What You Need to Know About Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes frameworks for international carbon markets, allowing countries to trade emissions reductions to meet their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). While it offers potential cost savings of $250 billion per year by 2030 and can catalyze private finance, poor design risks increasing global emissions through double-counting and a lack of additionality. Key points of contention for negotiators include the application of 'corresponding adjustments' to prevent double-counting, the implementation of 'overall mitigation in global emissions' (OMGE), the 'share of proceeds' for the Adaptation Fund, and the potential carryover of up to 4 billion pre-2020 Kyoto Protocol units.

• Article 6 is divided into three operative paragraphs: Article 6.2 provides an accounting framework for international cooperation and the transfer of carbon credits; Article 6.4 creates a central UN mechanism for trading credits from specific emissions-reduction projects; and Article 6.8 establishes a work program for non-market approaches, such as emissions taxes.
• Well-designed carbon markets could provide significant economic and environmental benefits, including estimated cost savings of $250 billion annually by 2030. Approximately 31% of global emissions are covered by the initial NDCs of countries that have included international cooperation through carbon markets.
• Poorly structured rules for Article 6 could weaken national climate commitments and increase global emissions through three primary risks: double-counting (where both the seller and buyer claim the same reduction), lack of additionality (where projects would have happened without the market), and a failure to incentivize increased ambition in future NDCs.
• Four primary issues are central to negotiations: the use of 'corresponding adjustments' to prevent double-counting; whether 'overall mitigation in global emissions' (OMGE) requires some credits to be set aside to ensure a net decrease in global emissions; the 'share of proceeds' to fund the Adaptation Fund; and the risk of using up to 4 billion leftover Kyoto Protocol units from before 2020.

APA

World Resources Institute (2019). What You Need to Know About Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. https://www.wri.org/insights/what-you-need-know-about-article-6-paris-agreement

Chicago

World Resources Institute. What You Need to Know About Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. 2019. https://www.wri.org/insights/what-you-need-know-about-article-6-paris-agreement.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=What You Need to Know About Article 6 of the Paris Agreement |date=2 December 2019 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/what-you-need-know-about-article-6-paris-agreement |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2019what, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{What You Need to Know About Article 6 of the Paris Agreement}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = dec, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/what-you-need-know-about-article-6-paris-agreement}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }