UN Climate Change News, 15 September 2023 – Meetings in Singapore this week advanced work on a framework that will allow countries to cooperate in mitigating emissions to address climate change.
Members of the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body met in Singapore to progress work on standards and procedures to operationalise a robust carbon credit mechanism from the start of next year.
The Supervisory Body is tasked with overseeing a mechanism to actively contribute to the global mitigation of greenhouse gases and support sustainable development, as mandated by Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement.
While the rulebook on carbon markets under Article 6 was agreed in Glasgow in November 2021, work is continuing to finalise the regulatory framework within which the Article 6.4 mechanism will operate. The Supervisory Body has just a few months left to get the framework up and running from the start of 2024.
During the Supervisory Body’s 7th meeting, which was held this week, the Body finished considering the key document framework that will regulate the cycle of submission and consideration of project activities under the Article 6.4 mechanism. It will open this document framework to final public consultation before adoption, to ensure its robustness, appropriateness, and ability to uphold the highest environmental integrity standards for its users.
The Supervisory Body is actively seeking feedback on these documents from a broad range of stakeholders, including potential project proponents, market experts, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities, to road-test the document package before it is finalised.
An equally large amount of effort was spent on advancing two further critical pieces of the Article 6.4 regulatory framework:
- The Sustainable Development tool, which will enshrine the environmental, developmental, and social safeguards of the activities implemented under the Article 6.4 mechanism.
- The appeal and grievance procedure, which will enforce the implementation of environmental and integrity safeguards.
These documents will be finalised at the next meeting of the Supervisory Body in October, after which they will also be opened for extensive public consultation.
Crucially, the Supervisory Body made considerable progress in deliberations of recommendations to the Parties of the Paris Agreement (CMA) related to development and assessment of Article 6.4 methodologies and the treatment of activities involving removals.
Commenting on the meeting, Olga Gassan-zade, the Chair of the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body said:
“We had some very big issues to unpack: we focused this meeting on discussing the concepts and exploring what the many decisions we need to take mean. We also needed to distill a large volume of feedback from stakeholders and to consider how to translate the concepts we discuss into clear, robust and implementable guidance. I feel that after five days of intense discussions in Singapore, we’ve made a quantum leap in terms of the preparedness of the documents as well as the quality and depth of our discussions.”
She added: “The stakeholders reading the draft documents will now be able to clearly see both the concepts we are trying to explore, and the options we are considering to operationalize them. We are now in a stronger place to finalise these recommendations.”
The Supervisory Body will be refining the recommendations further at their next meeting, with the aim to provide them to the CMA for adoption at COP28.
A detailed breakdown of key outcomes from the meeting are included below.
Outcomes
1. Stakeholder input sought on key regulatory framework documents
After agreeing on draft versions of key regulatory documents this week, the Article 6.4 mechanism Supervisory Body will seek input from a diverse range of stakeholders.
Contributions from organizations, market experts, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and other interested stakeholders are welcome on the following regulatory framework documents:
- Activity standard for projects (AS-P)
- Validation and verification standard for projects (VVS-P)
- Activity cycle procedure for projects (ACP-P)
- Accreditation standard and procedure
Further information on how stakeholders can submit contributions is available on our call for input page.
2. Sustainable Development Tool
The Sustainable Development tool will provide a method to both assess and report information on the application of robust social and environmental safeguards on all activities under the Article 6.4 mechanism.
During the meeting this week, the Supervisory Body discussed a draft sustainable development tool and provided guidance to improve the tool before it is finalised.
An updated draft of the Sustainable Development tool will be considered in the next meeting of the Supervisory Body (SB 008) at the end of October to be released for extended public consultation afterwards.
3. Appeal and grievance
On appeals and grievances, the Supervisory Body requested the UN Climate Change secretariat to prepare a draft appeal and grievance procedure for consideration at its next meeting.
The Body provided guidance to the secretariat in drafting this procedure including to explore options, among others, to broaden eligibility of stakeholders who may file an appeal or submit a grievance, to minimize the risk overuse of the system while ensuring equitable access.
The draft appeal and grievance procedure will be also released for extended public consultation after the next meeting in October.
4. Progress on removals and methodology requirements
At the outset of the meeting this week, the Supervisory Body set itself the task of finalising recommendations to the CMA regarding activities involving removals and the requirements for the development and assessment of methodologies.
The criteria for carbon removals and methodology requirements are crucial components for the Article 6.4 mechanism to work effectively.
Removals
Carbon removals discussions in Singapore this week focused on appropriate monitoring, reporting, accounting for removals and crediting periods, addressing reversals, avoidance of leakage as well as of other negative environmental and social impacts.
With over 370 submissions on removals, the Supervisory Body received input from a diverse range of stakeholders which shaped discussions and helped progress a robust package of recommendations.
After allocating significant time on this area throughout the week, the Supervisory Body made substantial changes to the document to make it more coherent, including reworking of definitions, and streamlining recommendations.
This works gives the Supervisory Body a strong foundation of recommendations that could be agreed at their next meeting in Bonn at the end of October.
Methodology requirements
Methodology requirements are guiding principles used for the development and assessment of the Article 6.4 mechanism methodologies.
With intense discussions throughout the week on topics such as leakage and baselines, members moved the discussion forward despite facing enormous challenges in the complexity of the policy and technical input required to complete the guidance.
The Supervisory Body made substantive progress on developing the structure of the guidance and in narrowing down the topics of discussion.
There is now a strong basis of text and a clear understanding of outstanding areas that need to be further finessed and decided at the Supervisory Body’s next meeting in Bonn at the end of October.
Once a draft recommendation is agreed, it will go to the CMA for adoption at COP28.
5. Special Circumstances of Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States
The Supervisory Body discussed the special circumstances of least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) and agreed to address them on a case-by-case basis when developing methodologies for the Article 6.4 mechanism.
Members also agreed to report on the progress achieved on this matter through their annual report to the CMA.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Supervisory Body, SB 008, will take place from 30 October to 2 November 2023 in Bonn.
The deadline for registering as an observer for this meeting is 9 October. Public comments on the meeting agenda must be submitted by 23 October.
For more information, read the full report of the meeting.