The environmental integrity of international carbon market mechanisms and results-based finance (RBF) programs has gained a great deal of attention in the wake of the Paris Agreement. By the same token, discussions on how to safeguard the integrity of market mechanisms are of essential importance in the context of the Agreement on Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Emissions trading registries are critical tools to ensure environmental integrity by avoiding “double counting”—the situation where a single GHG emission reduction (ER) or removal is used more than once to demonstrate compliance with mitigation targets.

Emissions trading registries are online databases that issue, record, and track the carbon units that are exchanged within market mechanisms or financed through RBP programs. Since registries typically require significant technical and financial capacity for their design and implementation, it is essential for countries in the process of designing market mechanisms and RBF programs to carefully assess their registry needs.

Against this backdrop and to further facilitate future registry design and implementation, a report co-sponsored by the World Bank’s PMR and FCPF programs provides detailed guidance for policy makers and other stakeholders on a number of issues related to regulatory, administrative, and technical aspects of registries that will need to be in place before emissions trading is implemented.

Charlotte Streck presented the report that was co-authored by a team of experts from Andal Conseil, Climate Focus, Reed Smith, Sinocarbon Innovation & Investment, Triple Bottom Lina on October 17th, 2016 at a PMR meeting in Hanoi.

The report can be downloaded here:

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/25142