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A satellite analysis using TROPOMI data reveals that Australia's coal mine methane emissions are significantly under-reported. For the 2020 financial year, satellite estimates for six mining clusters—representing 79% of black coal production—were 40% higher than the national total reported by the National Greenhouse Accounts. The discrepancy is most pronounced in New South Wales, where fugitive emissions were found to be approximately twice as high as official reports in both 2020 and 2021. The report attributes some of this variability to the adoption of 'Method 2', a site-specific company-led estimation approach for open-cut mines that often results in lower reported emissions compared to state-based averages (Method 1).

The author contends that the U.S. administration's decision to exit the Paris Climate Agreement and end international climate finance creates significant risks for the United States. These include the loss of diplomatic soft power, the forfeiture of economic opportunities in a clean energy market projected to exceed $2 trillion by 2035, and the creation of a power vacuum likely to be filled by China or other actors like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The text asserts that maintaining a leadership role is essential for U.S. companies to ensure market transparency and harmonization abroad, and warns that domestic policy rollbacks further undermine American innovation and long-term energy competitiveness.

The U.S. steel industry is already less carbon-intensive than other major regions due to a high reliance on electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which account for 70% of production. However, the remaining 30% relies on integrated blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) routes to produce high-quality steel. Decarbonization requires transitioning these integrated mills to direct reduced iron (DRI) and submerged arc furnaces (SAF) or implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS). While clean electricity offers a 'quick win' for EAFs, deep decarbonization is hindered by the high cost of green hydrogen and the need for extensive CCS infrastructure. The report argues that because steel is a low-margin commodity, government policy—including carbon taxes, border adjustment mechanisms, and demand-side incentives—is essential to offset the increased costs of low-carbon production.

A joint letter from environmental organisations to the European Commission calling for the integration of rebuilding targets, ecosystem-based approaches, and long-term biomass projections into the ICES scientific advice process for fisheries.

Carbon Market Watch warns that the European Commission is considering "loopholes" to weaken the EU's 2040 climate target, including the use of international carbon credits and carbon removals. The organization argues that such measures would undermine domestic emissions reductions, repeat past failures of the EU Emissions Trading System, and contradict the recommendations of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, which suggests a 90-95% emissions cut through domestic action alone.

In 2024, global electricity generation reached new record highs for solar, wind, hydro, gas, and coal. Solar was the fastest-growing source, increasing by 474 TWh to reach a 6.9% share of the global mix, with China contributing 53% of this growth. Wind generation also hit a record of 2,494 TWh, though growth slowed due to weather conditions. Hydro rebounded to an all-time high of 4,416 TWh following 2023 droughts, largely driven by China. Nuclear generation grew by 2.5% to 2,768 TWh, but its global market share fell to a 45-year low of 9%. Gas and coal both reached record generation levels in 2024, though their shares of the global electricity mix declined to 22% and 34% respectively, as electricity demand grew faster than their production.

The report highlights solar power as the primary engine of the global energy transition, noting it surpassed 2,000 TWh of generation in 2024 and doubles every three years. While emerging drivers such as data centres, EVs, and heat pumps have structurally increased electricity demand, clean generation is projected to grow fast enough to meet this demand and drive a structural decline in fossil fuels by 2030. Central to this shift is the progress in China and India, where clean power deployment is breaking the historical link between economic growth and fossil fuel expansion, potentially tipping the global balance toward a decline in fossil generation.

The report examines the 2024 power sectors of China, the US, EU, India, Russia, Japan, and Brazil. Key trends include China's massive solar growth despite record coal generation, the US's first-time transition to wind and solar overtaking coal, the EU's record decline in coal, and Brazil's high renewable share. While India and China continue to see demand growth met partly by coal, the EU and US show a stronger shift toward clean energy, though the US remains reliant on gas.

In 2024, clean power reached a milestone of 40.9% of global electricity generation, driven by a record surge in solar and a rebound in hydropower. Despite this growth, global power sector emissions reached a record high of 14.6 billion tonnes of CO2 because extreme heatwaves drove a 4.0% increase in electricity demand, forcing a 1.4% rise in fossil fuel generation to meet the additional cooling needs.

In 2024, global electricity demand rose by 4% to 30,856 TWh, driven largely by China and extreme heatwaves. Low-carbon sources reached a historic high of 40.9% of global generation, with solar and wind combined surpassing hydropower. Despite this, global power sector emissions hit a record high, increasing by 1.6% due to a rise in fossil generation linked to cooling demand during heatwaves.

In 2024, clean power surpassed 40% of global electricity generation for the first time since the 1940s, driven by record solar growth. Despite this, global power sector emissions reached an all-time high of 14.6 billion tonnes of CO2 because heatwaves drove a 1.4% increase in fossil generation to meet cooling demand. Solar generation doubled over the last three years, reaching 2,131 TWh, while emerging drivers like AI data centres, EVs, and heat pumps structurally increased demand growth. China and India are increasingly decoupling their electricity demand growth from fossil fuel expansion, with China's clean generation meeting 81% of its demand increase in 2024.

The policy brief asserts that energy tax credits are critical for commercializing diverse energy technologies to meet rising demand from AI and data centers, while lowering costs for households and strengthening local economies. It highlights specific credits—including 45Y, 48E, 45Q, 45V, and 45X—as vital for the development of baseload power (advanced nuclear, geothermal, fusion), carbon capture, hydrogen, and critical mineral manufacturing. The author warns that repealing these credits or shortening their eligibility would increase energy prices, threaten jobs, and undermine U.S. leadership in global markets, particularly against competitors like China. Additionally, the brief emphasizes that mechanisms like direct pay and transferability are necessary for tax-exempt entities and high-cost projects, such as advanced nuclear, to monetize these incentives.

Carbon Market Watch defends the independence of environmental NGOs receiving EU LIFE programme funding against allegations from some Members of the European Parliament that these organisations act as unofficial mouthpieces for the European Commission. The organisation highlights the vast disparity between the €15 million annual LIFE funding for NGOs and the €1.3 billion spent by corporate lobbyists in 2023, asserting that such grants are vital for balancing the playing field without compromising the NGOs' role as watchdogs.

The document introduces a workbook designed to help businesses and policy-makers navigate the compliance landscape of due diligence laws. It maps 12 specific mandatory regulations—including the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the U.S. Lacey Act—against six common themes: risk management, transparency, traceability, accountability, stakeholder engagement, and legality. The analysis is based on the OECD's definition of due diligence, which focuses on identifying and mitigating adverse environmental and social risks in supply chains.

Reclaim Finance calls on investors to vote against strategic resolutions at 2025 annual general meetings for major oil and gas companies, arguing that traditional shareholder engagement has failed to align these firms with a 1.5°C trajectory. The document highlights that 95% of oil and gas companies continue developing new projects and that some majors, such as BP, TotalEnergies, Eni, and Equinor, are increasing production or weakening climate targets. It advocates for using opposition votes as an effective lever to signal that climate priorities must be integrated into corporate strategy.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that commodities and products be produced in accordance with the local laws of the country of production. This briefing argues that the 'legality requirement' must be interpreted broadly, encompassing all laws—including customary and human rights laws—that affect the legal status of the area of production and its surrounding environment. It emphasizes that due diligence cannot rely solely on official government records, especially in jurisdictions with high corruption or weak law enforcement, and must instead incorporate verification from local experts and civil society stakeholders.

The document outlines a comprehensive approach to transition finance for Vietnam's high-emission industrial sectors. It introduces a 'Five Hallmarks' framework for creating credible transition plans—covering performance targets, robust planning, implementation, internal monitoring, and external reporting—and provides specific decarbonisation pathways and technical criteria for the steel, cement, and basic chemicals industries. Additionally, it offers a five-tier maturity scale for financial institutions to assess corporate transition credibility and provides best-practice recommendations for issuing sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) and loans (SLLs) to support the energy transition.

The document outlines a comprehensive methodology for creating and assessing corporate transition plans in Vietnam's high-emission industries. It introduces a 'Five Hallmarks' framework for credible plans, provides sector-specific decarbonization criteria for steel, cement, and basic chemicals, and details the use of sustainability-linked financial instruments. It also presents a five-level classification system for financial institutions to evaluate the maturity and ambition of corporate transitions.

ClientEarth argues that EU State aid policy currently lacks environmental mainstreaming, allowing for the approval of aid that supports environmentally harmful activities, such as fossil fuels. The briefing asserts that there are no fundamental legal obstacles to integrating environmental requirements and proposes three main pillars: systemic verification of compliance with EU environmental law, horizontal application of the "Do No Significant Harm" (DNSH) principle, and the inclusion of environmental risks when assessing the negative effects of aid on competition and trade.

ClientEarth's response to the CARACAL-54 presentation on the REACH revision emphasizes the need to modernize registration requirements, enhance transparency, and maintain the phase-out goal for substances of very high concern (SVHCs). The organization strongly opposes making the Analysis of Risk Management Options (RMOA) mandatory, claiming it would create regulatory bottlenecks and undermine the objective of phasing out hazardous chemicals. Key recommendations include introducing a mixture assessment factor (MAF) of at least 100, expanding the scope of registration to include polymers, and harmonizing sanctions across EU Member States to ensure effective enforcement.