Carbon Pulse

A US-based agricultural technology firm providing carbon services and products has raised over $250 million to advance its suite of offerings for sustainable agriculture, according to a release published Friday that follows reports of a steep drop in the company's valuation.

A  carbon credit certifier announced a partnership with two international institutions to develop  methodologies for blue carbon and blue economy on Thursday, while signalling a long-term aim to broaden its work beyond carbon. 

Bamboo could be the next market to boom in nature-based removal solutions as a startup developer in Uganda expects its first batch of afforestation carbon credits to trade at $20, although the company’s expansion plans into Kenya may be at risk from the country’s new revenue sharing demands for local communities.   

Verra has largely welcomed the latest academic bashing of REDD methodologies because it says the criticisms are addressed in its upcoming VCS methodology updates, although the standard body has also pointed out some areas that need to be clarified.

In the nascent and fragmented biochar market, more could be done to tie the carbon credit price for a project with how the biochar will ultimately be used, such as in concrete or as a soil amendment, and subsequently how long the carbon will likely be sequestered.

More than a trillion dollars have now been committed to boost renewables and access to electricity and clean cooking technologies by 2030, although it falls far short of the funds needed to meet the Paris Agreement climate target, warns a report released Friday ahead of a UN summit.

The UK’s approach to using biomass to produce electricity will be closely examined by the country’s National Audit Office, following ongoing critique about where the fuel is sourced and concerns by environmental activists that burning biomass is not truly renewable.

A US congressman and senator introduced companion bills on Thursday that would launch a 10-year, multi-agency programme for research, development, and demonstration of multiple varieties of carbon removal technologies.

The UK government will provide £500 million to keep the largest steel plant in the country open and to reduce its carbon footprint by switching its energy source from coal to electricity, the British government said in a statement on Friday, although doing so will likely lead to thousands of job losses.

A lot of India’s voluntary carbon projects produce credits of low quality, and the country should engage in the high end of the market to attract greater investment, a carbon market veteran told a conference in New Delhi this week.

The US-headquartered Rockefeller Foundation has pledged to invest over $1 billion in the coming five years to expedite the global climate transition.

EU carbon prices extended their gains for a third day on Friday morning as the short squeeze triggered by Wednesday's Commitment of Traders report continued amid very thin trading activity, while energy prices weakened as the outlook for gas supplies remained uncertain.

Extreme weather events and biodiversity loss create major risks for Australian insurers, but also opportunities to invest in projects and instruments that mitigate those risks, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said Friday.

The growth in solar and wind electricity generated across EU countries spared the equivalent of 54% of the total fossil gas imports from Russia in August, according to analyst findings published on Friday that highlight how the rapid expansion of renewables is helping EU nations cover the loss of Russian supplies.

Using enhanced rock weathering (ERW) in the agricultural sectors of tropical regions offers promising potential to combat climate change while enhancing crop yields, a study has found.

A developer of a carbon transport and storage network off the coast of north-east Scotland is among the 14 companies to have been awarded 21 licences in the UK’s first-ever carbon storage licensing round, conducted by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).

China’s national carbon markets saw prices continued to increase over the past week despite a decline in trading volume, while trading activity in the offset market improved somewhat ahead of the relaunch of the national voluntary programme.

Plastic credits such as the ones it issues itself should be an integral part of a new global plastic treaty framework to help close the estimated $40 billion finance gap to stave off the plastic crisis, environmental credits standard body Verra has told the UN.

India could earn significant revenues from engaging proactively in Article 6 cooperation and earn up to $12.5 billion annually in the international carbon market by 2030, according to the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).

ICE is introducing a liquidity provider programme to boost trade in its voluntary carbon credit futures, the exchange said Friday.