Carbon Pulse

Hungary’s energy and climate minister said the country will focus on advancing the green transition across the 27-nation bloc, as among the top climate and energy priorities during its turn with the EU presidency from July until year end.

Nature-based voluntary carbon projects, such as reforestation in the Amazon, are cost-effective and critical for the planet with known and manageable risks, with Petrobras now developing its credit strategy focused on the sector, an executive of a Brazilian oil company told a conference Thursday.

Biodiversity monitoring company NatureMetrics has launched a free tool for businesses to score their nature performance by answering a series of questions.

Britain would place supply controls on greenhouse gas removals (GGRs), while keeping the gross cap that is in place for UK Allowances (UKAs), in the early years of their potential integration into the ETS, as proposed in a public consultation launched Thursday.

Europe’s financial markets regulator has launched a consultation on proposed amendments to technical standards for commodity derivatives, including enhanced position management controls and reporting requirements for venues offering trading in emissions allowances.

Market infrastructure firm Xpansiv has secured fresh funding from investors, the company announced Thursday, without disclosing further details.

The government of Zambia has entered into an agreement with the World Bank to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the Eastern Province of the African nation, the bank announced this week.

A major offset registry is partnering with a specialist carbon insurance company to develop “next generation buffer management”, the two firms announced on Thursday.

EU carbon permit prices forged higher on Thursday to set yet another four-month high, as natural gas markets extended their recent gains and breached a key technical level, while UK Allowances strengthened for a seventh day to reach their highest since the first week of the year.

Voluntary carbon standard Verra plans to issue new credits aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement by the end of the year, a company executive told Carbon Pulse.

Puro.earth has certified its first direct air capture (DAC) carbon removals, according to a release Thursday.

The EU's carbon removal framework could lead climate finance to be shifted away from least-developed countries, a conference heard.

The next European Commission that will be appointed after the June EU election is unlikely to radically change course on climate policy, but rather shift its focus to industrial policy and investment to achieve the bloc’s climate goals, a top EU official has said.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has declared that signatory states of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have an obligation to protect the ocean from the impacts of climate change, with small island countries hailing the decision as a victory.

India’s securities and commodities market regulator has proposed changes to the country’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework, opening for companies to earn “leadership” status by listing green credits they or their value chain partners have generated through tree-planting and other environmentally beneficial activities.

Australia’s states can work with the federal government to scale up the nation’s carbon market, a conference heard this week, although an industry roadmap would help guide its development.

The Shanghai municipal government is set to auction off 1 million CO2 allowances for its municipal emissions trading scheme at the end of May, with the price floor set near current market levels.

Research from a carbon removal marketplace has raised concern that a large share of the expected future supply from the sector may be of a low quality, brought on by a rush to develop projects due to a recent surge in demand for credits.

Swaps and options transactions in the Australian carbon market are becoming more common place thanks to the variety of reasons entities were venturing into the market, traders told a conference this week, but scale will also be needed to meet the coming demand from the Safeguard Mechanism. 

The design of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) risks creating a counter-productive impact on EU electricity decarbonisation, a key policy official at Europe’s energy traders association told a conference on Wednesday.