Integrity Council Statement on COP26 and Article 6

November 2021 – November 12, 2021

The Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC-VCM) welcomes the decision of COP26, which sets out milestones to put the world on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. This has given a welcome, historic boost to the international carbon markets, including the voluntary carbon market. The initiative for high emitting countries to ratchet up their ambition next year, as well as new bilateral initiatives to accelerate action, mean that demand could significantly increase. This highlights the responsibility of the Integrity Council to ensure that the voluntary market delivers quality credits.

Within Article 6, the Integrity Council backs wholeheartedly a number of developments that can help mobilize significant financial flows for climate action, and improve the environmental and social integrity of credits, in accordance with the Integrity Council’s mission and its Core Carbon Principles.

There is now a pathway for the voluntary carbon market, for example, to offer units that can be counted towards countries’ commitments under the Paris climate agreement, and new reporting requirements that will increase transparency.

It is important to recognize at the same time that Article 6 is just a framework, and the Integrity Council needs to work with others to help address remaining gaps to ensure the voluntary carbon markets contribute effectively to the 1.5 degree goal.

To that end, the Integrity Council also looks forward to the contribution of the new Supervisory Body for the mechanism established by Article 6.4, and initiatives on net-zero claims by corporations, including by the UN Secretary-General.”

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