Carbon Pulse

California regulator ARB will discuss potential changes to market rules surrounding corporate disclosures and holding limits in their public rulemaking cap-and-trade workshop scheduled Tuesday, according to a slidedeck posted Monday, which resulted in futures prices in the secondary market selling off.

Wealthy donor countries are too set on “exotic” carbon projects on the African continent like clean cooking and do not pay enough for more “pragmatic” solutions, according to a Sierra Leonian climate envoy speaking Thursday at the 2024 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC.

Optimism is creeping back into the voluntary market, although prices and liquidity were steady last week, and some standardized prices slipped lower from already very weak levels.

Most of the private companies worldwide are unprepared to respect their country's climate goals and the Paris Agreement to keep the global increase in temperature below 1.5C compared to 1990 levels, according to a report released on Monday.

The extension of the UK ETS to include emissions from waste risks imposing significant new costs on cash-strapped local council authorities and pushing more rubbish to landfills, unless the government passes supporting policies within the next two years, experts said on Monday.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) registry Isometric launched on Monday, with the first batch of credits issued to members of the Frontier buyers' club.

The UK government will soon begin a public consultation on how best to include maritime emissions in the scope of the UK ETS, a senior official said on Monday, without indicating when the government would respond to recently completed consultations on other potential changes to the country’s stand-alone carbon market.

Africa's voluntary carbon market needs technology transfer from the Global North to keep up with increasingly demanding carbon credit methodologies and to demonstrate integrity, a Ghanaian advisor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told Carbon Pulse Thursday on the sidelines of the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) has released a set of standardised guidelines to develop biodiversity monitoring programmes in Protected Areas (PAs) and Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) worldwide, providing a snapshot of the most advanced tools and technologies.

A Polish cement plant is advancing plans for the large-scale installation of carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology at its facilities. 

Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Europe is likely to reach its peak this year due to structural demand reduction and decarbonisation policies, the EU’s energy regulators have said, adding to downward pressure on carbon prices in the short term.

A European business network and a US-headquartered conservation NGO have kickstarted an initiative to foster the integration of biodiversity in corporate decision-making, with nine corporations joining the programme ahead of its general launch next year.

Carbon prices in Europe began the week on a sharply bearish note in line with wider energy markets, encouraging traders to build additional short positions but also highlighting the degree to which EUAs and UKAs are being driven by fluctuations in natural gas.

A European operator of LNG terminals is looking to expand into CO2 and ammonia processing as it seeks to capitalise on new sources of income in the energy transition.

Seventeen banks globally have joined calls for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to end the use of fossil fuels and have called on the financial industry to follow their example.

Paraguay's new voluntary carbon market law will help the country monetise its natural parks, a top minister told the 2024 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, after changes to the additionality section in the law’s first draft appeared to expand the lands eligible for carbon projects.

A partnership led by the government of Mongolia and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has raised $198 million in commitments towards conservation and sustainable communities, with similar initiatives in up to 20 other countries in the pipeline.

A Tokyo-listed engineering consultancy has teamed up with a climate tech firm to secure credits from nature-based solutions (NbS) around the world through early investments.

Public companies are well ahead of their private counterparts when it comes to setting emissions reduction targets and net zero pledges, with a far larger proportion of the latter yet to make any, according to a report released Monday.

The government of Japan has opened the door to the use of international credits in its domestic carbon market, adding four types of eligible carbon removal projects to the GX-ETS.