A UN Body responsible for setting up a carbon market under the Paris Agreement adopted important new standards to guide how emission-reducing projects measure their impact.
Known as the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), it enables countries and other actors to work together on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by generating high-integrity carbon credits that support global efforts to fight climate change.
The rules adopted set out how to measure a project’s actual emission reduction impact under the mechanism. Specifically, two key standards were agreed upon:
A standard for estimating the emissions that would have happened without a project under the mechanism (known as the 'baseline'). The adoption of this standard is a historic step in ensuring that crediting under the mechanism reflects the ambition of the Paris Agreement.
A standard for accounting for any unintended increases in emissions that might happen elsewhere as a result of a project (known as 'leakage'). The leakage standard will help those developing methodologies to identify all potential sources of emissions.
