Carbon Market Watch recommendations on carbon market infrastructure for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

The document identifies critical transparency gaps in current carbon market infrastructure, specifically within the Clean Development Mechanism, Verra, and Gold Standard registries. It argues that existing systems fail to adequately track credit ownership, verify retirement claims, or distinguish between units contributing to a host country's NDC and those adjusted for international transfer. To remedy this, Carbon Market Watch recommends implementing machine-readable datasets, mandatory non-technical project summaries, detailed financial reporting on revenue distribution, and a transaction log to track legal ownership of credits.

• Current registries make it nearly impossible for external observers to verify if companies have actually retired the carbon credits they claim, as information on the beneficiary and purpose of retirement is often missing or vague.
• There is a significant risk that brokers could sell the same carbon credit to multiple buyers because registries do not provide sufficient public information to verify that a credit has been cancelled in a specific client's name.
• The voluntary carbon market lacks ownership transparency, meaning it is impossible to identify who holds the estimated 540 million surplus credits currently in existence, which may facilitate credit hoarding to artificially inflate prices.
• Existing registries are not equipped for the Paris Agreement framework because they do not distinguish whether a mitigation outcome is being counted toward a host country's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) or is an adjusted unit for international transfer.
• Project databases frequently omit essential documentation, such as annexes containing satellite imagery, baseline emission data, and benefit-sharing agreements with local communities.
• There is a severe lack of financial transparency regarding the actual funds reaching climate mitigation, as there is no standardized way to track the price per credit received by developers versus the margins taken by intermediaries.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (n.d.). Carbon Market Watch recommendations on carbon market infrastructure for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CMW-recommendations-on-article-6-infrastructure.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Carbon Market Watch recommendations on carbon market infrastructure for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. n.d. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CMW-recommendations-on-article-6-infrastructure.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Carbon Market Watch recommendations on carbon market infrastructure for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CMW-recommendations-on-article-6-infrastructure.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatchndcarbon, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Carbon Market Watch recommendations on carbon market infrastructure for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CMW-recommendations-on-article-6-infrastructure.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }