As climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties COP29 starts, countries have rushed ahead to greenlight international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body, responsible for setting the rules for the Paris Agreement carbon market, quietly met last month and rebranded their recommendations as “internal standards” – putting them into effect immediately. The decision on the first day of COP29 to take note to this without negotiation, debate or discussion is said to have set a dangerous precedent.
Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance, said: “COP29 has had a very bad start and sets an appalling precedent from a procedural point of view, but above all, it has taken yet another step on the road to climate disaster by backing false solutions and the interest of a few to the detriment of the planet and peoples. As the last decades have shown, carbon markets are not only a false solution to the climate crisis but also perpetuate the extractive colonial model of development and human rights violations.”
The inclusion of carbon removals opens doors to commercialise several forms of dangerous and risky geoengineering technofixes risking harm to both climate and biodiversity goals.
Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America Director, ETC Group, added: “The COP29 decision supporting carbon markets on its first day is a triple blow against climate justice, nature and communities. It allows the Article 6.4 supervisory body to decide independently and to not be accountable to the Parties, which is a very serious precedent against democracy and transparency at United Nations.
“At the same time, the standards of this unaccountable body open the floodgates for dangerous marine and terrestrial geoengineering experiments to become new business, profiting in the carbon markets, even though they entail serious environmental and social threats and will worsen the climate chaos.”
Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said: “Carbon markets put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk. For over 20 years, these fraudulent mechanisms have allowed fossil fuel industries to continue with impunity. At COP29, the corporate capture has superseded any semblance of UN democracy with a move from the COP Presidency to go rogue and push through Article 6 carbon market methodology and removals texts without following party-driven procedure.
“IEN strongly opposes geoengineering technologies in the activities on removals text, which still has not produced a list of what removals technologies will even be included in A6.4 as an offset. We will continue to voice our opposition against Article 6 carbon market regimes that will further violate the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples and fail to deliver urgent emissions cuts.”
Just last week, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 reinforced a historic decision on precautions of geoengineering and reaffirmed the call on a global moratorium on nuclear geoengineering.
“The decision made at COP29 could undermine precaution on geoengineering called for by the biodiversity convention. By legitimising large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal for offsetting purposes, the climate convention puts itself at odds with its biodiversity counterpart, thereby risking exacerbating both the climate and biodiversity crises,” added Linda Schneider, Senior Programme Officer at the Heinrich Boell Foundation.
