Green Pulse Ep 62: Much ado over carbon markets, credits and COP26 negotiations

14:13 min

Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.

One of the key issues negotiators will discuss at the UN climate conference COP26 (from Oct 31 to Nov 12) is on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This relates to carbon markets, and whether countries can trade carbon credits to meet their climate pledges — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

It will also establish rules on who emissions savings accrue to, if one nation pays to set up a green initiative - say a wind farm instead of a coal plant - in another country.

In this second of a two-part series on what COP26 means for the Asean region, ST environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty speak with Ms Melissa Low, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Energy Studies Institute, about this contentious issue. 

They discuss the following points:

1. What is Article 6 of the Paris Agreement? (0:48)

2. Singapore has also announced plans to build a carbon credit exchange: what is the issue of the double counting of carbon credits (4:04)

3. Use of units generated before 2020 to meet nationally determined contribution targets, also known as the Clean Development Mechanism transition (7:30)
4. Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu has been invited to co-facilitate discussions on this contentious topic: What this means and why choose Singapore? (10:18)
5. What if countries fail to sort out Article 6 negotiations at COP26? (11:40)

Listen to Part 1 - What COP26 means for Asean: https://omny.fm/shows/green-pulse-1/implications-for-asean-at-cop26-green-pulse-ep-61

6 key issues at COP26: https://str.sg/3pT7

Produced by: Audrey Tan ([email protected]), David Fogarty ([email protected]), Ernest Luis, Fa'izah Sani and Hadyu Rahim

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim

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