CLARA condemns today’s decision to approve Article 6.4 rules at COP29 in Baku

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday 11 November

CLARA condemns today’s decision to approve Article 6.4 rules at COP29 in Baku

 

The Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance (CLARA) condemns today’s decision by the CMA, the UN body that takes decisions, to approve rules for the new Article 6.4 carbon market mechanism, as the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Convention (COP29) opens in Baku, Azerbaijan.

At its meeting in October, the Supervisory Body (SB) mandated to create the rules for the mechanism, finalized its standards on methodologies and on activities related to removals.  Then, in a risky and unprecedented move, the SB claimed that the standards immediately took effect and went into force, thereby bypassing approval of the CMA.

The standards documents are mandated to be submitted to the CMA as recommendations, However, the CMA previously rejected the SB’s work at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in 2022 and at COP28 in Dubai in 2023.

Today, Parties and the COP Presidency set a precedent that the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body can make decisions that get rubber stamped at the CMA level.  See document L.1 here: https://unfccc.int/documents/642623

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Quote from Souparns Lahiri, Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, Global Forest Coalition

“What has happened on the opening day of the COP29 is a clear indication of how this COP will shape up and how the UNFCCC is giving way to subversion of the UN process and procedures where even Parties do not matter. It’s the big oil and polluting corporates who rules the roost. It is unfortunate that the COP Presidency and the UNFCCC executive secretary are hand in gloves of bypassing the Parties, the Subsidiary Body and the CMA to promote a carbon market driving large scale land grabbing, destruction of forests and biodiversity, and human rights abuse of Indigenous Peoples, forest and Frontline communities who are defending their lands and territories. It the end, this supposedly finance COP is turning out to be the False Solutions COP.”

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Quote from Kelly Stone, CLARA Network Coordinator and Senior Policy Analyst, ActionAid USA

“Gaveling through the Supervisory Body’s recommendations for the 6.4 market mechanism, after a questionable procedural move in the Supervisory Body and after similar proposals had previously been rejected by governments in previous years, is an appalling opening to COP 29.

So-called removals that can be credited under Article 6.4 are so broadly defined that they include everything from scary geoengineering to “storage in products” like tables. This creates profound risks of harm to communities and that the mechanism will be filled with junk credits that do not fulfill their climate promises.

Carbon markets are not climate finance. Offsetting does not reduce emissions and allows countries and companies pay to keep polluting instead of doing their fair share of climate action.  If negotiators want this COP to be remembered for something other than greenwashing, they have a lot of work to do.”

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Quote from Isa Mulder, Policy Expert, Carbon Market Watch

“Parties have clearly been put under a great deal of pressure to adopt, on the very first day of COP29, recommendations pertaining to texts that have been extremely contentious in previous years. Not allowing the much-needed discussion on these documents raises serious procedural questions. And it takes away the opportunity for Parties to develop further guidance which could address the many shortcomings still found in the texts as they currently stand.”

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Quote from Erika Lennon, Center for International Environmental Law

“Today, States allowed this rogue move from the Supervisory Body to prevail in the quest to start COP29 with a “win.” But this is hardly a win for people or planet.  Approving this without discussion or debate on this approach, sets a dangerous precedent for the entire negotiation process.

This is very concerning from a procedural standpoint: it bypasses States’ ability to even discuss, much less revise the standards before they go into effect. States’ oversight is all the more critical as the Supervisory Body’s efforts to get this done has resulted in risky rules that will lead to human rights violations and environmental harm.

While States won’t be able to undo this move, they can still partially correct the wrong by giving strong guidance to the Supervisory Body that ensures further rules are adopted in line with science, human rights, and international law.

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Quote from An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Politics Expert, Greenpeace International

“This is nothing like the agreement we need. It’s creating a grey zone by taking note of standards that haven’t even been finalised but are presented as if the box is checked and the carbon market will move ahead.

“But let’s be clear, carbon markets are a blatantly dangerous emissions loophole allowing polluters to continue trashing the climate. These new rules will undermine urgent climate action and are at risk of being hijacked as a false solution to close the climate finance gap. We need real finance for real climate action, not an offsets scam.”

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CONTACT: Don Lehr / dblehr@cs.com / +1.917.304.4058

CLARA (the Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance) is a global civil society alliance with more than 40 members from conservation, agroecology, land-rights, faith-based, and forest restoration organizations and communities.

This briefing does not necessarily express the opinions of all CLARA members.

CMA = Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement

 

11 Nov, 2024
Posted in News, Press releases, Forests and Climate Change, UNFCCC