Laos has announced that it is working on creating administrative capacity and credit guidelines needed to participate in the carbon markets.
Since June 2023 the local government has been working on a program funded by Australia that aims to establish legal frameworks for the development of projects that have a positive impact on emissions, allowing the country to issue its own carbon credits.
The first year of the program’s work was reviewed last week at a meeting between Laos and Australian government representatives along with the Global Green Growth Institute, an intergovernmental organization based in Seoul, South Korea, dedicated to promoting economic growth without damage to the environment.
The program has been an important part of the initial efforts of the government to create guidelines for the range of market participants like project developers and certifiers, as well as the administrative units that will be engaged with quality assurance and transparency.
Earlier in August the government announced it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Carbon Credit Laos (CCL) and Carbon Registry Thailand (CRT) to collaborate on the use of advanced AI satellite technology for calculating carbon credits.
In January 2024 the region saw the first deal under the UN’s Article 6.2 in the world, when Switzerland and Thailand completed the transfer of the first carbon credits under the scheme.
The carbon credits were purchased by the Swiss-based KliK Foundation which announced the deal on Jan. 8. The organization bought 1,916 ITMOs from the Thai company Energy Absolute Public Co. Ltd. for the Bangkok E-Bus Program.
Read more: Laos To Boost Carbon Credits Monitoring With Satellite Technology
