Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) are the accounting units used when one country transfers emission reductions or removals to another country to help meet a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. They are the central instrument of the cooperative approaches authorised by Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 and operationalised through the Article 6.2 guidance agreed at COP26 in Glasgow (2021) and refined at COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022) and COP28 (Dubai, 2023).
An ITMO is typically denominated in tonnes of CO₂-equivalent, though the Article 6.2 rules also allow non-GHG metrics if participating parties agree. To prevent double counting, the transferring country must apply a corresponding adjustment: adding the transferred tonnes back to its own emissions inventory while the acquiring country subtracts them from its NDC accounting.
Participating parties are required to submit an initial report describing their authorisation, tracking, and reporting arrangements, and to file annual information and regular (biennial) information through the UNFCCC's Article 6 database and centralized accounting and reporting platform. Authorisation by both the host and acquiring governments is what distinguishes an ITMO from a purely voluntary carbon credit.
ITMOs can originate from a wide range of activities, including renewable energy deployment, methane capture, forest protection, or sector-wide policies. They can also be used toward "other international mitigation purposes," notably compliance with CORSIA, the International Civil Aviation Organization's offsetting scheme for aviation emissions.
Early bilateral deals have been concluded by Switzerland with partners including Ghana, Peru, Senegal, Thailand, Vanuatu and others; Japan has used a related Joint Crediting Mechanism; and Singapore, Sweden and South Korea have signed implementation agreements. The first ITMOs were authorised in 2023–2024, making the instrument operational but still early-stage in terms of issued volume.
Example
In November 2023, Switzerland and Thailand authorised the first-ever ITMO transfer, covering emission reductions from an e-bus project in Bangkok operated by Energy Absolute and the KliK Foundation.
Frequently asked questions
An ITMO is authorised by participating governments and counted toward NDCs with a corresponding adjustment to prevent double counting. Voluntary credits are issued by private standards (e.g., Verra, Gold Standard) and are not, by default, recognised in national greenhouse-gas accounting.
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