At COP29 (29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in November last year, an agreement was reached to fully operationalise Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which will achieve international cooperation to reduce and eliminate emissions.

The agreement determined details such as reporting items and forms, the recording of credits and the connectivity of the registers used for reporting, and established a mechanism to ensure the sufficiency and transparency of credits under Article 6. This is expected to expand and accelerate cooperative measures by governments and businesses and contribute to further deepening mitigation targets across the world. According to estimates by the International Emissions Trading Association, this could save countries approximately USD 250 billion per year towards meeting their climate targets.

In Japan, operators involved in the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), the aviation industry, which is under pressure to comply with CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), and others involved in the carbon credit market have expressed their concerns about Article 6.2 and 6.4 of the Paris Agreement. Many have said that they do not fully understand the mechanism or the current situation’ regarding Article 6.2 and 4 of the Paris Agreement. One of the factors hindering understanding is the appearance of many unfamiliar technical terms, such as ‘Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs)’.

In light of this situation, what are Article 6, paragraphs 2 and 4 of the Paris Agreement in the first place, and what is the difference between paragraphs 2 and 4?’ What is the difference between paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement? and other frequently asked questions will be answered in detail.