The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body, a part of the UN, has agreed on recommendations for guidance on carbon removal and standards to develop carbon crediting methodologies.
The Article 6.4 Supervisor Body is a part of the United Nations Body tasked to operationalize a new UN carbon crediting mechanism under the Paris Agreement.
In a virtual meeting ahead of COP28, the members of the body reached an agreement to adopt both guidance documents. The recommendations from over 400 organizations’ recommendations will be sent to the CMA, responsible for implementing the Paris Agreement. These will be reviewed by country negotiators at COP28.
The guidelines:
The new Paris Agreement crediting mechanism aims to facilitate international collaboration in reducing emissions and combating climate change. The agreement is an essential element in ensuring that the mechanism becomes operational next year.
i. Standards for the development of carbon crediting methodologies:
The Supervisory Body agreed on the practical standards for the development of carbon crediting methodologies under the new UN mechanism. By doing so, they have set a direction for the mechanism’s operation, awaited by stakeholders in both the voluntary and compliance markets. The agreement also allows for future improvements and refinements.
New guidelines aim to ensure the mechanism’s effectiveness for buyers, host countries, and the environment. The idea is to find a middle ground between Glasgow’s priorities for the Article 6 Rulebook and the financial sustainability of mitigation efforts.
ii. Greenhouse gas removals
Greenhouse gas removals within the context of the new UN mechanism are credits generated by projects that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and destroy or durably store them.
The Supervisory Body’s decision is technology-neutral, considering the diversity and richness of current and emerging removal activities while ensuring their environmental integrity and continued impact.
The framework for removal activities focuses on the need to provide for adequate monitoring during and after the activities’ crediting periods and to remediate potential reversals. The framework emphasizes the need for thorough monitoring during and after crediting periods and the remediation of potential reversals.
The Supervisory Body plans to implement a regulatory framework for removal activities by creating a buffer pool for reversal risks, developing risk assessment tools, and establishing procedures and guidelines.
Chair and Vice Chair remarks:
Olga Gassan-Zade, Chair, Article 6.4 Supervisory Body, said: “Together with the full package of the project cycle and accreditation decisions, and the final drafts of the Supervisory Body tool and the appeals and grievance procedure, these two last documents give Article 6.4 a solid foundation to aim for full operationalization next year.”
“The recommendations on greenhouse gas removals and methodology requirements have been the most difficult part of our work over the past 18 months because of their weight and significance for the mechanism as a whole,” she said.
“There were some difficult issues across both removals and methodology guidelines, but we have tried to address them in a way that ensures the mechanism can be operationalized. And that was our mandate: to take the Rules and Procedures set out by the Paris Agreement and make them operational. The goal we are working towards is having the mechanism operational by next year,” said Mbaye Diagne, Vice Chair, of the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body.
“I would like to thank the Supervisory Body members for their hard work and for their collective commitment to achieving this outcome. It also wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the contributions of the stakeholders made a critical difference to the quality of our work over the past year. I hope that the interest in the mechanism continues to grow and that the stakeholders continue to be as engaged and as committed to working together with us as they have been this year,” she said.