Carbon Pulse

Project-specific, nature-based offset prices appear to have aligned with standardised contracts, a carbon market exchange detailed on Tuesday, as VERs continue to suffer losses this year amid corporate disinterest and uncertainty in the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

US-based food processing and commodities trading corporation ADM is evaluating how to generate voluntary carbon offsets from its regenerative agriculture programme, a company official said Tuesday.

A carbon credits ratings agency on Monday said that only less than 10% of voluntary offset projects that it has evaluated to date are of the highest integrity, while VER undertakings that issue large batches each year also warrant more scrutiny.

A group of countries are likely to push for formal recognition of pre-2021 efforts to conserve and enhance global forests, hoping to mainstream the topic beyond technical negotiations at this year’s UN climate talks after seeing little success in initial offerings to the voluntary carbon market. 

The European Parliament's budgets committee (BUDG) voted on Tuesday largely in line with their MEP colleagues on the bloc's REPowerEU proposal, seeking to part-finance the package with €20 billion worth of carbon allowance sales sourced from frontloaded member state auctions over three years.

EU energy ministers discussed the merits of a bloc-wide gas price cap on Tuesday, agreeing to meet again later next month to decide on a measure aimed at blunting the impact of sky-high prices ahead of winter.

A total of 318 financial institutions and multinational firms collectively worth $37 trillion in assets and spending power have urged 1,000 of the world’s highest emitters to set climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C warming limit, as part of an annual corporate climate disclosure campaign.

A climate tech startup this week announced plans to expand from mainly evaluating forest carbon projects to origination earlier in the value chain, aiming to drive supply that it says is in need of scaling.

Uzbekistan on Tuesday became the 24th nation to sign up to the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), Japan’s bilateral mechanism designed generate carbon credits aligned with the Paris Agreement.

EUA prices extended their three-day rally and jumped to the highest in seven weeks on Tuesday morning, as traders boosted covering of short positions, though some suggested that that market had been spooked by news that Germany was buying member-state level allowances.

A Hong Kong-headquartered tech firm is in talks with a number of banks and pension funds in the Asia-Pacific over Paris-aligned smart contract-based carbon credits attached to green bonds.

Germany has struck deals with three other EU nations to buy intergovernmental EU carbon units to cover its shortfall in meeting its non-ETS emissions obligations built up over 2013-20, the government said on Monday.

Singapore will aim to peak its GHG emissions at a lower level than previously planned and before 2030, the island-state’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced at a conference on Tuesday.

A mix of evolving regulatory landscapes and more informed consumer demand will likely spark far more stratified carbon credit prices in the future compared to in the current market, a conference heard on Tuesday.

China’s current power market design has hindered the ability of the national ETS to unleash its potential in driving significant CO2 emissions reductions, a policy paper found.

The New South Wales (NSW) state government in Australia has launched a A$360 million ($228 mln) investment plan to accelerate emissions reduction in its most carbon intensive industries, NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean announced on Tuesday.

How baseline settings on Safeguard facilities are configured is largely a moot point, so long as their aggregate emissions levels meet Australia’s climate targets, a panel of experts said Tuesday.

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

Market infrastructure provider Xpansiv has been granted an Australian financial services licence that will allow it to launch Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) products on its CBL platform, the company announced Tuesday.

The top European gas analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights has joined BNP Paribas as a London-based strategist covering carbon.