PARIS: Can a country well versed in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions “sell” its efforts to a bad actor?

Critics fear Article Six of the Paris Agreement will mean an increase in greenwashing.

Green-washing is when companies or countries use deceptive claims to convince the public that their products or operations are environmentally friendly.

In 2015, the headlines from the Paris Agreement focused on the landmark commitment to limit the rise in global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The aim was to pursue a 1.5C threshold.

Few paid much attention to Article Six at the time, but it authorised mechanisms for voluntary “cooperation” between countries – and private companies — to achieve promised emissions reductions.

The implementation of these mechanisms for countries has remained a point of contention ever since.

Now the supervisory body created during COP26 in 2021 has to iron out the details in early November, so a plan can be presented to COP28 in Dubai later the same month.

That plan could pave the way for the large-scale implementation of such mechanisms by the beginning of 2024.

Newspakistan.tv/APP/AFP