Carbon Pulse

Industry standards like the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) should require VER price information from project developers in order to stamp out profiteering in the voluntary carbon market, as the vast majority of intermediaries refuse to publish their fees or profit margins on offset sales, according to a climate campaigner report published Thursday.

A data aggregator published Thursday what it claims is the world's first rating of corporate activity in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), assigning a score to over 300 firms that have retired credits based on their share of emissions offset and the profile of units purchased.

A cross-sector collaboration has secured UK government decarbonisation funding to demonstrate how industrial waste gases can be converted into raw materials for consumer products.

JP Morgan Asset Management on Wednesday announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has acquired US forestland valued at $500 million, which the company will utilise in part for sequestering CO2 emissions.

A UK-headquartered global insurer is investing £38 million to restore Britain’s lost temperate rainforests, the first part of a £100 mln programme into nature-based carbon credit projects in the UK and Ireland.

EUAs on Thursday traded slightly below the previous session's five-month high, as energy prices dipped and traders awaited further volatility amid positive technical signals and analyst reports indicating that any delay to the injection of additional EUA auction volumes this year could be bullish for prices.

The growth of carbon pricing mechanisms, such as through the development of voluntary carbon markets with transparent standards, or compliance markets, can be of benefit to developing economies as it would open opportunities for them to develop green supply chains, a conference on emissions markets in Asia was told on Thursday.

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The environment ministers of 12 EU member states have written a letter to environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius, urging him to preserve the protection of the grey wolf.

Japan's GX League has released a set of application guidelines for companies to participate in the first phase of its domestic voluntary carbon trading scheme, with the application open to both corporates and financial institutions until the end of April.

South Korea on Thursday announced a number of biodiversity initiatives while confirming that its 5th national biodiversity strategy, covering 2024-28, will be finalised before the end of the year and designed to ensure the nation will meet its commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework.

The Australian government has committed A$3 million ($2.1 mln) in grant funding to four blue carbon projects in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as the region looks to financially benefit from preserving and restoring their coastal ecosystems.

The World Climate Foundation (WCF) has launched the World Biodiversity Network, a cross-sectoral, partnership-driven initiative that will support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

The Australian government has committed A$3 million ($2.1 mln) in grants to projects in the Christmas Island and Cocos Islands marine parks, which aim to protect some 745,000 square kilometres of ocean habitats and species.

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The forestry arm of a Japanese global trading company on Tuesday announced the launch of a US-based investment firm focused on nature-based carbon credits, with an eye to potential expansion outside of North America.

A report on Australia released by the International Monetary Fund Thursday has suggested the compliance cap on facilities covered by the Safeguard Mechanism is too generous to meet their proportional share of emissions cuts, and highlighted broader gaps in the government’s climate polices.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s (D) budget presented Wednesday included a rebate fund for the state’s forthcoming economy-wide cap-and-invest programme, as the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently provided a timeline for when the administration could present draft regulations and begin holding auctions.

Power sector emissions in 2022 under the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) cap-and-trade programme were above the adjusted cap for the third consecutive year as CO2 output in the fourth quarter increased year-on-year.

Concerns over the quality of carbon credits from Verra’s forestry projects are making headlines again, calling into question the validity of REDD+. This is a shame since ending deforestation is key to achieving a 1.5C world. But there is a solution, the UNFCCC REDD+ mechanism, write Kevin Conrad and Federica Bietta of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN).