This is so important and one of the biggest things I was tracking in Glasgow and now watching from afar. Any global, or domestic commitment to reduce GHGs lacks teeth without a robust Article 6 rulebook. (For those who want less jargon, a brief thread):
https://twitter.com/NatKeohane/status/1458932505583759362
2/ At core, A6 is about transparency and accounting. Transparency being the thing that allows any country that pledges to cut their emissions from X to Y tons/yr to have open records so that any other country can audit their sources and sinks and verify the number.
3/ Accounting is how to deal with cross-border flows. If I make wind power and sell the electricity to a steel mill, which of us gets credit for the CO2 reduction? You can make a case for either one - but you can't make the case for both without double counting reductions
4/ The US has consistently been on the right side of both issues. But for obvious reasons relating to forms of government and concentration of certain industries, it's been very hard to reach political consensus.
5/ For example, if you're a country with a lot of forest, you'd like credits for CO2 reduction from forest preservation. But if you're a country who's economy depends on burning fossil fuel, you'd like to be able to buy absolution by paying for forest preservation
6/ There is no right answer to this question other than the development of a consistent rule book. Once that's in place, we can be confident that the sum of all countries GHG reduction pledges are additive. Without it, the whole system falls apart. That's the crux of Article 6.
7/ One of the advantages the Americans have in this negotiation FWIW is that we have to deal with all those same issues domestically. The economic self interest of Russia/Iran/other FF-intensive countries are closely matched by those of WV/TX/other FF-intensive states
8/ We of course also have states with huge forests that we'd like to preserve, and states that should be net exporters of wind/solar/geothermal that have interests similar to those of places like Brazil (forest-intensive) or Nordic countries with a glut of offshore wind
9/ The Climate Risk Disclosure Act that we worked on with @ewarren is, in part Article 6 for our domestic economy, and ultimately will need to be synchronized with international rules, just as all accounting standards do. casten.house.gov/media/press-re…
10/ I leave you with the wisdom of a former colleague from my private sector life: "no one would bowl if you didn't keep score". Article 6 is how we keep score. Watch this space. /fin
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