Switzerland is working to broaden participation in international carbon credit trading, using the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil to press governments and companies to engage more fully in a UN-backed mechanism that has seen only limited use to date.
On Friday, the country introduced the Article 6 Ambition Alliance, or AAA6, an initiative intended to steer buyers toward credits that sit on top of—not in place of—existing national emissions targets.
The effort comes as developing countries face tightening budgets for traditional climate aid and seek new channels of financing.
Credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement are generated by projects that lower or prevent emissions, such as expanding clean transportation or protecting forests.
The concept has long been promoted as a practical tool for climate funding, but concerns over verification, accounting rules and environmental integrity have kept activity muted.
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AAA6 members—including Germany, Sweden, Ghana and Zambia—say that using Article 6 credits to exceed climate pledges could strengthen long-term national plans by attracting investment and expanding technical capacity.
Switzerland has been one of the mechanism’s earliest users, leaning on foreign offsets to meet roughly one-third of its goal to cut emissions in half from 1990 levels by 2030. A new government strategy plans to scale back that reliance after 2031.
For the system to expand, developing nations must also be ready to supply credits—a process that requires national frameworks and reporting systems that many countries are still building.
Veronika Elgart of Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment said that “many countries are preparing their Article 6 frameworks” and noted that the alliance could help accelerate that work, as reported by Bloomberg.
Only two projects have delivered cross-border credits so far, both ultimately purchased by Switzerland. Still, interest is growing, particularly in Africa, where aid cuts are widening financing gaps.
“The fact that somebody’s required to help me does not mean that I cannot do other things to help myself,” Peter Dery of Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology was quoted as saying in a comment.
Read more: COP30: Article 6 Wraps Up With Progress In Hand And Challenges Ahead
