The Paris Agreement's new global carbon market will prevent carbon credit developers from exploiting local people and polluting their air and water
Government negotiators and experts from around the world have approved an appeals and grievance procedure at a recent meeting in the German city of Bonn to discuss the UN's proposed Article 6.4 carbon crediting mechanism.
As Maria AlJishi, the chair of the organisation responsible for creating the market, points out that the appeals and grievance procedure is a crucial step in empowering marginalised communities and individuals, ensuring their voices are heard and their rights respected.
Isa Mulder, a researcher with the campaign group Carbon Market Watch, described the agreement on policies to challenge carbon credit projects before and after their implementation as a moment of great significance. She termed it 'quite a historic moment ', underlining the importance and impact of this development.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the previous UN carbon market, did not have any procedures to prevent local people from being harmed or to ensure that the emissions reductions claimed were honoured. The CDM and other carbon markets have been accused of causing harm to local communities and their livelihoods.
To prevent such abuses, governments have agreed that the CDM's replacement, under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, will have procedures for making appeals and raising grievances. The appeals process will challenge projects before they begin, and the grievance process will apply once they are in place.
Only people directly affected by a carbon credit project can file a grievance if they have suffered "adverse effects of a social, economic, or environmental nature" as a result.
Once a grievance form is filled in and published on the UN climate change website, an independent panel will have two weeks to submit recommendations to the Article 6.4 supervisory body. The supervisory body makes the final decision on actions to be taken "as it deems appropriate." Despite previously discussing fees of up to $5,000, filing a grievance will be free.
However, complaints must be submitted in one of the UN's six official languages—Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish—a requirement Mulder called "a big problem" that "will specifically hit people who are most in need of protection."
However, it's important to note that the new procedures may not be comprehensive enough to fully protect complainants from potential retribution from carbon credit sellers, as highlighted by Mulder.
Although negotiators have now accepted the appeals and grievance procedure, they were unable to approve a complete set of rules for the Article 6.4 carbon market at the COP27 or COP28 summits in the past two years. However, they remain committed and will try again at COP29 in November, aiming to have the market up and running by early 2025. This commitment should instill confidence in the audience about the future of the carbon market.