U.K. Asks Norway and Singapore to Hold Ministerial Discussions on Global Carbon Markets

BY MATHEW CARR

June 17, 2021 (LONDON): The U.K., which is hosting the UN climate talks set for November, has asked Norway and Singapore to hold ministerial discussions during the next few months to try to move toward agreement on global carbon markets.

U.K. official Archie Young, Britain’s lead climate negotiator, said much more work was needed to find landing zones on that topic and others in the climate talks, according to a video of the final session after three weeks of virtual “intersessional talks” (see link below).

The least developed countries (LDC) group said that while some progress was made at the talks on article 6 (which covers global carbon markets), much more needs to be achieved.

Use of existing credits created under the Kyoto Protocol for compliance with targets under the Paris climate deal was one area of consternation, the LDC representative said.

“We are greatly concerned that some countries continue to push for carryover of Kyoto Protocol units, despite the downward pressure this would place on ambition.”

The LDC group was also frustrated that countries had not agreed on timeframes for nationally determined contributions (climate pledges), which should align with a global stocktake process that measures the world’s progress for keeping temperature gains below 1.5C.