​​Article 6 Updates: January 2026

CDM Transition

While 31^st December 2025 was meant to mark the end-date for host Parties to approve transition requests to the CDM, the six month extension granted at COP30 meant that approvals of transitions being possible to 30^th June 2026, ahead of a deadline for transferring CERs to the Article 6.4 mechanism registry by 31st December 2026 and the cessation of all the CDM’s activities on the 2^nd July 2027.

Article 6 Project Development

Singapore and Rwanda have issued a call for Article 6 projects, with 33 methodologies from 4 registries eligible for consideration.

The Miombo Restoration Alliance launches four large-scale carbon removal projects across Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, with a valuation of over USD$1 billion over the projects’ lifetimes and revenue-share agreements benefitting approximately 100,000 community members, participant farmers, and national governments. 

Taiwan is seeking to accelerate the development of Article 6.4 emissions reduction projects with Paraguay, focused initially on forests and electric buses and funded by a carbon levy that will commence this May of $9 USD per tCO2 for emitters with over 25,000 tCO2e annually.

Article 6 Transactions

Norway has signed a contract with Zambia to purchase up to 3.5 million tonnes of CO₂ emission reductions over a ten‑year period related to enhanced renewable energy deployment under Article 6.2.

Since December 2025, 15 new projects, in countries including Egypt, India and South Korea, have registered prior consideration under the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism.

Green Economy Partnership, a UAE based technology company, has carried out of its first carbon credit transaction with Green Earth building off a memorandum of understanding signed last year, to develop afforestation/reforestation and agroforestry projects, using AI, with potential of generating up to 12 million tCO2 removals that could be traded under Article 6.

Carbon Industries Group, a Hong Kong-based developer has signed two Article 6-aligned agreements with Senegal to restore 32,000 hectares of mangroves and deploy 27,000 household biodigesters. These 22-year projects aim to generate ITMOs (potentially $550m-$800m revenue) for international transfer.

Chile and Japan have updated their memorandum of understanding under the Joint Crediting Mechanism to partake in Article 6.2 trading.

Japan and Azerbaijan are reportedly close to finalising a cooperative approach focused on decarbonisation of the Azeri’s largest oil and gas terminal.

Article 6 Governance & Regulation

The EU has signalled that a proposal and impact assessment detailing how international carbon credits generated under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement could be used within the EU’s climate framework would be available this year.

Columbia is expected to publish a series of regulations this year. In addition to regulations pertaining to Article 6 regulatory proposals to increase the carbon tax from approximately COP 27,399/tCO2e in 2025 to COP 42,609/tCO2e in 2026, reduce the allowable use of carbon credits for meeting tax obligations from 50% to 30% of the total tax bill and introduce an ETS are expected. This builds off of calls from a recent SPAR6C report highlighting the need for domestic standards to better align with Article 6 rules.

Bhutan has established a new Carbon Market Framework, establishing its own National Carbon Registry and Carbon Fund and corresponding adjustment prices, ranging from $5-$25 per ton depending on the transaction size.

Gabon has also signalled in its revised NDC that alongside Article 6 trading it intends to establish a domestic carbon market and participate in an integrated regional market.

Article 6 Infrastructure

A contract for the implementation and support of three digital infrastructure components under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement: the International Registry and the Additional Registry Services (Art. 6.2), the Mechanism Registry (Art. 6.4), and an Interoperability Hub has been agreed by the UNFCCC, paving the way for their development.

A partnership between various technology and sustainability firms, including Aleria, Tawasal, and Xange.com, was announced to build digital systems and tools for Article 6 including a central registry and settlement platform that aims to enable countries to track and transfer ITMOs, and processes to include monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) and project management.

Non-market approaches under Article 6.8

The UNFCCC has made the report from the Article 6.8 in-session workshop held in Belém available here. The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) is undertaking a review of the Article 6.8 non-market approach work programme. To inform this review, the UNFCCC secretariat is gathering the views of stakeholders on their experience with non-market approaches and the NMA Platform. They specifically seek input in on:

• Experiences with non-market approaches and the NMA Platform
• The Support provided and needed to implement non-market approaches
• Views on how to increase the effectiveness of the work programme activities.

The survey can be accessed here and submitted until Tuesday 17 February.

While to date only 3 non-market approaches have been listed on the official platform. Malaysia aims to list a national forest conservation financing framework on the UN's non-market approaches platform by late 2026.

NDC Target Setting

Five Parties submitted new nationally determined contributions this month. Honduras is aiming to reduce emissions by over 12.84 MtCO2e by 2035, compared to a business-as-usual (BAU) baseline. However, this target is fully conditional on international funding and capacity building, including under Articles 5 and 6. Palau, signalled its continuing cooperative approaches, facilitated under Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism, with ten projects having commenced since their bilateral agreement in 2014, four of which will be subject to corresponding adjustments. Trinidad and Tobago have signalled they “will leverage international mechanisms under the UNFCCC to achieve its contributions in collaboration with regional and international partners, as appropriate and feasible” without specific reference to Article 6. Samoa, states that they are “interested in selling carbon credits to more developed countries that may be interested”. Nauru, by contrast, emphasises the conditionality of its own pledge, but does not make reference to Article 6. 

Article 6.4 Supervisory Body Consultation

Ahead of the Supervisory Body's 20th meeting (SBM 020), the agenda for the meeting and the documents for consideration have now been published.

Stakeholders are invited to provide input on the topics covered in the annotated agenda and related annexes. The deadline for input is Monday, 9 February 2026.