Article 6 explained
How Malawi cooperates internationally under the Paris Agreement, and the three routes an activity can take.
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is the basis on which countries cooperate voluntarily to meet their climate targets, including by transferring mitigation outcomes between them. Malawi participates as a host country: activities are implemented here, and the mitigation they deliver may be authorized for use by a partner country or by a company.
Three routes exist, and they are not interchangeable. Which one an activity takes determines who authorizes it, where it is registered, and whether Malawi adjusts its own accounts to avoid the tonne being counted twice.
Cooperative approaches, the mechanism, and non-market approaches.
Article 6 has three components. Malawi engages with all three, but only the first two create transferable units.
Article 6.2
- How it works
- Countries cooperate bilaterally and set their own rules
- Authorized by
- Malawi, through the Environmental Affairs Department
- Registered on
- The Malawi Carbon Registry System
- Unit
- Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome (ITMO)
- Corresponding adjustment
- Always, for authorized transfers
Article 6.4
- How it works
- Centrally supervised by the UNFCCC, similar to the CDM
- Authorized by
- The Supervisory Body, with Malawi approving as host Party
- Registered on
- The UNFCCC mechanism registry
- Unit
- Article 6.4 Emission Reduction (A6.4ER)
- Corresponding adjustment
- Where units are authorized for another NDC or for other purposes
Article 6.8
- How it works
- Cooperation without transferring mitigation outcomes
- Authorized by
- Not applicable — no units are created
- Registered on
- Not applicable
- Unit
- None
- Corresponding adjustment
- Not applicable
If Malawi transfers a mitigation outcome to another country, both cannot claim that reduction. A corresponding adjustment is the accounting entry that adds the tonne back to Malawi’s own emissions total, so it is counted once — by whoever acquired it.
What the country has undertaken to do.
Only the conditional portion of the target is open to Article 6. Activities that fall inside Malawi’s unconditional commitment are on the negative list: the country has already undertaken to deliver them, so they cannot also be sold as additional mitigation.
Where to go next.
Each pathway has its own activity cycle, its own templates and its own fees.
The Article 6.2 route — bilateral, authorized by Malawi, sixteen steps from registration to transfer.
The Article 6.4 route — centrally supervised by the UNFCCC, with Malawi approving as host Party.
Activities certified under Gold Standard or VERRA, with or without an Article 6 attribute.
The sectors Malawi will host, and the negative list of what it will not authorize.
Administrative, listing, issuance and buffer fees, and when each falls due.
The five bodies that authorize, oversee and advise on Malawi’s Article 6 engagement.
Malawi’s treaty commitments.
The instruments on which the country’s participation rests.
Signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
ClosedRatified on 21 April 1994.
Acceded to the Kyoto Protocol
ClosedMalawi has been the Designated National Authority for the Clean Development Mechanism since 2007.
Ratified the Paris Agreement
ClosedEstablishing eligibility to participate in Article 6 cooperation.
Updated Nationally Determined Contribution submitted
ClosedSetting the 51% reduction target against a 2017 baseline.
NDC implementation period
OpenAuthorized mitigation outcomes must be generated within this period, and represent mitigation from 2021 onward.
Thinking of developing an activity in Malawi?
Read what the Office expects before you submit, then register on the national registry and send an idea note.