Today: Two academic papers published last month show that corporate climate efforts are having a positive impact on reducing deforestation and cutting emissions; sulfuric acid shortage; SoftBank's big battery push.

Welcome back: Corporate decarbonization programs have been slated as a waste of money, a form of greenwashing and even a scam. But they might still be helping to protect nature and drive emissions reductions over the long term, according to two recently published studies.

In April, a study published in the science journal Nature assessed how well certain types of carbon-credit programs actually worked to protect forests and biodiversity, writes Sustainable Business's Yusuf Khan.

The projects in question, known as REDD+, have been widely criticized for overestimating how much carbon dioxide they capture or prevent. Under the initiative, companies pay to protect existing forests as an offset for their emissions. Various scandals have shown that many of the projects promised more credits than actually delivered and even harmed the communities that hosted the projects.

The authors of the report suggest that while REDD+ methodologies might be flawed, the projects have been good at keeping forests standing. The researchers found that in assessing 44 REDD+ projects, most helped to avoid deforestation.

The other study, a working paper from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, explores the tension between the immediate effect of net-zero goals on emissions and the potential long-term implications. The paper by Simon Dietz and Nikolaus Hastreiter, also published in April, suggests there is little evidence that companies who committed to net-zero goals saw any immediate reduction in emissions; yet, over the long term, looking to 2050, these commitments may be having an effect.

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War in the Persian Gulf and new Chinese export restrictions have sent sulfuric-acid prices soaring and raised concerns about the availability of a chemical that the world relies on for food, metal, paper, computer chips and clean water, the Journal's Ryan Dezember and Ed Ballard report.

Sulfuric acid is the most consumed chemical on the planet. It is used to produce phosphate fertilizers, leach copper and other metals from rock, pulp wood, pickle steel, tan leather and vulcanized rubber. Municipal water treatment depends on sulfuric acid, as do battery makers. 

However, because sulfuric acid is highly corrosive, it is difficult and expensive to move around. Users don’t usually keep much sulfuric acid on hand because it requires careful handling and special tanks for storage.

“There’s only weeks, maybe if you’re lucky a month, planned for in their pipeline and storage,” said Kunal Sinha, co-founder and chief executive of metals-processing startup Valor. “Supply-chain disruption, whether it’s a rail strike or the Strait of Hormuz being closed, is a problem.”

Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group has launched a battery business amid surging demand for electricity driven by the global artificial intelligence boom.

The Journal's Jason Chau reports that SoftBank’s telecommunications arm said Monday it will build large-scale battery cells and storage systems for the Japanese market, in partnership with South Korea-based battery company Cosmos Lab and AI firm DeltaX Co.

SoftBank Corp. will work with Cosmos Lab on next-generation zinc-halogen battery cells, while collaborating with DeltaX on high-performance, high-energy-density battery designs.

The company plans to use the batteries to power its AI data centers and support grid and industrial applications in Japan, with potential overseas expansion in the medium term.

• For California, the economic pain of the Iran war will last well beyond the arrival of the next oil supertankers. (WSJ)
   
• A suspected oil spill covering dozens of square kilometres of sea near Iran's Kharg Island oil hub seen on satellite imagery. (Reuters)
   
• The share of power generated by wind and solar exceeded 30% in more than a dozen states in 2025. (Canary Media)
   
• A tentative state budget deal in New York includes an agreement to soften a landmark climate law. (Bloomberg)
   
• How installing rooftop solar or battery storage at home could bolster the grid—and save households money. (Latitude Media)
   
• More wildfires have burned across the U.S. in 2026 than in any year of the past decade, driven by persistent drought conditions. (FT)
   
• Toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker closes its last hometown plant—and blames its single-sided tape measures. (WSJ)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send your comments to editor Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Pro Sustainable Business team on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.