Carbon Pulse

Danish CO2 reduction company Topsoe has partnered with Saudi oil giant Aramco to develop and commercialise low-carbon hydrogen technology, the two companies announced on Wednesday.

The second European Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen received the green light from the European Parliament on Wednesday, opening a new five-year policy cycle in Brussels that is expected to refocus the EU’s climate agenda on strengthening Europe’s industrial competitiveness.

EU carbon prices dropped to their lowest in five days on Wednesday morning along with a decline in natural gas, as weekly position data showed investment funds building length for a third week in a row.

Heavy industries, led by steel and the oil and gas sector, are fast-eating into the power sector's share of emissions under the EU ETS, opening a new era made of greater uncertainty in the bloc's carbon market, say analysts.

A top refiner in Japan has secured another partnership to carry out emissions reduction projects in the country's livestock production industry, targeting the abatement potential in dairy and beef cattle farming for the carbon credit market.

A price floor should be established in the emerging plastic credit market to avoid a flood of low-integrity credits, including under national producer responsibility schemes, a standards body has told Carbon Pulse.

Environmental standard Verra plans to expand its plastic credit programme with an additional 40 projects expected to be onboarded within a year, the company told Carbon Pulse.

One of Australia’s “big four” banks has raised its price forecast for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) thanks to increasing demand and smaller than expected issuance.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $500-million policy-based loan to help the Philippines implement its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and more broadly mitigate the effects of climate change.

Australia will meet its 2030 climate targets to cut emissions 43% below 2005 levels by 2030, according to fresh analysis by the government, while efforts to pass a bill on the country’s nature reforms have been put on hold again.

Washington’s Department of Ecology (ECY) on Tuesday outlined its additional considerations for changes to the state’s Clean Fuel Standard (WCFS), which included book-and-claim as well as avoided methane crediting measures. 

There is still little clarity on China’s emissions pathway, which experts believe could leave open the possibility of emissions increases until 2030 and very slow reductions afterwards, despite recent policy progress, according to a report published Wednesday.

A coalition of non-profits last week filed a lawsuit against a California county for its approval of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, which they alleged was done without addressing key concerns regarding the initiative’s final environmental impact report.

A British Columbia-headquartered carbon capture company announced Tuesday that a provincial fund had committed C$15 million ($10.7 mln) to accelerate the firm’s domestic and international projects.

More airlines should be investing in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to ensure the industry can scale sufficiently to meet future net-zero demand, an executive from a major European airline told an industry conference this week.

UN-approved international carbon markets are now ready to fully operationalise, following the landmark decision to finalise Article 6 in Baku, but questions over demand, and a robust methodological work programme scheduled for 2025, means it may take years until the planned implementation produces credit transactions at scale.

The Greens in the European Parliament decided by a slim majority to approve the new team of EU commissioners led by Ursula von der Leyen during a confirmation vote scheduled on Wednesday, paving the way for the new European Commission to take office on Dec. 1 for a five-year mandate.

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions from distribution system operators (DSOs) across Europe come from indirect and preventable sources, according to a study published Tuesday.

Verra has allowed anonymous allegations of human right abuses at two REDD carbon projects in Cambodia to be posted during a public consultation, sparking a furious response and rebuttal from the developer, who says the claims are groundless.

A satellite set to launch early next year will measure forest biomass more accurately than before, with the ability to precisely understand the carbon emissions arising from land-use change globally – feeding into a more accurate global carbon budget.