Following the adoption of the Article 6 guidelines, Brazil will have to reach agreement on funding, safeguards and the forestry classification that will determine who benefits from the UN carbon market.
The international community has agreed to establish an international carbon credit market, but the focus must now be on delivering that plan, which has been formally approved. From 10 November to 21 November, world leaders will gather in Belém, Brazil, for the COP30 talks, which COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago has dubbed the “COP of implementation and adaptation” and the “COP of truth”. The climate summit brings world leaders together to discuss the key challenges and commitments in tackling climate change.
“Since the rules governing the Article 6 carbon markets were largely settled at COP29 in Baku, COP30 will turn its attention to implementing the plan,” reports Gilbert + Tobin, a law firm that works on organising the climate talks.
Against this backdrop, COP30 has a number of mandated agenda items relating to Article 6. These concern environmental integrity and reporting under Article 6.2, and the standards and methodologies for the carbon crediting mechanism – known as the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM). The leaders' summit held on 7 November 2025 set the broad direction for the work of COP30.
“Since COP29, the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body has been working to approve the first carbon credit methodologies, and the initial project types could be approved by the middle of next year. The Supervisory Body has also been working on safeguard standards, including guidance on additionality and on avoiding the reversal of carbon removals,” the climate talks organisers said. Following the formal approval of the first carbon credit methodology under Article 6.4, covering landfill gas and its use, the body will now develop, in the COP30 negotiations, methodologies for agriculture, industry, renewable energy and global forestry.
Last year it was reported that the introduction of an international carbon label would have a significant impact on the future of global forestry; Damien Walsh, a director at Margules Groome Consulting, set out what the “forest classification” would look like. It was explained whether planted (or plantation) forests would be included in the market.
How do carbon markets work?
Unlike the emissions allowance trading provided for under the Paris Agreement, there are two types of carbon market – compliance and voluntary. Compliance markets apply to companies and sectors where cutting emissions is a mandatory requirement set out in law. They operate in the European Union, California (USA), New Zealand and elsewhere.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took part in the leaders' plenary session of the UN Climate Change Conference COP30. Discussions on whether to include planted or plantation forests in the international carbon market had been split between the COP28 and COP29 summits.
The rules vary, but they typically require companies to buy a permit for every tonne of carbon they emit, in effect forcing companies to pay for their pollution. Last year the compliance emissions market was worth more than USD 865 billion, most of it accounted for by the European Union. However, as set out in Article 6, Europe does not allow international offset credits. And although some companies with no legal obligation to cut emissions have set voluntary targets, they can meet them in part by buying credits on the voluntary carbon market. As long ago as 2021, the voluntary market was worth around USD 2 billion.
It remains unclear how the various existing carbon markets could be integrated into a UN-managed trading system, which would also depend on national legislation. Some experts are concerned that voluntary credits sold internationally outside the Paris Agreement could lead to situations such as two countries counting the same emissions reduction towards their targets.