The scheme’s expansion to include the steel, cement, and aluminum smelting industries increases the program’s coverage to 60% of China’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
By Paul A. Davies, JP Brisson, Michael Green, and Qingyi Pan
On March 26, 2025, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (the MEE) published the “Work Plan for the National Carbon Emissions Trading Market Covering the Steel, Cement, and Aluminum Smelting Industries” (the Work Plan).1 The Work Plan expands the scope of
Denmark’s unprecedented carbon removals fund has facilitated the coexistence of corporate and national carbon claims in carbon accounting.
By Jean-Philippe Brisson, Paul A. Davies, Lars Kjølbye, John-Patrick Sweny, and Qingyi Pan
In the past few years, stakeholders in the carbon market have debated how to integrate the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and the emerging international carbon market governed by the Paris Agreement — Denmark’s recent move to allow stacking of voluntary carbon credits and nationally determined
The joint policy statement and principles provide integrity standards for carbon credits that both the US government and participants in the voluntary carbon market should aim to follow.
By Jean-Philippe Brisson, Michael Dreibelbis, Tal Carmeli, and Phil Goldberg
On May 28, 2024, the Biden Administration released the Voluntary Carbon Markets Joint Policy Statement and Principles for Responsible Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets (the VCM Policy). The VCM Policy is co-signed by US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, International Climate Policy Senior Advisor John Podesta, National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.
The VCM Policy represents the executive branch of the US government’s position with respect to the role of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in supporting decarbonization efforts in the United States and globally. This announcement is significant and timely because it was released at a time when some have questioned whether voluntary carbon credits are an appropriate tool for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The Supervisory Body published the Methodology Guidance and the Removal Guidance to be presented for discussion in COP28.
By Jean-Philippe Brisson, Paul A. Davies, Joshua T. Bledsoe, Michael Dreibelbis, Qingyi Pan, and Brett Frazer*
After two years of discussion, the Supervisory Body (SB) responsible for determining the guidelines for Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement published two sets of recommendations, which will be presented for consideration and adoption by the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) at the 28th annual Conference of Parties (COP28).
The first recommendation came on November 16, 2023, when the SB published guidelines on the requirements for the development and assessment of Article 6.4 mechanism methodologies (the Methodology Guidance).[i] The second recommendation followed the next day, when the SB published guidelines on activities involving removals under the Article 6.4 mechanism (the Removal Guidance).[ii]
Extensive negotiations focused on finalizing the details of a “rulebook” for an international carbon market under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
By Jean-Philippe Brisson, Paul A. Davies, Sarah Fortt, Betty M. Huber, Michael Dreibelbis, and Qingyi Pan
The 27th annual Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is well underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Over the past week, governments, corporations, non-governmental organizations, academics, and other members of civil society have been invited to discuss and collaborate on strategies for reducing carbon emissions and achieving net-zero targets.
Last year, COP26 in Glasgow led to notable progress in relation to global carbon credit markets and climate change mitigation. Significantly, a large number of countries that are party to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement signed the “Glasgow Climate Pact,” in which they agreed, among other things, to focus on limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It is critical that COP27 continues to build on the Glasgow Climate Pact to keep this momentum going.
This year as in prior years, Latham & Watkins is participating in the summit by speaking on panels and working with clients. This blog post summarizes the highlights from the first week of COP27. Latham will continue to monitor developments at the summit and will report on any final text adopted by the parties to the UNFCCC.
The Claims Code seeks to ensure the integrity of voluntary carbon markets to support achievement of the Paris Agreement goals.
By Jean-Philippe Brisson, Paul A. Davies, Sarah E. Fortt, Betty M. Huber, Alicia Robinson, and Deric Behar
The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity (VCMI) Initiative is “a multi-stakeholder platform to drive credible, net-zero aligned participation in voluntary carbon markets.” The VCMI Initiative, for which the UK government announced its support in March 2021, is co-funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. A central objective of VCMI is to issue guidance for companies and other non-state actors on how carbon credits can be voluntarily used and claimed as part of credible net zero decarbonization strategies. To further this objective, VCMI published for public consultation a Provisional Claims Code of Practice (Claims Code) on June 7, 2022.