Carbon Pulse

The world’s major multilateral development banks on Saturday launched a first common set of principles to track nature-finance positive as part of a move to scale up and mainstream activities that protect and restore nature and biodiversity.

Bulgaria’s environment minister expects one of the biggest coal power plants in the EU ETS to operate until 2030, despite the EU ruling that the plant exceeds pollution limits and therefore should be shuttered, he told Carbon Pulse on the sidelines of COP28.

Egypt’s "pan-African" voluntary carbon marketplace was formally launched at COP28, though the venture has raised 'conflict of interest' concerns as one wealthy family has apparent links to virtually every organisation involved in the country's nascent market.

Fossil fuel companies are spending millions of dollars on social media campaigns promoting carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a 'silver bullet' solution to climate change, despite the technology’s limitations and its potential to prolong fossil fuel use, according to a report.

The Malawi government has inked a deal to offer almost 3% of the African nation's land for the development of forest restoration carbon offset projects.

Owners of timberland, from public companies to family businesses, are looking to sell credits on the voluntary carbon market as a complementary activity to their existing timberland practices.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched on Sunday a new roadmap for feeding a growing population in a way that is aligned with meeting Paris Agreement temperature goals.

From next year Japan will become the first country to include full seabed carbon sequestration data in its UNFCCC greenhouse gas inventory, raising concerns among some observers this will open the door to offset more fossil fuel use.

The difference between potential revenues from selling off rainforest areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo to fossil fuel exploration or generating revenues from carbon sales is in the billions, according to a research paper seen by Carbon Pulse during COP28, underscoring the financial pressures forest-rich countries face when looking to protect natural assets. 

Carbon assets are emerging as a potential lever for international aid and development finance at COP28, suggest recent announcements and remarks by civil society actors at COP28.

A document establishing a framework for Pakistan’s involvement in the international carbon markets and laying the foundation for domestic activities is being held up in Cabinet due to a low level of awareness of the issues at the federal level, a representative from Pakistan has told Carbon Pulse.

A carbon storage company plans to partner with biogenic emitters in order to help valorise their CO2 streams by burying emissions in nearby mine pits and generate revenues from the resulting carbon credits sales.

Two New Zealand NGOs launched a nature-based solution to restore and enhance 2.1 million hectares of diverse indigenous forest across the country, they announced on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai.

An initiative aiming to transform food and land use systems to be more climate resilient through mechanisms such as climate-smart agriculture, production intensification, and smallholder support was launched Sunday, with country commitments set to be included in national climate plans.

Canada plans to next year introduce legislation that would hold the government accountable for making progress towards and meeting its commitments on nature and biodiversity, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced Saturday.

Country negotiators on international carbon trade rules under Article 6 have run into trouble amid what they say is a toxic atmosphere at COP28, with a "bare bones" draft text published late on Saturday angering several parties, and time reportedly being wasted on theoretical issues rather than ensuring key safeguards and important technicalities are defined.

It is Day 11 at COP28 and all eyes are on the next 48 hours of negotiations as a cautious optimism hangs in the air. The COP28 Presidency eyes a majlis - a ministerial gathering - today to find areas of agreement, followed by the first Global Stocktake (GST) text for delivery on Monday, ahead of the summit's formal close on Tuesday. Nonetheless, as the once-70,000-strong population of Expo City has begun to flock back to homelands, Carbon Pulse's team of correspondents continue to chase after news on the ground. In our daily running blog, we will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (Gulf Standard Time, GMT+4).

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Here's Carbon Pulse's summary of stories from the last Saturday at COP28 in Dubai. Our tireless team of journalists have now published more than 150 articles from this year's UN climate summit, providing our readers with unrivalled coverage. We reckon few, if any, other media outlets can boast more comprehensive reporting. Subscribe to CP Daily here or email admin@carbon-pulse to inquire about a subscription.

With the direction of travel on the first ever stocktake of the Paris Agreement moving towards including "fossil phaseout" language in the text, sources inside negotiation rooms, country delegates, and climate stakeholders, underlined the substantial impact of such an outcome at COP28, though called for crucial clarification on "abatement" language.