodiversity over an area equivalent to at least 3,000 hectares was supported by ASN Impact Investor’s biodiversity fund last year, according to the “first” measuring of positive nature impact by an investment manager, it said.

The bifurcation of the global oil patch grew this week once again as Chevron bought its US peer Hess for $53 billion, giving it control of billions of barrels of reserves offshore Guyana, one of the most prolific oil provinces in the world, and signalling American oil companies have very different views of the energy transition compared to other independent majors.

The EU’s first draft legislation defining a framework for certifying carbon removals was backed almost unanimously during a vote in the European Parliament’s cross-party environment committee on Tuesday.