The Paris Agreement Article 6.4 carbon market is meant to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. However, the Sustainable Development (SD) Tool meant to offer this defence is not fit for purpose, according to the findings of this joint investigation carried out by the Land Matrix Initiative and Carbon Market Watch.
A tool that aims to promote and safeguard sustainable development under the UN carbon market offers indigenous peoples and local communities little protection against projects which infringe on their land or violate their human rights. This was the disturbing finding of a joint investigation by Carbon Market Watch and the Land Matrix Initiative.
Carbon markets continued to feature prominently and often worryingly at COP30. Carbon Market Watch witnessed a stark contrast between the optimism championed by the many initiatives promoting “high quality” carbon markets and the negotiation rooms where concerted efforts were made to water down Article 6 rules.
Efforts to dilute Article 6 rules risk turning the new UN carbon market mechanism into a false climate solution that harms both nature and global climate action
Instead of listening to its own technical experts and scientific evidence, the body overseeing the UN carbon crediting mechanism has chosen to side with market players after intense lobbying efforts.
Carbon Market Watch submitted this during the global stakeholder consultation of the proposed ‘Comprehensive Lowered Emission Assessment and Reporting (CLEAR) Methodology for Cooking Energy Transitions’ under Article 6.4. The CLEAR methodology is a step in the right direction for clean cookstove methodologies but it still contains shortcomings which must be addressed. Failure to tackle these issues risks perpetuating the pervasive overcrediting linked to many existing cookstove methodologies.
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement sets out the principles for carbon markets. At COP29, governments must fix all the outstanding issues so as to ensure that Article 6 advances, rather than sets back, the climate agenda. This detailed guide explains what is at stake.
At the COP29 climate conference in Baku, negotiators need to fix Article 6 carbon markets but, most importantly, they need to fix the world’s failure to slash emissions.
The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body aims to adopt the sustainable development (SD) tool at its next meeting in September/October. This tool is the main instrument to safeguard environmental, ecological and human rights, including the rights of Indigenous People.
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