Carbon Pulse

Quality and reputational risk more than price are decisive factors for buyers of nature-based carbon credits, with investors seeking to ensure that such projects have the ability to deliver on meeting climate and environmental goals, a conference heard on Wednesday.

Research from a carbon project ratings agency suggests that companies that purchase and retire credits also tend to implement greater in-scope emissions cuts than those that do not, contravening criticism of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) that offset-buying distracts from direct corporate climate action.

Papua New Guinea will publicly release its carbon market regulations and REDD+ guidelines next month after they are expected to be approved by the National Executive Council in June, the country’s environment minister told Carbon Pulse on Wednesday, as the head of the country's climate authority responded to corruption allegations that have consumed the body.

South Korea is considering lifting the current limit on offset use for ETS compliance, which could further boost domestic demand for Article 6-aligned credits, panellists told a conference on Tuesday.

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Finnish carbon offset firm Compensate Operations Ltd announced a significant scaling down of its operations due to difficulties in securing additional funding.

As the world’s largest standard body Verra expedites new rules on how to measure GHG improvements from forest protection, experts at a carbon credit ratings agency have pointed out strengths and risks to the proposed approach.

New York lawmakers dropped virtually all programme design-related elements for the state’s economy-wide cap-and-trade system in a revised budget package presented Monday, instead merely detailing how the Empire State will distribute allowance revenues via rebates or climate investments.

A Canadian carbon credit investment firm launched a new offset programme on Tuesday for building owners to generate revenue from emissions reduction initiatives.

Power generators regulated by Massachusetts’ Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) cap-and-trade saw their CO2 output drop to the lowest since 2020 over the January-March period, according to data updated Tuesday.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US RGGI power sector cap-and-trade system saw its permit glut decline in 2022 in tandem with the programme’s bank adjustment, according to a report published Tuesday, while updated data showed year-on-year CO2 output slid even further in Q1.

ESG commodities platform Xpansiv expects to post pre-tax profits at the end of this financial year after halving losses in 2022 and almost doubling revenue, the company said in a statement on Thursday, as it shrugged off concerns from its auditor that ongoing operations were in doubt if financiers withdrew support.

The European Parliament's initial response to the bloc's carbon removals bill doesn't fix the controversial proposal and keeps flaws, green groups in Brussels claimed on Tueesday.

Trade was brisk over the past week, after REDD avoided deforestation prices turned a corner to edge higher after 2016 vintages (V16) from a well-known project struck $2 to attract a flurry of trades.

UAE climate envoy Ahmed Al Jaber on Tuesday backed a move to phase out "fossil fuel emissions" ahead of his country's hosting of the UN COP28 summit later this year, as well as a tripling of global renewable capacity.

A carbon offset project developer said it has notched an jump in its forward sales of more than €1 mln, drawing from an estimated 40 mln credits in its project pipeline.

A cross-stakeholder group on Tuesday announced new timelines for its Claims Code to guide corporates’ use of voluntary carbon credits, aiming to tackle environmental integrity in the demand side of the market.

EUAs jumped substantially on Tuesday morning after the European Commission issued an update on progress to enable auctions from the Innovation Fund to help finance the REPowerEU initiative, with prices rising as much as 5.5% in busy trading.

India’s forthcoming carbon market will have no problem on the supply-side but demand for carbon credits could be an issue as the world’s third-largest emitter makes moves towards a fully operational market later this decade, panellists told the Carbon Forward Asia conference on Tuesday.

The UK government has launched a new bid to boost biodiversity recovery in its overseas territories, with large-scale projects funded for the first time to tackle nature loss, it said in a release.