INTHEBLACK February 2022 - Magazine - Page 22
F E AT U R E
// C L I M AT E C H A N G E
John Kerry, US special
presidential envoy for
climate, takes the
stage following US
President Joe Biden’s
address at the Global
Methane Pledge event
at the UN Climate
Change Conference
2021.
TIGHTENING THE SCREWS
Another significant element of the Pact is the
request that countries strengthen their 2030 national
greenhouse gas targets (for example, to reduce their
emissions forecasts) before COP27. An annual
ambition ratchet is a big change from the five-year
intervals stipulated by the Paris Agreement.
Many, including Nicki Hutley, a Sydney-based
economics consultant for Social Outcomes and councillor
on the Climate Council, hope annual updates will
become a standard expectation of future pacts.
“So, it’s not another five years before we have to do
something,” she says. “It’s only another 12 months. They
are not such big steps as we’d like, but it’s steps forward.”
The request means that countries whose economies
continue to produce high emissions, who do not adjust
their 2030 targets or who fail to attend the November
2022 meeting, will risk reputational damage.
CROSS-BORDER CARBON SALES
Another key item from the main Pact is an agreement
that would eventually lead to the formation of a global
market for carbon credits.
22 ITB February 2022
The Glasgow Pact ratifies Article 6 of the Paris
Agreement, which addresses the interplay between
greenhouse gas emissions targets and carbon
credits. The objective of Article 6 is to find a trading
mechanism that allows a country whose actual
emissions reductions turn out to be deeper than the
amount pledged in 2015 to convert the difference to
carbon credits.
Article 6 covers only government-to-government
sales. Private sales across borders, referred to as
“voluntary”, must be specifically authorised by the
United Nations if they are to be used to reduce a
country’s emissions targets.
While the Pact doesn’t go as far as some developing
nations would have liked, it could unlock billions of
dollars of investment in carbon reduction projects
around the world by allowing governments to trade
emissions reductions credits across borders.
Giam Ei Leen, partner audit and assurance SouthEast Asia with Deloitte Singapore, says that this is a
step in the right direction.
“Prior to the agreement, many feared that carbon
trading could result in greenwashing, specifically in
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