Carbon markets have been a contentious issue in international climate negotiations for decades.

We discussed them also here in a previous post!

But to give some further backgroun, in light of the recent regulatory changes, let’s back to them.

First introduced under the Kyoto Protocol through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the idea was to allow countries to offset their emissions by funding projects in developing nations.

While this sounded promising on paper, the CDM faced significant criticism for fraud, inefficiency, and a lack of tangible emission reductions.

Fast forward to the Paris Agreement in 2015, Article 6 was designed to overhaul these markets and ensure they contribute meaningfully to climate action.

COP29's advancements on Article 6.4 represent the latest attempt to make this vision a reality.