Carbon Pulse

A £9.3-billion UK pension fund has made a £100-million anchor commitment to a new fund that monetises carbon credits from developing timberland plantations and restoring forests.

The energy crisis has overtaken the climate crisis, as emissions from new gas capacity now threatens the 1.5 C warming limit, according to analysis released Thursday, as the fossil fuel has wedged itself into multiple discussions during the COP27 conference.

The European Parliament voted on Thursday in line with several of its committees over the bloc's REPowerEU package to ditch Russian fossil fuels, teeing up a tussle with member states on several issues including sources of carbon allowance funding.

It’s Thursday – Science Day – at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, and Carbon Pulse will keep you updated with developments throughout the day. Timestamps in local time (EEST, GMT+2).

The UN late on Wednesday posted Gabon’s REDD forest protection results over the past decade, the final procedural step that paves the way for the world’s biggest carbon credit issuance.

The commercial arm of the Bhutanese government has teamed up with a Singapore-headquartered tech company to develop a blockchain-based platform to streamline the issuance of carbon credits in the country.

Chevron has signed a joint study agreement (JSA) with Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) to assess the feasibility of transporting liquefied CO2 (LCO2) from Singapore to permanent storage locations in Australia, the US oil and gas major announced on Thursday.

Vietnam has adopted more ambitious targets to reduce its emissions by 2030 from a Business as Usual (BAU) trajectory in its latest NDC submission to the UNFCCC, although overall its GHG output is still likely to rise in absolute terms in scenarios laid out in both its unconditional and conditional pledges.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

A US-headquartered oil and gas exploration firm has inked a multi-year partnership with a UN-backed non-profit to help drive a “sustainable” market for clean cooking solutions, including “clean-burning” liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

California regulator ARB issued the lowest number of compliance offsets since mid-July for the latest reporting period, but tagged more than 11 mln credits from an Arizona forestry project with the distinction of accruing direct environmental benefits to the state (DEBs), according to government data published Wednesday.

An anticipated red wave was more of a ripple in the US midterm election on Tuesday as the Republican Party appeared to have come up short in its ability to limit the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) $370 billion in climate initiatives, while state-level victories by Democrats preserved market-based carbon reduction programmes across the country.

California regulator ARB presented a stronger potential 2030 carbon intensity reduction goal for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) on Wednesday, which was more stringent than two targets published earlier this year, with some of those scenarios limiting the ability of credit generation from renewable natural gas (RNG) and crop-based biofuels.

A global group of securities regulators has launched dual consultations into compliance and voluntary carbon markets, seeking feedback on the role of financial watchdogs can play in increasing the resilience of these schemes while also leveraging the experience gained from wider financial markets.

A carbon credit ratings agency has downgraded is score for major VCS-certified African REDD project on concerns that it may have been awarded too many credits.

The European Parliament is expected this week to vote in line with several of its committees over the bloc's REPowerEU package to exit Russian fossil fuels, several sources told Carbon Pulse on Wednesday, teeing up a tussle with member states on several issues including sources of carbon allowance funding.

A new global carbon market concept pushed by the US on Wednesday is bracing to battle at least three thorny issues that have plagued carbon credit markets in the voluntary space over the years, including their use towards net zero targets, preventing carbon leakage, and benefiting the most vulnerable.

Experts have urged the supervisory body on Article 6.4 to ensure the proposed grievance process, or mechanism, has teeth, is designed by landholders, and has key transparency assurances, as efforts are underway to establish it in time for the beginning of credit issuances in 2025.

Many oil and gas facilities around the world are emitting three times more greenhouse gases (GHG) than claimed, a new report states.

Next year's planned introduction of a reporting system for the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is likely to suffer a "small delay" as the legislators are still negotiating the proposal, the European Parliament's lead lawmaker on the issue said on Wednesday.