IETA presses for rapid steps to further international emission trade

Carbon trading business association IETA is urging governments to build on the Paris Agreement by furthering rules to stimulate international emissions trade.

In a paper published on Tuesday, IETA outlined its vision for linking cap-and-trade systems, crediting emission reductions, and allowing limited trade of offsets for cutting emissions in sectors not covered in a country’s NDC.

“Linking systems can help drive costs down even more, and allow for even greater emissions cuts than operating in isolation – and allow governments to go further than proposed ahead of Paris,” said IETA President and CEO Dirk Forrister.

“Taking steps to forge these connections now can provide a boost to the formation of rules guiding ITMO exchanges, including on accounting and transparency,” he added, referring to the Paris Agreement’s phrase of Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes.

FACTFILE

  • The Paris Agreement laid down provisions for international emission trade and established a new market mechanism countries could use to facilitate transactions.
  • Both provisions are due to be elaborated at future UN climate negotiations, with the talks due to resume in Bonn next week.
  • Many observers expect little further progress on markets from the negotiations initially, with more anticipated from smaller multilateral groups such as the G7 Platform on Carbon Markets and the New Zealand Declaration on Carbon Markets.