Carbon Market Watch recommendations for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

Carbon Market Watch outlines specific requirements for the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, focusing on cooperative approaches, the Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM), and non-market mechanisms. The organization argues that to avoid a "race to the bottom," robust multilateral rules are needed to prevent double counting and perverse incentives. Key recommendations include limiting eligible activities to those within the scope of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), requiring host countries to certify that actions do not violate human rights, and designing the SDM as a tool for results-based finance rather than "zero sum offsetting."

• To prevent perverse incentives that would discourage the expansion of NDCs, internationally transferred mitigation outcomes must be restricted to sectors already covered by quantified, ambitious NDCs.
• Cooperative approaches under Article 6 should be restricted to Parties of the Paris Agreement, specifically those with economy-wide quantified targets aligned with 1.5°C targets and set below business-as-usual levels.
• The Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM) should be fundamentally reformed to avoid replicating the flaws of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), specifically by functioning as a tool for results-based finance instead of zero-sum offsetting.
• Environmental integrity in international transfers requires that emission reductions be real, additional, verifiable, permanent, and supplemental to national mitigation efforts to ensure net atmospheric benefits.
• Human rights and social safeguards must be integrated into all Article 6 frameworks, including a requirement for host countries to certify that mitigation actions have not caused environmental harm or violated human rights.
• The current practice of using a 100-year time horizon for calculating greenhouse gases may undermine the goal of balancing emissions and removals by the second half of the century; this should be re-evaluated using 20 and 50-year horizons.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2017). Carbon Market Watch recommendations for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CMW_Reccs-Art-6-SBSTA-46-2017.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Carbon Market Watch recommendations for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. 2017. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CMW_Reccs-Art-6-SBSTA-46-2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Carbon Market Watch recommendations for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement |date=2017 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CMW_Reccs-Art-6-SBSTA-46-2017.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{carbonmarketwatch2017carbon, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Carbon Market Watch recommendations for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2017}, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CMW_Reccs-Art-6-SBSTA-46-2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }