UN Paris Agreement carbon market panel advances two new crediting methodologies
The technical panel overseeing methodology development for the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) has recommended two draft carbon crediting methodologies for approval by the mechanism’s Supervisory Body, according to the report of its fourteenth meeting, published by the UNFCCC on 1 July 2026 alongside a new draft methodological tool on sampling and surveys.
The recommendations mark a further step in operationalising the UN-run carbon market established under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, which is under pressure to deliver usable methodologies for the thousands of projects seeking to transition from the Kyoto-era Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). More than two thousand CDM projects have applied to transition to the PACM but need new PACM-approved methodologies to earn carbon credits from 1 January 2026, and the Methodological Expert Panel had been expected to consider draft methodologies addressing clean cooking and renewable energy projects, both of which underwent public consultation earlier this year.
The mechanism’s methodology library remains thin. The Supervisory Body approved its first PACM methodology in 2025, a revised landfill gas management methodology originally developed under the CDM, and in May 2026 approved a second methodology covering nitrous oxide abatement from nitric acid production. The panel has also developed nine methodological tools approved by the Supervisory Body, ranging from additionality support tools to a tool calculating greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption and generation. As of April 2026, the UNFCCC secretariat had also received 39 bottom-up methodology submissions from market participants, of which seven passed an initial screening test. global benchmark for credit integrity. When the first credits under the mechanism were approved in February 2026, from a clean cooking project in Myanmar, the Supervisory Body noted that updated values and more conservative calculations meant the credited reductions were about 40% lower than what older systems would have issued. Credits from that first project are being shared between the Republic of Korea’s emissions trading system and Myanmar’s national climate target.
If the Supervisory Body adopts the newly recommended methodologies at its forthcoming meeting, it would materially widen the pipeline of activities able to issue Article 6.4 emission reduction units, ahead of expected demand from CORSIA-obligated airlines and governments purchasing credits towards their nationally determined contributions.
