<article><p class="lead">UN climate negotiators have been urged to use talks in Germany to agree rules that would prevent carbon offset credits issued before 2020 counting towards a country's efforts to comply with the Paris climate agreement.</p><p>Negotiators will meet over the next two weeks in Bonn to reconvene talks over establishing an international carbon market under the Paris agreement, after discussions over the issue <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1812898">broke down</a> at last year's UN climate summit (Cop 24).</p><p>One of the primary issues of contention in the negotiations has been debate over whether countries will be permitted to use certified emissions reduction credits distributed under the Kyoto protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) to count towards their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris agreement. </p><p>A significant build-up of oversupply of such permits in recent years has left prices for them at levels of less than €1/t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), which has raised questions over their environmental benefit. </p><p>The first CDM projects were registered in 2001, meaning that some credits represent CO2 cuts that were achieved nearly two decades ago. Targets under the Paris agreement take effect from 2020.</p><p>The EU <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1915132">earlier this month</a> called for the UN to restrict the use of offsets for use towards Paris agreement goals.</p><p>And non-governmental organisation (NGO) Carbon Market Watch today urged UN climate leaders to build on the "growing momentum" to end the use of offset credits for compliance by agreeing to ban the use of any that are issued before 2020 during this month's talks.</p><p>The criteria for projects eligible for offset credits should be re-evaluated to ensure their environmental integrity, the NGO said. "Carbon Market Watch urges parties to heed the wide call from various stakeholders for preventing a full transition of Kyoto protocol units and projects into the Paris agreement markets. No Kyoto protocol units should be eligible post-2020, all projects should be re-assessed against stringent quality criteria, and existing methodologies should also be re-evaluated," it said.</p><p>The use of offsets appears likely to be the UN's favoured mechanism for the decarbonisation of the aviation sector through its planned Corsia compliance scheme for offsetting aviation emissions, raising the prospect that credits could feasibly be used to count for compliance towards multiple emissions reduction schemes.</p><p>And Carbon Market Watch also called on UN climate leaders to consider implementing improved accounting regulations for the monitoring and tracking of international credits to prevent so-called "double-counting" practices.</p><p>"There is a significant risk that emissions reductions under the Paris agreement could be counted towards two or more climate commitments, which would water down efforts to keep the climate crisis in check," the NGO said. "It is, therefore, imperative to put in place strong accounting rules in order to efficiently track emissions reductions and to prevent that they are counted multiple times."</p><p>The UN's Bonn Climate Change Conference began today and will last until 27 June.</p></article>
