Carbon Pulse

Developing countries need up to $1.5 trillion per year of solely grant-based climate finance as they struggle to attract investment and cope with growing debt, according to a new study that claims previous estimates are far too low.

A group of sovereign debt specialists on Sunday released principles for improving access to nature- and climate-related financial products.

EUAs were firmer at midday on Monday after a stronger than usual auction outcome appeared to trigger a wave of buying that moved the market €2.00 higher.

The United Arab Emirates’ new 2035 Paris Agreement pledge sets an emissions reduction target aligned with a 1.5C temperature limit, but its overall commitments are not compatible because of a weak 2030 goal, according to analysis published Monday.

Companies are lagging behind in aligning biodiversity-related disclosures with the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and are failing to disclose metrics, an assessment has found.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is purchasing clean cooking carbon credits, a representative confirmed Monday at the COP29 climate summit, while a senior member at Verra said the voluntary standard remained in a wait-and-see stance for a new UN-backed methodology for the sector.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has teamed up with the Odisea expedition to explore and protect biodiversity in the Western Indian Ocean, the organisation announced on Monday during the ongoing UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan.

One of Japan's largest trading houses has teamed up with a domestic energy company to develop the use of AI tools in evaluating carbon credit quality, they announced Monday.

The first signs of big business taking landscape-level approaches to ecosystems are stirring, with billion-dollar companies enquiring daily this summer, offering more promise for nature markets than biodiversity credits, according to a consultancy executive.

Several Latin American countries have made carbon pricing announcements at and around the COP29 UN climate conference in Baku, but subnational Brazilian deals involving nature-based solutions (NBS) – and the Senate’s long-awaited ETS passage – continue to dominate headlines.

Growth in China’s thermal power generation slowed in October with a sustained high level of coal output, with analysts remaining optimistic about the country's emissions reduction trajectory given the current pace of renewables expansion.

Spot market Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) prices surged on Monday, as the Clean Energy Regulator issued some 800,000 units.

The decision Friday from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) to approve three REDD+ methodologies has been welcomed by multiple market participants, but with a note of caution that the move is not without risk, especially as the crediting programmes have not yet been tried and tested.

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) could unlock a $789 billion green finance opportunity if barriers in reporting, data accessibility, and implementation costs are addressed, according to a new report revealed at COP29 on Monday.

It is Day 8 at COP29 in Baku - Youth Day. At the midway stage, negotiations are going well on Article 6, but poorly elsewhere. Parties clashed on the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) over the weekend, which appears set to be punted to next year's summit, and talks on finance are said to be dire. Can things turn around this week, and will countries finally get carbon markets talks over the line? In our daily running blog, Carbon Pulse will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (GMT+4).

US President-elect Donald Trump has named a climate change-denying oil and gas executive as his pick for secretary of energy, signalling a shift towards boosting fossil fuel production and rolling back environmental policies.

Environmental commodities trading firm STX Group is in the process of restructuring and cutting its workforce, sources told Carbon Pulse.

Global portfolio manager for carbon removals ClimeFi and innovation competition organiser Xprize on Friday unveiled the Global 1000 CDR Challenge, urging the world’s largest corporations to commit to purchasing at least 1,000 tonnes of permanent removal credits in 2025.

"Dark vessels", or ships that disable their tracking systems, are responsible for at least 7% of global maritime emissions, secretly releasing more than 80 million tonnes of CO2 annually, while unfettered methane output from the oil and gas sector is contributing to the unrelenting rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.

On the eve of a G20 meeting in Rio do Janeiro on next week, business groups and a Brazilian national official called for developing countries to submit ambitious national climate plans to elicit greater investment, while observers said the summit in Brazil could ease parallel finance negotiations at the UN climate summit in Baku.