![]() Read more: Carbon offsetting explained in 2 minutes What was on the table in Dubai?Īhead of the talks, COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber highlighted the need for “better-functioning voluntary carbon markets”. But who can make use of it and how does it work? The proposals came a year after expected and were the starting point of discussions in Dubai.Ĭarbon offsetting will be one of the major topics to be addressed at this year’s COP 26 in Glasgow. In November, a UN body submitted draft proposals on better carbon credit mechanisms External link and methods to remove External link carbon from the atmosphere, such as the use of forests, oceans and technologies including carbon capture and storage. Critics accuse users of greenwashing through their carbon-cutting claims. The organisation said reports were “exaggerated”.Ī report External link by the NGO Human Rights Watch also highlighted human rights violations including forced relocations and the assassination of environmental activists linked to carbon offset projects. This included schemes developed by Switzerland-based South Pole, the world’s leading seller of carbon offsets, which pulled out of a key forest preservation project in Zimbabwe following investigations. But it is calculated that the market has since shrunk by 80%.īut in 2023, reports surfaced that a number of nature-based projects funded by the voluntary market did not deliver as promised. Of that, the voluntary carbon market was worth around $2 billion External linkin 2022, with experts forecasting earlier last year that it could be valued at $10 billion to $40 billion by 2030. In 2022, the value of traded markets for carbon permits reached $909 billion External link (CHF850 billion). Many global corporations chased opportunities to compensate for their emissions, presenting their products to customers as “net-zero” or “carbon negative”. Why does Article 6.4 – the voluntary carbon offset market – need more detail?įor the first time in seven years, voluntary carbon markets – where businesses, individuals and organisations under no legal obligation to make emissions cuts can trade offset credits – saw their demand fall in 2023 due to the many questions raised on their implementation. Credit: Paula Dupraz-Dobiasĭiscussions over Article 6.2 continued in Dubai, on whether and how to implement controls and oversight on bilateral carbon trading.īut it’s Article 6.4 – and the need for better rules relating to human rights and accountability – that was the focus at COP28. Swiss chief climate negotiator Felix Wertli taking questions from journalists at the close of COP28 in December 2023. That makes 14 countries External link in total. Intended to compensate for emissions generated by Swiss residents, measures such as electric buses or wood-burning cookstoves are financed in these countries.Īt the latest United Nations climate talks (COP28) in December, Switzerland doubled down on its commitment to offsetting some of its emissions abroad by signing more agreements, this time with Chile and Tunisia. ![]() It requires such agreements to promote sustainable development and respect environmental ecosystems, while ensuring that only one of the partner countries counts the emission reduction as a credit towards its national target.īut the United Nations agreement lacked detail on how the mechanisms would be implemented, leaving countries, companies and specialised organisations operating in a carbon market with a loose framework.Ī further rulebook External link with conditions for the implementation of country-to-country offsets was agreed at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.Įven before the Glasgow conference, Switzerland helped lay the groundwork by signing early agreements with Peru, Ghana, Georgia and Senegal. The two main provisions, known as Article 6.2 and Article 6.4, address the way that inter-governmental agreements and voluntary carbon markets, respectively, compensate carbon emissions.Īrticle 6.2 allows governments to trade emissions reductions with one another bilaterally or multilaterally. It was meant to answer among other things the following questions: how should offsets be governed? And when a company funds a project to offset its greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere, what are the rules to make sure it happens? Within the 2015 Paris Agreement External link on climate change, Article 6 set a basis for regulating carbon offsets. Paula Dupraz-Dobias What is Article 6? And what’s the fuss about?
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