Policy watch
COP29 finished the Article 6 rulebook. Now the work begins
February 2025 · AGCF Team
It took nearly ten years, but the Paris Agreement’s market mechanisms are finally, fully operational on paper. At COP29 in Baku, negotiators completed the outstanding rules for Article 6 — the framework governing how countries trade emission reductions across borders.
What was agreed
Two pieces fell into place. Under Article 6.2, countries received the remaining guidance for bilateral trading of mitigation outcomes: how authorisations work, how registries connect, and how transparency is maintained. Under Article 6.4, the standards for the new UN-supervised crediting mechanism — the successor to the Clean Development Mechanism — were adopted, covering methodology requirements and carbon removal accounting, clearing the way for the mechanism to begin operating.
From text to tonnes
A finished rulebook does not itself reduce a single tonne of emissions. The years ahead will be defined by implementation: host countries building the legal and registry infrastructure to authorise transfers; methodologies being approved under the new mechanism; legacy CDM projects deciding whether and how to transition; and buyer countries — and schemes like CORSIA that depend on Article 6 accounting — converting frameworks into procurement.
Implementation phases reward different participants than negotiation phases. The advantage shifts from those who can predict policy to those who can execute projects that satisfy it.
Our perspective
AGCF was structured for precisely this moment: a compliance-focused strategy, launched as the compliance architecture itself comes online. The rulebook is written. The scarce resource now is projects — real, verified, authorisable — that can deliver what the rules demand.