BAKU, Azerbaijan — After nearly a decade of negotiations, leaders on the first day of the United Nations climate conference decided on some of the finer points of a much-debated sticking point aimed at reduce coal, oil and gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Known as Article 6, it was created under the 2015 Paris Agreement to help nations work together to reduce climate-causing pollution. Part of this was a system of carbon credits, allowing countries to release greenhouse gases into the air if they offset their emissions elsewhere.

But the implementation of Article 6 was criticized Monday evening by climate justice groups, who said carbon markets allow major polluters to continue emitting at the expense of people and the environment.

COP29, as this year’s summit is called, brought together world leaders to discuss ways to limit and adapt to the climate crisis. Scientists agree that warming of the atmosphere caused primarily by fossil fuels burned by humans is fueling increasingly deadly and catastrophic droughts, floods, hurricanes and heat.

Here is an overview of Article 6 and the carbon credit system it aims to implement.

What is Article 6?

Article 6 first emerged during the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, where world leaders agreed to try to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to at pre-industrial levels.

Its goal is to describe how countries and companies can trade emissions reductions to eliminate and prevent more carbon pollution from reaching the atmosphere. The idea is to create carbon trading markets, allowing the biggest polluters to offset part of the pollution they produce by purchasing carbon credits from less polluting countries.

Article 6 offers countries two ways to proceed. The first is that two countries establish their own rules and standards for trading carbon credits. Some countries have already signed agreements to this effect, including Singapore with the Philippines, Costa Rica and Sri Lanka, Switzerland with Ghana, Peru and Ukraine, among others.

The second option creates an international market, governed by the UN, on which anyone can buy credits.

Isa Mulder, an expert on global carbon markets at the research group Carbon Market Watch, said the idea behind Article 6 is for countries to find the cheapest way to reduce their emissions. By trading carbon credits, reducing global pollution is cheaper and more effective.

But Article 6 is controversial, leading to years of delays. At COP28, negotiations collapsed after disagreements over transparency, rules on which credits can be traded and what constitutes a good carbon removal credit.

“There are other problems, for example when local communities don’t have a say in the project and are forced to resettle,” Mulder said, referring to how some carbon credit programs for Tree planting can be implemented on inhabited indigenous lands. human rights concerns.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged negotiators to “agree rules for fair and effective carbon markets” and “leave no room for greenwashing or land grabbing.”

How could this help red

What carbon pollution?

The hope of Article 6 is that it incentivizes countries to work together to achieve their climate goals.

Countries could generate carbon credits based on projects aimed at meeting their own climate goals, such as protecting existing forests from development or closing coal-fired power plants.

Private sector players or other high carbon polluting countries could then purchase the credits, which would allow them to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. Highly polluting companies would be important customers.

Each credit would be equivalent to a ton of CO2 or the equivalent of other greenhouse gases that can be reduced in the air, sequestered or avoided by using green energy instead.

The money from the credits generated would be intended for local projects. The price of a tonne of carbon fluctuates on the market, which means that the more it increases, the more green projects could earn thanks to the new credits generated.

Under carbon markets, countries that reduce their emissions by installing clean energy projects like solar or wind power or by electrifying public transportation systems can sell carbon credits.

But critics question whether the plan will be effective and fear it could lead to problems similar to those seen with the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 agreement by which developed countries reduce their emissions of heat-trapping gases to levels of 1990 and below. The deal suffered a major blow when the then US administration withdrew from it.

“There’s a lot of concern about whether this credit actually represents what it represents,” said Mulder of Carbon Market Watch.

What could happen during the climate negotiations in Baku?

Monday’s decision marked an initial push for the establishment of Article 6, which the COP29 presidency said it would prioritize this year.

But leaders still need to agree on other aspects of the issue, including rules on trading carbon credits between two nations and the final details of the UN-governed international market.

Once finalized, Article 6 could reduce the cost of implementing national climate plans by $250 billion per year, according to UN estimates. The COP29 presidency will then encourage countries to participate in carbon trading.

On Monday, COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said Article 6 “will be a revolutionary tool to direct resources to the developing world.”

But concerns remain about how it will work, given the way it was developed.

“Community consent and ownership over these initiatives is not only essential, but also a matter of respect and inclusion,” said David Nicholson, climate lead at Mercy Corps, a nonprofit that works on poverty, climate and other issues.

“We are concerned that the agreement lacks adequate protections for human rights and undermines the goals of the Paris Agreement, rather than supporting them. If these concerns are not addressed, the decision could allow carbon trading to replace a real carbon emissions trading system we needed commitments on climate finance,” added Nicholson.

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AP Science writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report. Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

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