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The UN body tasked with expanding carbon emission reduction projects around the world has agreed to streamline the process for approving such projects, potentially providing a major boost to the global carbon market. Under the Joint Implementation (JI) process established by the Kyoto Protocol, countries signed up to the treaty can participate in emission reduction schemes in other countries and put the savings towards their own carbon reduction targets. Currently, JI projects take one of two tracks: Track 1 in which countries vet the projects for eligibility themselves and Track 2 in which the projects are overseen internationally by the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC), part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat. But on Friday, at the culmination of week-long talks in Bonn, Germany, the JISC said that the current model was unsustainable and agreed a proposal to combine or harmonise the two tracks, potentially creating a universal system for approving carbon offset projects. The committee said a universal system would provide greater transparency and consistency for projects, which have been subject to different regimes in different countries. It added that fears some countries would prove unable to meet the international standards demanded by Track 2, the original reason for establishing a dual system, had proved unfounded. JISC chair Benoît Leguet said the proposal would provide stability for the JI carbon market beyond the end of the Kyoto commitment period in 2012. "This is a landmark moment for the market-based approach to combating climate change," he said. "We're putting forward ambitious but extremely practical proposals that would draw on the best features of national and international approaches to incentivising emission reduction projects." The JISC has received 234 proposals under the Track 2 process, including a number from Russia, which had its first project approved earlier this month. Leguet urged countries to rubber-stamp the proposal at the UN's Cancun summit in December, arguing that approval for the plan would lay to rest fears about the JI's continuation after 2012. "The private sector has embraced JI. Countries have done the same by approving and promoting projects," he said. "Now what we need, if the JISC is to continue its work, is for parties to come together and confirm what they have already shown individually, that they want to build on what they've started." (By Will Nichols) Source: businessGreen.com Some rights for the image is reserved under Creative Commons license
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