Article 6 is the part of the 2015 Paris Agreement that governs how countries can trade carbon credits with each other, allowing one country’s emissions-reduction project to count toward another country’s climate target. It is the legal plumbing underneath Nigeria’s entire carbon market ambitions.
Two main trading channels
Article 6 works through two main channels. Article 6.2 allows countries to strike bilateral or multilateral deals directly with each other, trading what are called Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), essentially verified emissions reductions, with relatively flexible rules set by the countries involved. Article 6.4 is different: it establishes a centralised, UN-supervised global carbon market, where credits (known as A6.4ERs) are issued, verified and traded under a single set of international rules, succeeding the Kyoto Protocol-era Clean Development Mechanism. A third, non-market channel, Article 6.8, allows countries to cooperate on climate action without trading credits at all.
Built-in safeguards, on paper
Every credit traded under Article 6.4 requires a “corresponding adjustment,” so the same emissions reduction cannot be counted by both the buyer and the seller. A mandatory 2% of all Article 6.4 credits must be cancelled outright rather than sold, intended to deliver an overall net reduction in global emissions rather than simple like-for-like offsetting. A further 5% levy on credits funds the UN’s Adaptation Fund, which supports climate adaptation in developing countries.
What this means for Nigeria specifically
For Nigeria, this is the mechanism that makes international sales possible. Nigeria has already used Article 6 directly: in 2026, it authorised the transfer of 5.2 million carbon credits generated from clean cooking projects run by the company BURN, the country’s first formal entry into Article 6 trading. The Host Country Approval Criteria now being finalised exist specifically to govern how Nigeria issues the “No Objection” authorisations Article 6.2 requires before any future credits can be sold abroad.
