An international team of researchers in collaboration with climate negotiators from several countries and private sector carbon trading experts are developing a new mechanism for international climate cooperation.

Climate change mitigation costs differ widely across different countries. Countries with high marginal abatement costs are willing to transfer significant resources to increase the speed of transition to zero net emissions in countries with lower marginal costs. Currently there is no effective, credible international mechanism promoting emission reductions in all sectors, but the cooperative approaches of Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement provide space for innovation.

A ‘climate action team’ (CAT) offers a new model to enable host and partner countries to cooperate to genuinely reduce global emissions and enable more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions in both. It can reassure host countries about the return to their investment in emissions reductions beyond the NDC and leverage private investment. The large scale of a CAT facilitates the demonstration of additionality and the avoidance of carbon leakage. Climate Teams can take advantage of existing national monitoring and reporting frameworks, increasing transparency.

Key resources:

• Policy brief: Climate Action Teams mini-lateral cooperation to accelerate ambitious decarbonization_02.22
• Presentation: “Climate Teams, Not Carbon Commodity Markets: High Integrity Transfers of International Mitigation to Enhance Global Ambition“