Crude futures settle higher

Oil prices climbed on Wednesday.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December delivery gained 49 cents, or 0.57 percent, to settle at 86.53 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery went up 1.27 dollars, or 1.39 percent, to settle at 92.76 U.S. dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

China, Türkiye and Ethiopia on Wednesday jointly launched an initiative to enhance international cooperation on carbon crediting markets at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya.

Unveiled at the COP31 China Pavilion in a ceremony attended by government officials and representatives of international organizations, including the United Nations and the World Bank, the initiative calls for stronger cooperation to promote the sustainable development of the global carbon credit market and support the global green and low-carbon transition.

With the implementation rules of the market mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement gradually taking effect in recent years, international demand for high-quality carbon credits has continued to grow.

The initiative urges governments and relevant intergovernmental institutions to take the lead in improving governance systems for high-quality carbon credits. It calls on carbon credit mechanisms and market participants to strengthen exchanges and collaboration to ensure high-quality supply, all social actors to use carbon credits responsibly to generate effective market demand, and all parties to deepen international exchanges and cooperation, enhance capacity building, and promote carbon credit information sharing and infrastructure connectivity.

"We believe this initiative can make a significant contribution. And all those years of progress and experience and measuring and cooperating and identifying the emission reduction potential, linking it with national policies and overall ambition aims, this is all very relevant experience that China has had and really needs to be shared with others, so that we all can make the same efforts to really build really well functioning climate markets," said James Grabert, head of the Mitigation Division under the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

COP31, which opened on Monday and runs through Nov. 20, has brought together representatives from nearly 200 countries and regions around the world.