Analysis: Article 6.4 Talks Have Stalled in Dubai. Here’s What’s At Stake
Year-end climate talks opened with a breakthrough on the global loss and damage fund, but negotiations over Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement remain stalled. The issue is which removal approaches to recognize, and the stakes are massive. Here’s what’s at stake.
5 December 2023 | Six days into year-end climate talks in Dubai (COP 28), we’ve seen promising headlines coupled with disappointing results in the negotiations around Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement.
On the plus side, we’ve seen more ambitious targets from the United States and China, a concrete Loss and Damage Fund agreement, and a $30 billion dollar United Arab Emirates climate fund. These events suggest it could be a landmark like the Paris meeting that yielded its eponymous breakthrough treaty by affirming countries’ right to economic development and prodding high-polluting industries.
But inside the halls, we’re hearing that talks have predictably bogged down as negotiations clash over conflicting views on what types of nature-based solutions to recognize in the recently-proposed methodology assessing removals.
As wonky as it may sound, we need the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 to make such an equilibrium a reality.
