At COP28, irreconcilable differences on both the technicalities of international emissions trading under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement (A6.2) and carbon crediting under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement (A6.4) led to negotiations ending without decisions. As a result, private sector stakeholders working on programme development under A6.2 and government representatives working on the implementation of country specific Article 6 frameworks were unsure of what this meant for the overall cooperative approach and for their future work.

Carbon Pulse (CP) investigated this issue with a focus on Switzerland and Singapore, two pioneering countries in A6.2 cooperation. CP found that while leading A6.2 buyer countries have an interest in clarification, this will not affect further implementation of the A6.2 cooperative approach: “They will push ahead with existing Article 6 agreements and strike new ones.”

The news platform quotes a spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment as saying that “Switzerland will continue to pursue the bilateral path”, that “the bilateral climate protection agreements create workable terms for cooperative approaches”, and that “further clarity is not a strict precondition for the involvement in Article 6.2 markets”.

A spokesperson for Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment told Carbon Pulse: “As decisions at COP26 and COP27 have provided sufficient rules and guidelines for Article 6.2 cooperation to be implemented, the lack of an Article 6.2 decision at COP28 would not stall the operationalisation of Article 6.2 cooperation between countries”.

In this sense, A6.2 as a party-driven cooperative approach remains operational and can be implemented in accordance with the guidelines adopted at COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in 2021 and 2022. The KliK Foundation will continue to play an active role in the bilateral climate agreements that Switzerland has concluded with partner countries for the joint implementation of A6.2.