The Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (Pacm) regulator made further progress on underpinning methodologies at its meeting this week, adopting one and continuing work on those most anticipated by project developers.
Pacm's supervisory body as expected formally adopted the methodology covering NO2 abatement from nitric acid production at its meeting at UN climate arm the UNFCCC's headquarters in Bonn, Germany.
The body expects to pass a total of 6-7 methodologies by the end of the year, which would cover around 60-70pc of activities currently seeking to transition from Pacm precursor the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and which have received or are expected to receive host country approval.
"The carbon markets won't wait for Pacm," a host country delegate said at the meeting, warning that project developers may go elsewhere if they feel that progress is too slow.
Another delegate challenged the rationale of asking project developers to propose methodologies while being unable to process and adopt them before 2028.
For Africa in particular, clean cooking methodologies are of crucial importance, and the methodology on grid-connected electricity generation of renewable sources is similarly urgent, a delegate from the region said.
Both a clean cooking methodology aimed at rural areas and a renewable grid-connected electricity methodology are scheduled to be passed by the supervisory body in July. A large share of CDM projects in countries such as Brazil, Chile or India aiming to transition to Pacm are wind or solar projects.
"We are looking at having the methodologies with the highest mitigation potential, and where people are standing there ready to apply them," the co-chair of the body's methodological expert panel said.
A further three methodologies are scheduled to be passed at the supervisory body's October meeting, covering savannah fire management, the recovery and plasma-based destruction of residual hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in containers, and the revised Pacm methodology on flaring or use of landfill gas.
The fact that the flaring gas methodology is already under revision not long after its adoption in October was criticised by some host country delegates.
But the supervisory body's vice-chair at the meeting underlined the evolving nature of the work, with new methodologies possibly triggering changes to underlying standards or the tools used to calculate project economics.
The clean cooking methodologies will for instance be the first to trigger the issue of "reversal risk", the vice-chair said. The body hopes to finalise how to deal with this risk before the UN Cop 31 climate summit in Turkey in November.
There are 39 submissions for proposed new methodologies, the secretariat said at the meeting, although this includes overlap and re-submissions.
A tool to analyse and calculate the "lock-in" risk of a project was adopted at this week's meeting, relevant to projects introducing cleaner technologies that nonetheless emit greenhouse gases — such as landfill gas flaring or rice cultivation — and for which a maximum emissions intensity and lifetime need to be set.
And the supervisory body [passed the hotly debated tool](https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2793558
) to calculate fraction of non-renewable biomass values. The body said it will seek a mandate for advisers to update and improve the values, some of which had been viewed as too strict.
Final decisions are expected at the next meeting in July on a revised Article 6 registry procedure — to facilitate the transfer and trade of Pacm credits — and the voluntary credit cancellation platform.
