Introduction

At the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, the negotiations for international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement concluded, enabling its “full operationalization”. A rapid transition to implementation of international carbon markets in accordance with the Article 6 rules, guidelines, and decisions is now required to maximize the impact of Article 6 in mitigating climate change and contributing to sustainable development. With new NDCs to be submitted in 2025 (NDC 3.0), this year is critical to ensure that Article 6 plays a strong role in NDC enhancement.

Capacity building is crucial to ensure a foundational understanding of the potential of Article 6 among all Parties1 and enable Parties that wish to voluntarily participate to fully implement Article 6. Ensuring the understanding and contributions of the private sector, civil society, academia, local communities, and all stakeholders in international carbon markets is key to ensuring Article 6 accomplishes its goals of mitigating climate change and contributing to sustainable development.

The A6ISR provides a snapshot of global progress in implementing Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, assessing the current readiness status of Parties to participate effectively in international carbon markets. Building on data from the first A6ISR coupled with additional analyses and information gathering, the second A6ISR continues to deliver actionable insights for decision-makers. It evaluates the strategies, challenges, and capacity-building efforts necessary for effective engagement, emphasizing the importance of international cooperation and technical support to accelerate implementation. The report presents an overview of Article 6 readiness across 100 Parties, examining policy frameworks, institutional arrangements, and legal structures. It also provides a global analysis of voluntary carbon-market activities, highlighting their role in supporting Article 6 implementation and guiding decision-makers on how to leverage these mechanisms to enhance national climate ambitions and deliver sustainable development benefits. Additionally, the report highlights challenges and areas of support to empower the private sector to engage further with Article 6.

Methodology

The second iteration of the A6ISR is built upon the data collected during the first iteration of the A6ISR. In the first A6ISR, main sources included the Paris Agreement Article 6 Implementation Partnership (A6IP) Center survey completed by Party representatives and information collected through fact sheets and sent to representatives of Parties, Party focal points, A6IP Center regional leads, the World Bank, UNFCCC secretariat as well as publicly available information. Additional information was derived from A6IP’s internal knowledge of Article 6 readiness and insights were gathered from consultations with partner Parties and organizations. Key data from external sources includes the UNFCCC secretariat, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Clean Development Mechanism (IGES CDM) Database, Global Environmental Centre Foundation Joint Crediting Mechanism (GEC JCM) Database, Berkeley Voluntary Registry Offsets Database, Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), American Carbon Registry (ACR), Carbon Action Reserve (CAR), Gold Standard (GS), and United Nations Environment Programme Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP CCC) Article 6 Pipeline.

For the second A6ISR, a Qualtrics survey was distributed to Party representative(s) to share about authorization and tracking arrangements as well as engagement with carbon-market initiatives and capacity-building programs. Survey content and questions were prefilled with existing information about the respective Parties where available/applicable. In addition to the surveys, or in cases where no response was received, information was derived from the earlier fact sheet, A6IP internal consultations, and/or publicly available information.

In parallel, a second Qualtrics survey was conducted with A6IP Center’s partner organizations to gain insight on the private sector’s perspective on challenges and need for support. A total of 24 responses were received from the A6IP partner organizations. Respondents represented a diverse range of market stakeholders, including project developers, consultants, NGOs, companies, UN agencies, universities, international organizations, research organizations, and independent carbon standards organizations. The online survey was divided into two sets of questions, one on challenges and barriers (17 subcategories) for the implementation of Article 6, and one on types of support (16 subcategories) for the implementation of Article 6. A total of 24 responses were received for the challenges and barriers set of questions, resulting in a total of 408 answers. The support questions, with 24 respondents, resulted in a total of 384 answers. With both a ranking and an open response format, the survey of organizations provided both quantitative and qualitative data.