Article 6.2 cooperative approaches

Article 6.2 is one of three market and non-market mechanisms established under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, alongside Article 6.4 (a centralized UN crediting mechanism) and Article 6.8 (non-market approaches). It allows two or more Parties to enter bilateral or plurilateral arrangements in which mitigation outcomes achieved in one country are transferred to another and counted toward the recipient's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

The unit of exchange is the Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome (ITMO), typically denominated in tonnes of CO₂-equivalent. To prevent double counting, transferring and acquiring Parties must apply a corresponding adjustment to their reported emissions balances, a rule operationalized in the Article 6.2 guidance adopted at COP26 in Glasgow (2021) and refined at COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022) and COP28 (Dubai, 2023).

Key features include:

• Party-driven governance: unlike Article 6.4, there is no central supervisory body; participating governments design their own cooperative approach, subject to UNFCCC reporting requirements.
• Reporting obligations: each Party must submit an initial report, annual information, and a regular biennial transparency report describing authorizations, first transfers, and adjustments.
• Authorization: ITMOs must be authorized by the host government for use toward another NDC, for international mitigation purposes such as CORSIA, or for "other purposes."
• Environmental integrity and human rights safeguards: the Glasgow decision references the need to avoid leakage, ensure additionality, and respect Indigenous Peoples' rights.

Early operational examples include the Switzerland–Peru bilateral agreement signed in October 2020, the first such pact under Article 6.2, followed by Swiss agreements with Ghana, Senegal, Georgia, and others. Japan's long-running Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) has been progressively aligned with Article 6.2 rules. Critics — including Carbon Market Watch and several academic researchers — caution that opaque authorizations and weak host-country baselines could undermine real emissions reductions.