The 2023 wildfires in Canada burned a record-breaking area, contributing 23% of global wildfire carbon emissions that year. Yet, the relative contributions from live biomass versus soil and peat organic matter combustion were previously unknown. Our analysis reveals a total of 554 million tonnes of carbon released by the 2023 wildfires in Canada, with 76% originating from soil and peat combustion, and 24% from live biomass burning. As Canada stores about one-fifth of the world’s soil organic carbon, these findings underscore the growing vulnerability of northern soil carbon stocks to intensifying wildfires, amplifying climate feedback risks.
Additional coverage in the Globe and Mail, by Ivan Semeniuk: High proportion of Canadian wildfire smoke originates below ground, scientists report
The long-anticipated El Niño is here. …In its monthly update in June, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issued an El Niño advisory, confirming that the warmer conditions had developed in the specific part of the Pacific Ocean known as Niño 3.4. In order to be considered an El Niño, temperatures need to be 0.5 C above the average. Ocean temperatures are now close to 2 C above average. …The strongest El Niño in recent years was the one in 2015-2016, where the ocean temperature anomaly was roughly 2.75 C. ….Nat Johnson, a meteorologist at NOAA’s geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory, said the transition from a La Niña to El Niño has been very quick. …Meanwhile, in Canada, the effects will be seen in the winter months, bringing milder temperatures, but also drier conditions, something that is of great concern for wildfire development in the spring in Western Canada.
VANCOUVER — Technological limitations, high costs and infrastructure challenges raise questions about relying on carbon capture, utilization and storage as a cornerstone of federal and Alberta climate policy, according to a new 
Demand for biofuels has been growing in many parts of the world. …Disruption to oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz this year created a further incentive to switch to biofuels to ensure energy security. While biofuels can’t fully replace petroleum, they can be blended into gasoline and diesel, allowing countries to stretch existing fuel supplies. Many environmentalists contest the idea that biofuels are a sustainable alternative source of energy. And as more farmland is used to produce them, there’s less available to make food, increasing the risk of global food shortages and hunger in the poorest nations. …The priciest biofuel is sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, which uses advanced refining processes to convert waste oils into jet fuel that can be blended for use in aircraft. There’s also so-called advanced or second-generation biodiesel, made from non-food sources such as crop waste, wood chips and even algae, which avoids competing with food crops.
OTTAWA — Three young women and two environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Canadian government seeking to force it to develop an action plan to meet its key climate goals. The lawsuit comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government shifts Canada’s climate and energy priorities, rolling back key environmental policies while advancing major energy and infrastructure projects to reduce dependence on the United States. Announcing the lawsuit, plaintiff Shirley Barnea, a university student from Quebec, said authorities had an obligation to build a sustainable future for younger generations. …The legal action aims to compel the government “to chart a credible, up-to-date course of action” and “to protect Canadians from the worsening impacts of climate change,” according to a statement from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), which is also a party to the lawsuit.
UK — The City watchdog has closed an investigation into the owner of the Drax power plant after an almost 10-month review into whether the company’s sustainability claims mislead shareholders. The Financial Conduct Authority said it had “reviewed thousands of pages” of “complex material” relating to the company’s sourcing of wood pellets for the Drax power plant in Selby, North Yorkshire, but “did not find evidence that justified any further action”. The regulator began the investigation last year into whether Drax’s annual reports and accounts between 2021 and 2023 misled shareholders or left out important information investors needed to know about the origins of its biomass fuel. …Ofgem found at the time that there was no evidence to suggest the breach was deliberate, and said instead that it was “technical in nature”. It also found no evidence that the biomass sourced was unsustainable or that Drax had wrongly laid claim to renewable energy subsidies.
Here’s the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science. Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has … issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing. …El Niño — a climate cycle that causes unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, altering global weather patterns — has begun and is expected to grow to historical strength, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
The Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated. The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember. The power plant was able to claim £2.7m a day from energy bills in part by increasing its power generation by about 2% from the year before – but mostly due to the rising payouts from a legacy renewables support scheme. …The Guardian revealed last November that forestry experts believed the company was burning 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests as recently as last summer. …The government has already halved the subsidies available to Drax. …Drax will have to switch to using woody biomass from 100% sustainable sources, up from the current level of 70%. 
BC’s wildfire emissions in 2023 exceeded those of seven of the world’s ten largest national emitters. …At the same time, provincial policy has systematically reduced the managed forest harvest and shuttered 21 mills since 2023. …The policy of locking forests away from active management—while presented as environmental protection—is contributing to the very climate outcome it claims to prevent. Decadent, unmanaged stands are the fuel that feeds catastrophic wildfire. A well-managed, productive forest economy would reduce Canada’s climate impact more than any policy of exclusion. …The argument for locking forests away from harvest assumes that standing forests are always a carbon sink—absorbing more CO₂ than they release. This is true for young, actively growing forests. It is not true for old, decadent stands. …The solution is not less forestry. It is more forestry—done well, done sustainably, and done with the explicit goal of reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions: uncontrolled wildfire in unmanaged forests.
Wekweètì’s senior administrative officer is hoping to get a few million dollars from both the territorial and federal governments to support a biomass district heating project in the community. Fred Behrens said he recently found opportunities to apply for money from the territorial government’s GHG Grant Program and the federal government’s Build Communities Strong Fund for the project. It involves setting up a heat plant across from the community government office in Wekweètì, which is 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife and home to about 100 people. The space will store wood chips and contain three 300-kilowatt biomass boilers that’ll pump heat to 44 homes and 11 institutional buildings through a network of underground pipes. Behrens said the system would be fueled using material gathered from forest thinning and wildfire prevention work around the community. The boilers would also be connected to the community’s diesel generators, using their exhaust as a source of heat too. 
A company building two of Canada’s largest wood pellet mills says it will rely on a steady diet of trees logged in forests recently burned by wildfires. Roughly five million trees will have to come down each year to feed the two northern Alberta mills, which Powerwood Canada Corp. plans to build near the communities of La Crête and High Level. The company claims that wildfires create nightmarish landscapes and that logging such forests as fast as possible is key to restoring their health. But scientists counter that burned forests are important for biodiversity and that aggressively logging them spells disaster for plants and animals that rely on burned landscapes to flourish. Powerwood CEO David Peters said that in addition to northern Alberta the company is eyeing other “brownfield” logging opportunities in British Columbia and in Eastern Canada due to the significant number of wildfires in recent years.
The wildfire situation in northwestern Ontario has drawn growing global attention. There have been extraordinary stories of close calls and narrow escapes from the rapidly advancing fires. Complaints are coming (ironically) from the United States over the impacts of the resulting fire smoke on American cities. In the short term, attention is rightly focused on the immediate responses to the fires. …At the same time, the fires need to be viewed in a longer-term context. Increased incidences of large-scale forest fires, particularly in the boreal region stretching across Canada from Labrador to the Yukon, have been a predicted impact of climate change in Canada for more than three decades. …The province needs to both adapt to the reality of a changing climate and its consequences and develop a serious strategy for not making the problem worse. So far, Ontario is failing on both fronts.
Hydro-Québec has reached an agreement with the Atikamekw community of Opitciwan and Société en commandite Onimiskiw Opitciwan (SCOO) to build a 4.8MW forest biomass cogeneration plant that will replace the community’s diesel-fired power generation, with commercial operation expected to begin this month. Under the 25-year agreement … the utility will also fund the acquisition and installation of a dryer at the Opitciwan sawmill, majority-owned by the Conseil des Atikamekw d’Opitciwan (CAO). The project is estimated to cost C$60.2 million (around $45 million), with funding contributions from the Quebec provincial and Canadian federal governments alongside investment from CAO and SCOO. The Atikamekw are a First Nations people numbering around 8,000 across several communities in northern Quebec; Opitciwan itself is home to close to 3,000 residents. …”Replacing the current diesel plant with one that’s powered by forest biomass from the sawmill is a huge step forward,” said Denis Clary, President of SCOO.
The Nova Scotia government has issued a tender to convert five public buildings to wood heat systems — a move one member of the forestry sector says will have widespread benefits. The tender targets heating infrastructure at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus, Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, Digby General Hospital, Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, and St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish. …Successful bidders will also be responsible for procuring the wood fuel. The province stated in the tender documents that it “expects the focus of wood procurement to be from small private woodlots,” stipulating that 100 per cent of the lower-grade primary wood fuel must be harvested within Nova Scotia. …Marcus Zwicker, Forest Nova Scotia, added that requiring boilers to be fed with Nova Scotia product opens up new markets for local forestry contractors and woodlot owners while ensuring cheaper wood cannot be brought in from outside jurisdictions.
NOVA SCOTIA — The Province continues to support the forestry sector by making wood heat and building materials a priority in public buildings. A request for proposals issued Thursday, May 14, will see five buildings converted to heating systems that use local wood products. “We are seizing an opportunity to prioritize a local product from our forestry sector that also makes our province more self-reliant and energy secure,” said Public Works Minister Fred Tilley. “By using more local wood products, we are creating jobs, growing our economy and creating a brighter future for Nova Scotia.” …This is the first major project under the government’s wood initiative announced in July 2025. The deadline for submissions is June 24. Using wood products aligns with the Nova Scotia Loyal program, reduces reliance on imports and enhances export markets. It also supports the forestry sector, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps the province move to a low-carbon economy.
MONTRÉAL – With global warming, rainfall is increasingly falling in short, intense, concentrated bursts separated by longer dry periods, and these changes could have a potentially devastating effect on the planet. These are the conclusions of a new study co‑authored by Corey Lesk, at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and Justin S. Mankin, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. … They observed that regardless of the total amount of water received annually, this new rainfall regime alters how precipitation is absorbed by the soil and promotes greater aridity across the Earth’s surface. “Drought is often measured by what is lacking–the total amount of rainfall–but how precipitation falls is just as important,” explains Professor Corey Lesk. “This new type of rainfall regime leads to increased evaporation at the land surface, limiting the soil’s ability to retain moisture, and thus reducing the amount of water available on land for human populations and ecosystems.”
THUNDER BAY — The Ontario government is investing $5.5 million to help Greenwater Technology produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel using mill by-products and underused wood. This investment will support new opportunities for made-in-Ontario forest products, create new revenue streams to drive growth in forestry and empower the aviation and transportation industries to adopt sustainable fuels. As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario, the government is making strategic investments to help forest sector businesses adapt, compete and grow to stay resilient in the face of U.S. tariffs. …After bringing the technology to market, Greenwater plans to integrate biofuel plants at anchor mills, providing an on-site use for forest biomass that would increase productivity, strengthen forestry supply chains and generate new revenue streams.
Trees do not necessarily keep growing for as long as they keep photosynthesizing, according to a new study published in Science Advances. Researchers found that oak trees continue absorbing carbon dioxide well after their annual growth has ended, suggesting forests may store less carbon in wood than many climate models currently predict. The discovery challenges a long standing assumption that higher rates of photosynthesis naturally lead to greater tree growth. If trees continue taking in carbon without turning much of it into new wood, less carbon may remain locked away over the long term. …Scientists have generally expected that rising atmospheric CO2 levels would boost photosynthesis, leading to faster growth and increased long term carbon storage. The new findings suggest …trees may continue absorbing carbon, [but] much of it does not necessarily become new wood. Instead,[it’s] used for other functions, reducing the amount of carbon stored in forests compared with previous expectations.
LONDON — The United States accounted for about a third of the rise in global carbon emissions in 2025, as higher gas prices pushed power producers back to coal, an Energy Institute report showed. Highlights from the report include:
LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO – Octopus Energy Generation, one of Europe’s leading renewables investors, is ramping up efforts to slash CO₂ pollution at scale – inking a major US deal that will help remove up to 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air. Octopus’s fund management team is set to invest $500 million in afforestation and reforestation projects in the US developed by public benefit and climate technology company Living Carbon. On top of that, Octopus has put nearly $13 million into Living Carbon’s fast-growing, cutting-edge carbon removal development business. …Across the US, roughly 130 million acres of land lie degraded and could be reforested. …The locations include old mining sites and worn-out farmland, transforming these spaces into CO₂-absorbing sinks that slash emissions and combat climate change. These projects will also have a host of additional benefits: restoring wildlife habitats, improving water quality, strengthening soils, and supporting local economies in rural communities.
Climate change is expected to alter the extent and severity of forest pest damage, with substantial economic and ecological consequences, but predicting future pest impacts is challenging. Here we use 20 years of data to assess how bioclimatic and biotic factors have influenced forest damage by 30 high-impact pest species and to identify ecological signals in those relationships. We found consistency in pest damage responses to maximum temperature in the warmest month, including recent average conditions and shifts from a historical baseline. Mean damage from focal pest species tends to be higher in regions with moderate maximum temperatures and in regions with faster rates of warming. In certain cases, the direction and magnitude of relationships between climate and forest damage vary by pest guild, native status and region of occurrence. Our findings provide empirical support for expectations of climate-induced stress to host trees and temperature-boosted pest performance, leading to increased pest damage in future forests.
PORT ANGELES, Washington — The Clallam County commissioners are set to throw their support toward a company exploring the possibility of repurposing the former McKinley Mill site. The commissioners discussed a letter of support for Candelaria Industries’ Biopower Redevelopment Proposal with the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities’ request for proposals for repurposing closed wood products facilities for bioenergy development. Candelaria Industries purchased the former McKinley Mill site in June and is evaluating potential reuse of the industrial property and existing infrastructure. …On June 15, the endowment launched a funding opportunity to assessed closed wood products facilities for bioenergy development, the site states. Up to $500,000 in funding is available “to test the renewable energy and economic potential of idled industrial sites in forest-dependent regions,” according to the site.
Three years ago, two big new wood-pellet manufacturing plants were proposed along the Washington coast — the first of their kind in the Pacific Northwest. The British utility Drax planned a facility in Longview next to the Columbia River. Another company, Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy Project (PNWRE), proposed a similar plant in Hoquiam, Grays Harbor County. These plans are now unraveling. Last year, Drax suspended work on its Longview plant, citing weak demand for wood pellets it planned to export to overseas power plants. The year before, Enviva, Drax’s biggest competitor declared bankruptcy… What we’re learning is the wood pellet industry can’t compete without extensive subsidies. …These adverse economic headwinds should serve as a warning sign… Most likely, the project will fail economically, saddling Grays Harbor with a costly cleanup project instead of providing the promise of new jobs or local revenue. It would be better to cut our losses now — before this doomed project is built. [A Seattle Times subscription is required for full access]
SEATTLE — Mast Reforestation today announced that less than six weeks after issuance, it has sold 100% of the 4,277 biomass burial carbon removal credits from Mast Wood Preserve MT1, its pioneering post-wildfire restoration project in southern Montana. New buyers include Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, and BMO, a North American financial institution, joining earlier participants including Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), CNaught, a major corporate buyer advised by SE Advisory Services, Muir AI, and others. The sell-out follows MT1’s January 2026 issuance under the Puro.earth registry, which represented the largest issuance to date under Puro.earth’s Terrestrial Storage of Biomass (TSB) methodology and one of the fastest project development timelines globally for a carbon removal project, at just nine months. “High-integrity carbon removal is an important part of Bain’s strategy to address residual emissions while helping scale the climate solutions the world needs,” said Sam Israelit, Partner and Chief Sustainability Officer, Bain & Company.
Ithaca, NY — Forests and land play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide emissions, but current models and forecasts don’t incorporate a new and surprising ecological discovery: Despite more available carbon, climate change and warmer temperatures are slowing forest growth. A new study considers for the first time the impact of the discovery on climate models, finding that one of the most-used land models for determining the impacts of climate change may overestimate forests’ future potential for carbon storage by as much as 30%. “Knowing how well the land will be able to keep taking up carbon in the future is really important,” said first author Brendan Clark. “But the land models are probably underestimating the effects of hotter, drier air on actual growth.” …Clark first learned about the new ecological findings from co-author and ecologist Shan Kothari, at the University of Alberta, and immediately wondered how they might impact climate models. 
A bill aimed at making Louisiana more enticing to the wood pellet industry has sailed through the state Legislature. House Bill 670 won unanimous approval in the Louisiana House and Senate and was granted final passage on Wednesday (May 27). It would ease regulations for pellet manufacturers while directing state support toward workforce development, financial incentives and infrastructure improvements designed to meet the industry’s needs. The industry has come under fire for repeatedly breaking air pollution rules in Louisiana and Mississippi and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom, where most of the pellets are burned to produce energy marketed as “sustainable biomass.” The bill’s supporters admitted they knew little about the industry but backed the measure in hopes of reviving the state’s struggling logging sector. …“This bill uses taxpayer money to support a foreign industry and makes it easier for them to pollute Louisianians’ air and water,” said the Dogwood Alliance. 
The Louisiana House of Representatives on May 13 voted unanimously to approve a bill that aims to benefit the state’s wood pellet manufacturing industry. Also on May 13, the bill reported favorably out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs. The legislation now awaits action from the Louisiana Senate. The bill, HB 670, was introduced in late February by state Rep. Charles Owen and amended twice as it moved through House committees. It aims to benefit the state’s wood pellet manufacturing industry by streamlining permitting, developing a skilled workforce and facilitating the efficient transportation and export of wood pellets. The bill, as amended, allows Louisiana Economic Development, a cabinet-level agency focused on business growth, to support the recruitment, retention, and expansion of wood pellet manufacturing facilities in this state within existing statutory authority and subject to the availability of funds. 
HAYWARD, Wis. – A new refinery planned for Hayward will convert wood into sustainable aviation fuel, using waste wood, such as scrap wood or invasive species. Hayward companies FutureWood and Johnson Timber Corporation will source and process the wood, while Synthec Fuels will handle the fuel refining process. President of FutureWood DJ Aderman says the facility will harness products not currently utilized in the forestry industry. “What’s really cool about this is we’re gonna use a lot of mill residuals. We’re gonna use a lot of products that we’re not currently using right now, unmerchable tops, species that have no or little value,” said Aderman. Last week, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed the Forestry Revitalization Act, which approved up to $120 million in tax credits for the $1.7 billion project. The legislation aims to bolster the forestry industry, which has seen major downturns due to mill closures in recent years.
The German government has approved a draft law designed to limit the support for electricity generation from woody biomass, aiming the meet the EU requirements. As a result, certain categories of wood will be excluded from subsidisation under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), such as saw logs, veneer logs, other industrial-grade roundwood and stumps and roots harvested from forests. Electricity generation from these types of wood, however, may still receive support if it is necessary to safeguard Germany’s energy security or if local industry is unable to use the forestry biomass in ways that deliver greater economic and environmental value than energy production. Under the proposed law, industrial wood residues will remain eligible for financing.
Wildfires in permafrost regions, intensified by climate change and shifting fire regimes, are increasingly disrupting permafrost systems. At the same time, the presence of permafrost amplifies the extent and complexity of wildfire impacts across the Permafrost Critical Zone (PCZ). In boreal forests and landscapes with sporadic or isolated permafrost patches, wildfires rapidly increase ground temperatures and accelerate permafrost thaw, primarily due to vegetation loss and the combustion of insulating organic layers. These fire-induced changes can initiate irreversible processes. …Understanding the complex interactions and cascading effects between wildfires and permafrost thaw remains a major challenge. Unlike wildfires in non-permafrost regions, which are mainly driven by fuel loads and organic soil depth, fire behavior in the PCZ is additionally shaped by active layer thickness, near-surface permafrost conditions, and snow cover. These elements interact with cold-adapted vegetation and organic soils, influencing fire ignition, intensity, spread, and post-fire recovery.
After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis. According to a 
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Verra are pleased to announce a collaboration that will bring greater transparency and credibility to the voluntary carbon market. Under this new arrangement, Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) issued through Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program can now carry an FSC label when they are generated from forests that hold valid FSC Forest Management (FM) certification. This means that buyers and stakeholders can readily identify carbon credits that come from responsibly managed, FSC-certified forestlands. This means projects that are dual registered under both the VCS Program and FSC FM certification will be eligible to apply the FSC label to their VCUs in the Verra Registry. To qualify, projects must demonstrate full spatial and temporal overlap between the VCS project area and the FSC-certified forest, and must hold a valid FSC FM certificate for the entire verification period.
According to a new report from Allied Market Research, the global biomass market size was valued at $59.0 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $121.0 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2024 to 2033. The rapid shift toward renewable energy sources, growing environmental concerns, and supportive government policies are significantly contributing to the expansion of the biomass market across the globe. The increasing focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy security is encouraging governments and industries to invest heavily in biomass energy technologies. Unlike fossil fuels, biomass is considered carbon-neutral because the carbon dioxide released during energy generation is offset by the carbon absorbed during the growth of biomass feedstocks. This advantage is making the biomass market increasingly attractive for sustainable energy development. The growing demand for renewable energy is one of the major factors fueling biomass market growth. … Biomass energy provides a reliable and stable source of renewable power…
Across the UNECE region, understanding how wood energy use relates to forest resources and energy supply remains a central question for policy. These relationships are reflected in material flows from forests and forest-based industries into energy supply. Drawing on data from the Joint Wood Energy Enquiry (JWEE), this report shows that increasing wood energy consumption has coincided with declining reliance on roundwood and a growing contribution from industrial by-products, processed wood-based fuels and post-consumer recovered wood. Over the same period, the share of forest net annual increment directly used for energy remained broadly stable, even as wood energy increased its contribution to total primary energy supply. Together, these developments point to changes in the composition of feedstocks, uses and consuming sectors rather than a simple intensification of harvest pressure, while cross-country differences reflect variation in forest endowments, industrial structures and trade patterns.
Finland’s economy has long been rooted in its forests—but in 2026, the sector sits at the intersection of energy transition, environmental regulation, and global market uncertainty. A glance at Finland’s real-time energy production reveals a system increasingly diversified across nuclear, hydro, and renewables. Yet beneath this transition lies a quieter but equally critical story: the evolving role of forestry in powering both industry and energy systems. Finland’s energy picture depends heavily on whether we look at electricity output or total primary energy consumption. …The broader energy balance tells a different story. When heat, fuels, and industrial energy are included, bioenergy remains Finland’s largest energy source, at roughly 135 TWh, ahead of nuclear energy at about 105 TWh. Oil remains significant at around 70 TWh, while hydro and wind contribute roughly 25 TWh and 20 TWh, respectively. This matters for forestry because forest-based energy remains central to Finland’s energy system, even as its role is slowly declining.
EUROPE — The war in the Middle East has – among many other unintended but avoidable consequences – put renewed pressure on the European Union to water down its carbon pricing policy. The focus right now is on the existing Emissions Trading System (ETS), but it’s not too soon to be concerned about the fate of its upcoming sequel, known as ETS2. ETS2 is the most consequential climate policy most Europeans (much less the rest of the world) have never heard of. Whereas the existing ETS puts a price on the carbon pollution caused by major industries such as power generation, steel, shipping, aviation and cement, ETS2 does the same for fossil fuels used for land transport and to heat buildings. As such it will impact as much as 40% of the EU’s total emissions – and the living costs of 450 million Europeans. The clock is ticking. ETS2 is scheduled to come into effect in 2028.