What are the international registry and additional registry services?
The international registry, developed and managed by the secretariat, is a system for tracking digital representations of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs). It is available to Parties and entities authorized by Parties. Being part of the centralized accounting and reporting platform (CARP), the international registry tracks ITMOs from their point of issuance either directly within the registry or upon transfer from a connected registry, through to their use or transfer out of the international registry. The international registry also automatically prefills ITMO information into the agreed electronic format (AEF).
The international registry is connected to the optional additional registry services system (ARS). The ARS contains mitigation outcomes that a Party plans to authorize, but has not authorized yet and mitigation outcomes that are authorized by a Party but have not yet been first transferred. When an international transfer - or any other “first transfer” event - occurs, mitigation outcomes in the ARS become ITMOs and move into the international registry for further tracking.
The international registry is also connected to the Article 6.4 mechanism registry and allows for authorized Article 6.4 emissions reductions (AERs) to be transferred to the international registry once they become ITMOs upon first transfer. Once interoperability arrangements are in place, participating Parties will also be able to connect their registries to the international registry.
How does the international registry work?
The international registry is like an official record book for ITMOs from cooperative approaches under Article 6.2 where the participating Parties have chosen to use the international registry for their tracking arrangements.
Each ITMO is uniquely identified in the international registry to provide important information on the country in which the mitigation outcome was created, the year in which it was created (“vintage year”), cooperative approach, and the scope of authorization of the ITMO, among other information. The international registry has Party sections which contain accounts that track who currently controls each ITMO. A Party that has a section in the international registry may open its own accounts and authorize public and private entities to open accounts within their Party section. Account holders may transfer ITMOs between accounts linked to the same cooperative approach, including to accounts authorized by other Parties.
In the international registry, Parties may open accounts for the use of ITMOs towards their nationally determined contribution (NDC), other international mitigation purposes, or voluntary cancellation.
Mitigation outcomes tracked in the ARS are not bound to any specific cooperative approach until they are authorized. After being authorized, mitigation outcomes reside in accounts bound to a specific cooperative approach until first transferred to the international registry or a Party registry.
