???? Two extremely eventful weeks

Hi there,

It seems a long time ago that COP16 wrapped. But in the few short weeks since then, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves shared the UK's Autumn Budget, Donald Trump won the US presidential election and COP29 kicked off in Baku with good news for Article 6.4.

In these turbulent times, climate policy analysts are going into overdrive. What does the Autumn Budget mean for the UK's environmental action? Carbon Brief can tell you. How did climate policy fair in the US state elections? Trellis (formerly GreenBiz) has got you covered. Wondering?which debates will dominate at COP29? New Scientist has some great predictions.

• To start, let's cast our minds back to COP16. Carbon Brief publishes 13,000 words on the outcomes of COP16. It’s a one-stop shop to catch up with developments from Cali.
• Lina Barrera shares policy analysis from Conservation International about COP16 on LinkedIn. It covers the key outcomes with summaries and analysis.
• Mongabay reviews the outcomes of COP16, calling the outcomes ‘mixed’. It is good news that Indigenous Peoples will finally be allowed to sit at decision-making tables, but corporate lobbyists ensured that corporate payments for genetic digital sequence information (from which they profit) remain voluntary.
• Bezos Earth Fund releases a statement about the decisions on the sharing of digital sequence information at COP16.
• Continuing on a Bezos note, Carbon Pulse covers news that Amazon’s climate fund will invest $495,000 in Ireland’s Peatland Standard. This initiative intends to restore 700,000 hectares of degraded peatland.
• The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market announces the approval of three REDD+ methodologies. This means REDD+ credits will be tagged with the CCP label from 2025.
• Reuters reports that Shell has won an appeal against a landmark ruling that would have made it a legal requirement for the company to reduce its emissions.
• Bloomberg considers the contradiction of the US simultaneously trying to position itself as a climate leader while producing more oil than any other country in history.
• The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) reports a record year it made – $111.3 million in emission reductions payments and said that FCPF participant countries are now generating about 20 million tonnes of excess emission reductions. It argues that these could be monetised in carbon markets but that only about 5 million tonnes of emission reductions have so far been independently verified.
• Commission publishes the EU Climate Action Progress Report 2024.
• ESMA publishes a report in October titled: EU Carbon Markets 2024. It covers pricing, auctions, trading and positions in EUA derivatives and concludes that there are ‘no significant issues in the functioning of the EU carbon markets.’
• Carbon Pulse reports that the new EU Environment Commissioner has expressed their support for developing nature credits.
• A paper published in PNAS finds that branch turnover is not accurately considered in carbon accounting.
• Carbon Herald writes that the UK will implement CBAM in January 2027. The levies will cover aluminium, cement, fertilizers, iron, steel and hydrogen. Ceramics and glass will not be included until later.
• Carbon Herald?reports that Sylvera has issued the world’s first Article 6.2 carbon project rating for a cookstove initiative in Ghana.
• Project Syndicate publishes an article making the case for carbon markets to support countries whose forests are not under immediate threat.
• ART shares that its TREES Concept for Para, Brazil’s jurisdictional REDD+ program is now published on the ART Registry.
• Business Green covers research from MSCI that shows corporate emissions are on track to drive a global temperature rise of 2.8 degrees.
• Mongabay digs into the viability of atmospheric methane removal as a climate solution.
• Quantum Commodity Intelligence considers Verra’s new risk-based approach to project review.
• GEF announces that eight governments have pledged an additional $163 million to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.
• Nation reports that Kenya’s president, William Ruto, is confident that communities involved in carbon credit projects will receive about 40 percent of the profits following new regulations published earlier this year.
• City A.M. an op-ed by Juan Carlos Jintiach, GATC, and Zac Goldsmith, former UK Government Minister challenges world leaders to learn from Indigenous People and local communities.
• Carbon Pulse reports that a carbon standard is trialling nature stewardship credits in Canada and Zambia.
• ESG Today says that more than 500 companies have committed to report on nature using the TNFD framework.
• Euractiv argues that the EU needs to have a common definition of high-quality carbon credits.

Attention please! You are now entering the COP29 section of the newsletter.

• First up is the?World Resources Institute. It questions if COP29 will herald a new era for climate action and highlights what to watch during the conference.
• The Financial Times optimistically covers carbon market discussions at COP29, predicting that this conference will end with a long-awaited agreement on bilateral trades.
• The New York Times publishes a comprehensive guide to COP29, including how Trump’s win could impact the talks.
• The Nature Conservancy shares a comprehensive guide to COP29. It also updates its resource: REDD+ Article 6 COP29 and Beyond.
• IETA shares a 12-page state of climate negotiations guide in anticipation of COP29.
• The Guardian publishes a COP29 jargon buster on the first day of the conference. In another article, the publication says an ‘odour of oil and the return of Trump’ are clouding COP29 in Baku.
• Reuters shares the key issues set for discussion at COP29, specifically climate finance and the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG).
• Eco-Business explains the meaning of ‘New Collective Quantified Goal’ as discussions begin at COP.
• Carbon Herald covers the decision to operationalise Article 6.4 at the start of COP29 and?Eco-Business discusses what this could mean for Southeast Asia.
• Nature4Climate shares that Marina Silva is calling on governments and companies to step up their climate action at COP29.

What's new?

edie reports that nine out of 10 marketers would like to see international guidance on how to avoid greenwashing and accurately communicate their client's environmental work.

This is intriguing. It shows the extent of the challenges marketers face when deciding how to communicate their companies’ environmental activities.

Greensquashing or greenrushing?

Perhaps the most startling point in this study is linked to the knock-on implications of greenhushing (the situation in which a company doesn’t communicate its environmental work due to a fear of criticism). The article reported 56 percent of marketers have witnessed a phenomenon nicknamed 'greensquashing' at their companies.

This new word refers to the weakening environmental targets AFTER limiting environmental communications. Greensquashing is real – and it’s worrying. Not only are companies keeping quiet, but 56 percent of those surveyed seem to be scaling back their environmental work as a consequence.

But as underscored by UNEP’s latest emissions gap report, this is the time for the private sector to ramp up global emission reduction efforts and direct more capital to conservation and restoration projects. The report calls for the private sector to take a strong stance on climate to keep the world to a safe and liveable temperature.

The world does not have time for 'greensquashing'. Rather we need the private sector to be 'greenrushing' and making sustained, ambitious reductions and compensate for emissions.

Toroto

Toroto, the developer of our newest flagship portfolio project, Conhuás, has been named a Las 140 de Impacto by Impact Hub Mexico City and Citibanamex AC Social Development in recognition of its work to create positive change. You can see the full list?here.

Carbon Tanzania

Mail & Guardian featured Carbon Tanzania in its recent article on illegal forestry in Africa. It said: “Last year, Carbon Tanzania’s three operational forest conservation projects delivered more than $6.9??million from these credits to some of the most remote communities in Tanzania, allowing them to build health, education and security infrastructure.”

• COP29 has been running in?Baku since the 11th of November. The conference will continue until the 22nd.
• Also in Baku is the World Climate Summit on the 17th and 18th of November.?
• WBCSD is hosting a?webinar on the 20th of November. Join at 9 am GMT or 5 pm GMT to learn about the opportunities, best practices and considerations of investing in NCS.
• Our CEO Ana Haurie will speak at the 2024 Energy Intelligence Forum in London, which will take place between November 25th and 27th.?

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Respira is an impact-driven carbon finance business. We channel private capital into the world’s best carbon projects to scale natural and technological climate solutions through high-quality carbon credits. The majority of these investments are directed to the global south to tackle the climate crisis, prevent biodiversity loss and empower the communities where climate change hits hardest.