Article 6 texts for 6.2 and 6.4 (carbon markets) failed to be agreed at COP28 last week.

Axel Michaelowa, founding partner, Perspectives Climate Change, speaks on video call, Monday:

On Article 6

Envoys still debating whether collaboration/cooperation can be unilateral. “Would there need to be two or more countries or can it be a unilateral thing?”

How confidential information is handled, the reporting template, how registries will work are all still being discussed.

There is a “big fight” between nations who want one registry and others who wants to “protect” existing registries set up in the voluntary carbon markets.

Industrial policy is turning debates from the highly technical to the highly political.

6.4

The biggest problem other than registries, was the methodology requirements and the removal requirements.

Key issues:

Shall baselines be more stringent than business as usual and shall they be adjusted downwards over time?

How to deal with emissions reversal?

“The outcome was very disappointing, 6.2 and 6.4 texts could not be adopted.”

On adaptation targets:

“If we compare it to mitigation it’s really fluffy.”

Adaptation is still seen as “secondary in climate change negotiations.”

Mitigation work program “might end up as an orphan in the (UNFCCC) system” because of overlaps with NDCs and just energy transition programs.