CCS under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

Abstract

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes the foundation for international carbon markets by allowing Parties to cooperate to achieve their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The Paris Agreement also embeds the concept of ‘net zero’ by calling for a balance between anthropogenic emissions of GHGs and removals of GHGs by sinks to be reached in the latter part of this century. All signatory Parties therefore tacitly acknowledge that meeting the Agreement's ambitious climate change mitigation goals relies not only on deep cuts in anthropogenic GHG emissions, but also on the offsetting of residual, hard-to-abate, GHG emission sources through significant increases in carbon removal from the active climate system and the storage of CO2 in enhanced sinks and reservoirs. In these respects, Article 6 potentially offers a variety of routes to incentivize CO2 capture and storage (CCS) including through emissions trading but also more novel means of cooperation that focus more specifically on carbon storage and which could potentially address some of the challenges posed for CCS over the past 15 years or so. In order to assess the status and outlook for Article 6 with a focus on CCS activities, we define three potential models for cooperation and undertake a comparative evaluation against the key criteria of effectiveness, environmental integrity, commercial and financial viability, progression and policy performance. We conclude with some observations regarding the factors that may influence the likelihood of these different market models evolving over coming years.