The UN Article 6.4 Supervisory Board (SB) has approved the activities involving carbon removal and the requirements for the development and assessment of methodologies – two documents that are part of the policies and standards set by the SB for the Article 6.4 mechanism. They aim to create a global carbon credit market that will be able to issue UN-recognised credits.
Next, the recommendations on methodologies and removals will be sent to CMA for approval during COP28. CMA is expected to offer further guidance on them. When the recommendations become approved after the final versions are reached, the Article 6.4 mechanism is anticipated to come into operation.
Relevant: UN Climate Policy Could Exclude Engineered Carbon Removal
The draft recommendations on Requirements for the development and assessment of Article 6.4 mechanism methodologies can be found here and the recommendations on Activities involving removals under the Article 6.4 mechanism can be seen here.
Under the recommendations, the definition of removals says that they are the outcomes of processes to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through anthropogenic activities and destroy or durably store them. The draft in general is considered broad in nature and includes mandates for further guidance.
According to Eve Tamme, Carbon Markets and Carbon Removals policy advisor, who commented on the update in a social media post, “adding references to future work is one of the main solutions to finding compromises… a lot of additional work is needed to make this guidance operational. The great thing is that the document is technology-neutral and is written with the whole spectrum of carbon removal methods in mind.”
Relevant: UN Supervisory Body Seeks Input On Its Carbon Credit Mechanism
The methodology principles listed in the paper are intended to provide the basis for assessment of creditable emission reductions or removals, and whether activities satisfy the additionality requirements. Listed are the approaches to set the baseline, part of the methodology principles.
According to the paper, the Article 6.4 Mechanism methodologies for carbon removal should encourage ambition over time, be real, transparent, conservative and credible, and contribute to the equitable sharing of mitigation benefits between participating Parties, among other principles.
