The major piece of unfinished business in the Paris “rulebook” adopted at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, was a set of detailed guidance for implementing Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This includes guidance under Article 6.2 for Parties using internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs), and rules, modalities and procedures governing the Article 6.4 mechanism.

This paper provides background on the Article 6 issues and discussions; presents a hypothetical transfer to help illustrate issues pertaining to double counting; and reviews four key outstanding issues and options for addressing them:

• Transferred emission reductions arising from outside the scope of a nationally determined contribution (NDC)

• Emission reductions used for non-NDC purposes

• The relationship of Article 6.4 to Article 6.2 accounting

• The dedication of a share of proceeds resulting from Article 6 transfers to support adaptation in developing countries