The participants of the COP29 UN climate change conference agreed on the rules of the global market for the purchase and sale of carbon allowances. According to proponents of the allowance trade, it will generate billions of dollars for new projects to help fight global warming, Reuters reported. The agreement was concluded roughly ten years after the start of international talks on the creation of a global market.
23.11.2024 20:02 , updated: 20:25
Photo: SITA/AP, Sergei Grits
Muchtar Babayev, President of COP29, during the plenary session of the COP29 UN Climate Summit on November 23, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The agreement does not concern the main issue of financing climate measures. However, it is still the only significant point on which the members of the conference were able to agree. Many delegates applauded after its approval.
Carbon quotas, also called carbon credits, are created through projects such as planting trees or building wind farms in poorer countries. They receive one quota for each ton of emissions they reduce or remove from the atmosphere. Other countries and companies that will emit higher amounts of greenhouse gases can then buy these credits, which will help them achieve their climate goals.
At the start of the two-week conference, an agreement was reached that will allow the UN-backed centralized trading system to start operating next year. After that, negotiators spent most of their time in Azerbaijan trying to fine-tune the details of a separate bilateral system that would allow the countries to trade directly. The agreement mainly concerns how to ensure the credibility of the system so that it can reliably lead to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Among the details that needed to be clarified was the structure of the credit monitoring register, as well as the question of how much information countries should share about their trade.
Bilateral trading of carbon credits started already in January, when Switzerland bought credits from Thailand. Dozens of other countries have already concluded agreements on the transfer of these credits. However, trade has so far been limited, and finding a balance between a clear set of rules that ensure integrity and transparency while not restricting countries’ ability to participate in trade should lead to a revival of trade.
Business group IETA, which is promoting the expansion of carbon trading, said the UN-backed market could be worth $250 billion a year by 2030 and offset an additional five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
