SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: Talks to establish carbon offset markets to allow countries to buy credits to partly achieve their climate pledges are set to drag on beyond the COP27 summit and into next year, according to observers and a negotiator in the UN talks.
A draft document of around 60 pages, published on Wednesday, outlined how inter-country carbon trading might function, but it is riddled with sections still up for debate and pointers to future decisions. Key outstanding issues include the extent to which countries' registries, or digital ledgers of carbon trades, might be exposed to outside scrutiny.
"It's a step forward, but I don't know that it's big jump that was probably needed," said one negotiator who declined to be named.