Global Climate News

The United States hosted a technical program on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) from March 3-5, 2025, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX. The event featured presentations and discussions on various themes including subsurface storage, site selection, injectivity challenges, and global CCUS implementation. Companies like Net Power, ExxonMobil, and Chevron participated, highlighting advancements in CO2 storage and utilization technologies. The program also included discussions on policy innovations for CCUS in India and a model for developing oil and gas regions globally, such as the Niger Delta.

The 2024 Global Carbon Budget Report indicates that global emissions have continued to rise, falling behind international targets. Scientists at AOML and CIMAS lead global efforts to quantify the exchange of carbon between the ocean and the atmosphere and how it might be changing. The ocean's role in the global carbon cycle is highlighted, comparing it to a personal finance budget where carbon is the currency.

USGBC and CAGBC have released LEED v5, prioritizing decarbonization, quality of life, and ecological conservation. A new "Assess and Quantify Embodied Carbon" prerequisite and a "Reduce Embodied Carbon" credit (up to six points) encourage the reduction of embodied carbon in building materials. CarbiCrete's technology, using steel slag and carbon mineralization, reduces the GWP of concrete by over 90%, aligning with LEED v5's focus.

The Norwegian research center Zero Emissions Metal Production (FME ZeMe) aims to develop solutions for a carbon-neutral metal industry by 2050. The center focuses on climate-neutral and energy-efficient production processes, carbon capture, circular value chains, improved emission measurement tools, and digitalization. It involves SINTEF, NTNU, NORCE, and international universities, funding 19 PhDs.

Ghana and Singapore strengthened their collaboration under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, enabling the transfer of carbon credits (ITMOs). Ghana’s EPA partnered with ZERO13 to link the Ghana Carbon Registry (GCR) to a blockchain-based ITMO Trading Hub. The first projects focus on agroforestry, aiming for community benefits and transparent carbon credit trading.

Sri Lanka-based Planboo, a climate technology startup, has signed a carbon removal offtake agreement with Shopify. This is Planboo’s first portfolio purchase, diversifying carbon removal credit delivery for Shopify and distributing revenue to a global network of biochar projects. Planboo uses agricultural waste to create biochar, removing CO2 and boosting climate resilience for farmers. The agreement supports the growth and improvement of biochar projects, aiming to mitigate climate change and global inequality.

Japan-based Green Carbon and Itochu Ennex are jointly hosting an online seminar on January 23, 2025, focusing on the latest trends in carbon credits. Green Carbon creates and sells nature-based carbon credits, while Itochu Ennex offers a carbon-neutral fuel card. The seminar will cover 2024 carbon credit topics, the carbon-neutral fuel card, and future carbon credit trends.

US-based Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) published a report, "Chemistry in Transition", analyzing emissions reduction levers for the US chemical industry. The report identifies 20+ levers, with 10 commercially viable, potentially reducing emissions by 34% with policy and infrastructure improvements. Additional reductions of 14% are possible with further policy support, reaching almost 50% reduction. The report emphasizes the need for infrastructure development (renewable energy, CO2 transport, recycling), policy support (incentives, differentiated markets), and innovation (electrification, catalysis).

Climeworks has developed a quality framework for carbon removal, integrating established standards from Microsoft, Shopify, and WBCSD. The framework centers on trust, impact, and risk, focusing on measurability, end-to-end carbon accounting, additionality, third-party certification, permanence, social and environmental co-benefits, availability, scalability, and price, while considering storage reversal risk, leakage, and social and environmental risks. The company uses this framework to create comprehensive carbon removal portfolios combining engineered and nature-based solutions.

The Carbon Drawdown Initiative spent several hundred thousand US$ on failed enhanced weathering experiments. Despite initial setbacks, the organization learned valuable insights about the process's limitations and is planning a larger experiment in 2025.

Canada-based Tersa Earth Innovations Inc. partnered with Precient Technologies to develop sustainable mining solutions using TersaClean technology, which combines Microbial Fuel Cells, Microbial Carbonate Precipitation, and advanced Bioprocess Engineering. This collaboration will enhance Tersa Earth’s capabilities in waste remediation, metal recovery, and carbon emission reduction in mining, expanding to include uranium and selenium extraction.

The Met Office reported that the rate of atmospheric CO2 increase surpasses IPCC pathways limiting warming to 1.5C. The 2023-2024 rise was the fastest on record (3.58 ppm/year at Mauna Loa), exceeding even the Met Office's El Niño-influenced forecast. Weaker land carbon sinks, partly due to high temperatures and severe fires, contributed significantly. The increase continues despite record-high global CO2 emissions in 2024.

The EU launched its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in a transitional phase from 2023-2025, with the definitive regime starting in 2026. The CBAM aims to put a fair price on carbon emissions from imported goods, initially covering cement, iron and steel, aluminum, fertilizers, electricity, and hydrogen. Importers will register, declare emissions, and surrender CBAM certificates, with deductions allowed for pre-existing carbon pricing. The mechanism is designed to be compatible with WTO rules.

Global seaweed farms have shown increased carbon burial in underlying sediments with farm age, reaching up to 140 tC ha−1. The average organic carbon burial rate was 1.87 ± 0.73 tCO2e ha−1 yr−1, double that of reference sediments. This confirms that seaweed farming buries carbon at rates comparable to some Blue Carbon habitats.

Austria and Australia are collaborating on the CCUpScale project. The project, which received AUD $3.29 million in funding, aims to develop MCi Carbon’s mineral carbonation technology and build the world’s first CCU plant in the refractory industry in Hochfilzen, Austria by 2028, capturing and utilizing 50,000 tons of CO2 annually.

US-based Google has announced two long-term purchase agreements with Varaha and Charm to purchase a total of 200,000 tons of biochar carbon removal by 2030 to help achieve its net zero emissions goal. This is in addition to other carbon removal solutions Google supports, such as enhanced rock weathering and direct air capture.

The US-based Well Done Foundation is working to plug CO2e and methane-leaking oil and gas wells and clean up communities. They are collaborating with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to plug over 110 orphan wells.

The Well Done Foundation, in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, will plug over 110 orphan wells starting in 2025. This initiative aims to reduce methane and CO2e emissions.

The UK government's Clean Power 2030 Action Plan commits to 100% clean electricity by 2030, with a £40 billion annual investment. Green hydrogen will play a central role. Key initiatives include Project Union (repurposing 1,500 miles of pipelines for hydrogen transport) and FutureGrid (testing hydrogen blends in pipelines).

Japan and Thailand held the Japan-Thailand Public-Private Automotive Business Forum to strengthen cooperation in the automotive industry. The forum included discussions on next-generation automotive technologies, multi-pathway decarbonization strategies (including EVs, FCVs, hybrids, biofuels, and synthetic fuels), supply chains, circular economy, and potential of hydrogen, e-fuels, and biofuels.