Carbon Pulse

Over a dozen Democrat-led US states this week asked the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to shore up language regarding the environmental integrity of voluntary offsets and carbon neutrality claims in order to prevent greenwashing.

A Toronto-headquartered voluntary carbon financier on Thursday announced it has executed a restructuring agreement that will consolidate the ownership structure of its developer arm and see the firm’s COO resign.

A carbon credit ratings agency downgraded its scores for seven carbon projects on Thursday, including a large REDD scheme in Cambodia that at one stage had been deemed as a highly-ranked activity by the company. 

The Washington Department on Ecology (ECY) announced Wednesday it is conducting an emergency rulemaking on the Allowance Price Containment Reserve (APCR) ahead of the Q2 cap-and-trade auction, as Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs) on the secondary market continue to trade above the mechanism’s Tier 2 trigger price.

A carbon credit ratings agency gave details about its views on hundreds of carbon projects on Thursday, depicting low grades for nature activities on carbon promises but higher scores on SDG benefits – while the company also commented on Verra’s proposed new approach to forest carbon crediting.

Scaling finance for renewables is expected to come into focus at a high level event in Berlin next week, with experts suggesting that fresh pledges may be announced by the German organisers and the UAE, which will host the year-end COP28 UN climate summit.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton reiterated his support for a new sovereign fund to support the energy transition on Thursday, telling a parliamentary committee that the scope of the investment vehicle would be considered over the summer.

South Pole (SP) is looking for a Clean Fuel Program Business Manager (CFP-BM) to strengthen our Climate Project’s team and play a key role in conceptualizing and assessing business opportunities arising out of regional Clean Fuel Standards (CFSs) also referred to as low-carbon fuel standards (LCFSs) and clean fuels programs (CFPs).

Sellers are dropping their prices for REDD avoided deforestation credits after a flurry of activity in the sector this week that triggered a brief rally in market value, sources told Carbon Pulse on Thursday.

The World Economic Forum has published a paper this week that looks at the key trends and obstacles ahead for integrating blockchain-based solutions into climate action, focusing on the current information gap, reputational challenges, as well as the growing recognition around the uses of new Web3 technologies to help meet targets.

EUAs snapped their six-day losing streak on Thursday morning as prices extended gains made late in the previous session amid a strong auction and the prospect of thinner supply in the coming weeks.

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The implementation of the EU's carbon border tax would likely speed up the construction of China's national carbon market, bringing aluminium, cement, and steel sectors into the ETS within a couple of years, analysts said Thursday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has backed calls for urgent action to transform the global financial system in a bid to ease the deepening debt distress while putting poor nations in a better position to handle critical issues such as climate change and nature loss.

A climate policy steel group with members across the industry’s entire supply chain has released a draft global standard to measure and report emissions from steelmaking, it was announced.

China's Guangdong province has released a set of draft work guidelines for bank loans using carbon emissions allowances as collateral, as a starting point to explore the broader potential of carbon finance.

Singapore and Cambodia have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a framework by the year’s end to allow the trading of correspondingly adjusted Article 6 carbon credits under the Paris Agreement as a way to help the two countries meet their NDCs.

The public and private sectors along with financial institutions and NGOs must coordinate efforts to enable implementation and investment in nature-based solutions to help stave off the threat of global water shortage, according to analysts.

A German over-the-counter energy trading platform on Thursday launched an EU ETS allowance marketplace for industrial firms that do not have direct access to exchanges or daily auctions.

The spot NZU price fell by NZ$2.50, or 4.1%, on Thursday following the Climate Change Commission recommending a major overhaul of the ETS to align it with the country’s emission reduction goals.