The United Nations announced Thursday the approval of the first carbon credits under a global market aimed at reducing emissions, a mechanism that has faced scrutiny over greenwashing concerns.
The UN-run market, established under the Paris climate accord, allows companies and countries to offset their excess emissions by financing projects that cut greenhouse gases in other nations.
Critics fear that if set up poorly, such schemes can undermine the world’s efforts to curb global warming by allowing countries or companies to greenwash — or overstate — their emissions reductions.
The first credits issued under the new carbon market involve a project in Myanmar that distributes efficient wood-burning cookstoves that reduce harmful household air pollution and ease pressure on local forests, the UN’s climate agency said.
The project, which is being carried out in collaboration with a South Korean business, will produce credits that will be used to both Myanmar’s and South Korea’s climate goals.
According to the UN climate agency, the new Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) uses more conservative calculations, resulting in credited carbon reductions that are 40% less than under a previous methodology.
“Our focus is on building confidence in this market from the outset, and this first issuance shows that the system is working as intended,” Jacqui Ruesga, vice chair of the UN body supervising the PACM, said in a statement.
The World Health Organization estimates that over two billion people worldwide cook over open flames or inefficient stoves powered by kerosene, coal, or biomass like wood, crop waste, or dung.
Every year, millions of people are killed by the ensuing air pollution.
The Myanmar project’s stoves burn woody biomass more effectively, requiring less fuel and producing significantly less smoke indoors.
However, according to the WHO, just 78% of people will have access to clean cooking by 2030 if current trends continue.
“Clean cooking protects health, saves forests, cuts emissions and helps empower women and girls, who are typically hardest hit by household air pollution,” UN climate chief Simon Stiell said.
“The opportunities presented by this UN carbon market across all regions are vast, particularly now that strong environmental safeguards, robust standards, and a clear system for redress are in place to ensure integrity, inclusiveness and efficiency,” he said.
The 2015 Paris Agreement, which commits the world to limiting warming to well below 2C and ideally at 1.5C, also envisaged that countries could take part in cross-border trade of carbon reductions.
At the 2024 UN COP29 climate meeting in Azerbaijan, new regulations for the carbon market system were decided.
Greenpeace claimed at the time that the deal contained gaps that would let fossil fuel companies keep polluting.
Other environmentalists, however, claimed that although it was not flawless, it did offer some clarity that was lacking in international attempts to control carbon credits.
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