Carbon Pulse

The US will focus on five strategic areas to support nature-based solutions (NBS) and achieve the country’s 2030 GHG reduction targets, President Joe Biden’s administration announced Tuesday on the sidelines of COP27.

A platform showing forestry data across every country and jurisdiction in the world, including degradation levels, was launched at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday.

Southeast Asian nation Laos aims to generate 30 million tonnes worth of forestry emissions reductions by 2025, with a senior minister telling a COP27 event that the government is now "highly engaged" in driving private sector interest with possible VCM and Article 6.2 involvement on the horizon.

Senior representatives from the Dominican Republic and certifier Global Carbon Council both said Wednesday that they are looking to leave COP27 with carbon credit trade deals announced under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

German-based exchange EEX looks set to fill the gap left by Xpansiv last month after the latter dropped plans to host carbon units from sovereign forestry conservation platform REDD.plus.

China’s delegation to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh has begun informal discussions with their US counterpart, as the world’s largest emitter aims to promote multilateral efforts on addressing climate change and loss and damage, as well as push against actions such as the EU’s proposed carbon border mechanism, President Xi Jinping’s representative to COP27 told journalists Wednesday.

EUAs dropped by more than €4 in the space of two hours on Wednesday as sellers continued to dominate thin trading conditions ahead of European Parliament discussions over the bloc's REPowerEU plan.

The EU has reached a provisional political agreement on reforming the bloc's Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) that establishes binding national targets in non-ETS sectors, after late-night trilogue talks on Tuesday between negotiators from the Parliament, Commission, and Council of member states.

A London-based energy and carbon risk management firm has announced a private equity investment from a firm specialising in industrial decarbonisation.

US climate envoy John Kerry on Wednesday at COP27 announced plans to enable companies to buy carbon credits to support developing countries accelerate their phaseout of coal power and expansion renewable power, aiming to develop a framework by the end of next year to scale the finance available, and confirming a partnership with a new African carbon market initiative launched earlier at the summit.

China should expand the sectoral coverage of its national emissions trading scheme to include cement and steel as soon as possible to mitigate the impact of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) proposed by the EU, a webinar heard on Wednesday.

Interest in South Korea’s monthly CO2 allowance auction continues to decline, with traders picking up less than a quarter of the volume available at Wednesday’s sale amid continued oversupply in the market.

It’s Wednesday - Finance 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).

Japan is the world’s leader when it comes to public financing of fossil fuels, driving an expansion of gas use and promoting false solutions to climate change such as hydrogen/ammonia-co-firing and carbon capture that will only prolong the demand for hydrocarbons, a report has claimed.

Singapore has passed the Carbon Pricing (Amendment) Bill, formally establishing an increase in its carbon tax in two stages to S$45 ($32) per tonne from 2026 and putting the country on a pathway for the tax to reach as high as between S$50-80/t by 2030.

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

Brazil's development bank BNDES has agreed to buy BRL100 million ($19.4 mln) in voluntary carbon credits under its second tender process, a large increase from its pilot purchase this spring.

Bloomberg Philanthropies and an investment management firm on Tuesday announced an initiative to scale the voluntary carbon market (VCM), mimicking other efforts over the past two years to provide standardised VER contracts while also increasing CO2 removal capacity.

A major carbon market registry has laid out a timeline for developing a forest protocol specific to one Central American country that will begin this month and wrap up in roughly a year. 

The Mexican environment ministry on Tuesday announced the country will submit an enhanced Paris Agreement pledge at the COP27 climate summit, with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s (AMLO) administration having come under legal challenges for backtracking on the nation's original commitment.