Article 6

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides for voluntary cooperation between countries in meeting their targets. Under Article 6.2, two or more countries may agree to transfer “internationally transferred mitigation outcomes” (ITMOs), subject to accounting rules — the corresponding adjustment — designed to prevent the same reduction being counted twice. Article 6.4 establishes a centralised crediting mechanism, the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, supervised by the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body under the authority of the CMA; Article 6.8 covers non-market approaches.

Why it matters in the room

Article 6 is where accounting detail becomes consequential: methodologies, authorisation, registries, corresponding adjustments and transparency of bilateral arrangements. It is also where a country’s domestic MRV capacity determines what it can realistically take part in. Decisions 4/CMA.6 and 6/CMA.6, adopted at COP29 in Baku (November 2024), added guidance on Article 6.2 and the Article 6.4 mechanism, and the first credits under the Article 6.4 mechanism were approved for issuance in February 2026, according to the UNFCCC (as of October 2026).