Carbon Pulse

Consumer goods company Unilever and insurance and asset management firm AXA on Wednesday unveiled plans to invest €100 mln each in a new €1 billion regenerative agriculture fund to be managed by French-headquartered Tikehau Capital.

California regulator ARB handed out the fewest number of compliance offsets this week since December, while Quebec’s environment ministry awarded its first batch of credits since February, according to government data published Wednesday.

Commodities trading firm Cargill has expanded the eligibility and raised the tonnage price for its voluntary carbon market-based regenerative agriculture programme.

Vermont’s Clean Heat Standard (CHS) bill is dead until at least January after a House of Representatives vote to override the governor’s veto on Tuesday failed by just one ballot.

A deal by senior MEPs to raise ambition in the EU ETS is likely to be shot down by the full European Parliament, the assembly's lead lawmaker on the issue said on Wednesday, citing the intense pressure on politicians to curb sky-high energy costs.

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam on Wednesday announced the agency will convene a meeting on voluntary carbon markets next month, as futures contracts are changing the landscape of voluntary emissions reduction (VER) trade.

Once thought to be at death’s door, the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) lingers in the Paris Agreement-era, although there is a deep well of complexity on how its credits may be issued and used – resulting in many project proponents jumping ship for clearer waters in the voluntary carbon market.

A non-profit has launched an initiative to sell carbon credits as part of packages to consumers that want to offset their annual activities at a market rate of $15/tonne, the group said in a release on Wednesday.

The wave of carbon asset NFTs is upon us, and while many regular market participants will look down their noses at the prospect, some are pushing to take carbon credits to places they have never gone before.

A UK carbon capture company has secured $150 million in equity funding to scale up its technology that could drive down heavy industry capture costs to $30/metric tonne, it claimed Wednesday.

EUA prices dropped sharply mid-morning on Wednesday after a senior EU lawmaker confirmed the European Parliament will vote next week on a proposal to limit non-compliance participation in the EU ETS.

Singapore will use the eligibility criteria set out in CORSIA, the global aviation offset mechanism, for emitters who will be allowed to offset a small portion of their emissions under the country’s carbon tax scheme, an official from the country’s National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) said on Wednesday.

India’s plans to establish a uniform and more effective framework for a voluntary carbon market (VCM) has wide backing domestically from industry players, but moves to facilitate the rapidly growing interest in carbon credits also face complex challenges for regulators, according to analysts.

South Korea’s monthly KAU auction cleared Wednesday at the lowest level seen for the 2021 emissions year, with less than half the volume on offer picked up despite the government making cuts in the available number of units.

A newly established carbon trading platform in China is being met with suspicion among market participants after refusing to disclose information about its projects and the offsets it has issued.

Papua New Guinea environmental NGOs have accused the government’s Climate Change Development Authority (CCDA) of failing to provide stakeholders with enough time to scrutinise REDD+ safeguard documents, and to properly enforce its moratorium on such projects to be developed for the voluntary market.

Participants in Japan’s voluntary emissions trading scheme will not be required to set specific emissions targets for the current financial year, but instead focus on the preparation for the full-scale launch of the market in April next year, the government said Wednesday.

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

California’s WCI-linked cap-and-trade system will play a slightly smaller role in achieving the state’s 2030 climate target due to more complementary policies, with regulator ARB either punting any reform measures to the legislature or conducting them after the final Scoping Plan is completed, according to the draft plan published Tuesday.

Senior MEPs have reached a comprehensive early deal on EU ETS reforms just days ahead of a crunch vote, with compromises emerging on higher overall ambition and on curbing the role of speculators, according to meeting notes seen by Carbon Pulse.