Analysis of Article 6 Carbon Credits Mechanisms: Recommendations for Iraq

Climate change imposes significant risks on our society ranging from water and food insecurity to political and security risks. To mitigate these risks, many countries adopted compulsory carbon pricing mechanisms. On the voluntary side, the Article 6 of the Paris Agreement has several mechanisms allowing countries to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), raise their climate ambition, and promote sustainable development by providing means of financial and capacity building support. This article analyses the potential to create monetary value to help Iraq adapt to climate change and meet its NDC by adopting Article 6 mechanisms as a tool and offers several recommendations to the Iraqi government. We find that Article 6 carbon credits mechanisms are valuable to Iraq and developing countries if environmental integrity and the quality of carbon reduction projects are maintained which in turn keep carbon credits prices high enough to provide sufficient revenues for adaptation and mitigation programmes. In line with this, we provide many recommendations to the Iraqi government, although these are transferable to many developing countries.