There's already a sense of COP starting to "wind down", and it's perfectly demonstrated by the bulletin circulated by the organisers today, informing us that "the cloakroom ... at the COP30 Conference venue is now fully operational" for delegates to leave their luggage.
Negotiations over Brazil's "Mutirão text" continued throughout the day as the COP hosts sought a formulation of words on specific items in the document that are proving hard to reach consensus. We recommend an excellent post on LinkedIn by Professor Michael Jacobs of the University of Sheffield UK that concisely explains the linguistic gymnastics Brazil is trying to do.
Despite Brazil's ambition to achieve an agreement today, just before 2300 BRT the Presidency issued a statement to Parties that "the COP30 Presidency is reflecting on consultations held and written inputs received. Delegates may wish to leave the venue. Draft text will be released in the morning of November 20.”
Finally, late in the day media and NGO sources reported that next year's COP has been awarded to Turkiye, which will host the event in Antalya. The agreement has yet to be formally ratified, but is said to involve Turkiye hosting the event, but Australia holding the presidency, with responsibility for the negotiations.
Article 6.2 negotiators huddling during the day's informal consultations on the latest draft text. Photo: IETA
In the negotiations
Another day, another text. Just after lunchtime the secretariat issued a new version of the draft decision on Article 6.4, to go alongside the Article 6.2 text from midnight on Tuesday.
Negotiators met late this afternoon to discuss the 6.4 text. The session focused on two main objectives; to gather views on the four new paragraphs added to Chapter VIII on funding, and to open a huddle on four contentious issues — already debated in previous sessions but still highly divergent — contained in chapter 3 on transparency and stakeholder engagement (paras. 18–22); and chapter 4 – methodologies and standards (paras. 24–29).
Facilitators recalled that many issues from the previous session remain without consensus, including the transition timelines for CDM activities, and urged parties to collaborate to support the drafting of a proposal.
Key interventions came from:
The Coalition for Rainforest Nations requested to reopen paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of the preamble. Switzerland and the EU opposed this, stressing that those elements have been in the text for at least two weeks. Several parties also noted that the new draft did not seem to reflect progress reached previously.
On the four new paragraphs in the funding chapter, several delegations highlighted linkages with the separate CDM meeting discussing resource allocation from the CDM Trust Fund to the Article 6.4 Trust Fund.
AOSIS clarified elements of its proposal, including the US$26.8 million transfer, although figures were not reflected in the circulated draft.
The LIke-Minded Developing Countries emphasised the need for equitable allocation, including capacity-building.
There was broad support among parties for including the new paragraphs.
Parties then moved into a huddle to address outstanding issues. Heavy rain created significant noise, increasing skepticism about the feasibility of convergence given the level of divergence, but Parties agreed to proceed.
Resuming the session, there was agreement on a number of adjustments to the text with a couple of issue left open.
Talks went on into the evening, our observers reported, and we heard that Parties were keen to reach agreement on both texts tonight.
The Presidency just after midday also issued a fresh iteration of the Article 6.8 draft text, which contains no brackets.
Pedro Venzon spoke at a side event hosted by the Global Carbon Council on Bridging Domestic and Global Carbon Markets under Article 6.2, outlining some of the key differences and similarities between the new mechanism and the legacy VCM.
Speakers at the event emphasised that scaling Article 6.2 requires a robust, interoperable registry for smooth international transactions; clear integrity principles aligned with existing frameworks such as ICVCM, CORSIA and Article 6.4, and predictable authorisation procedures, including transparent Letter of Authorisation and ITMO processes.
Article 6.2's role within NDCs is not to act as a reward after NDC delivery, but rather a tool to increase efficiency and raise ambition. Early use of the mechanism helps countries cut costs and accelerate progress toward targets. The mechanism is enabling a shift from “voluntary carbon markets” to “verified carbon credits” to emphasise standards and methodologies. At the same time, countries can build on existing VCM infrastructure when operationalising Article 6.
Host governments must ensure corresponding adjustments and issue LoAs for ITMOs; without government engagement, credits cannot qualify under Article 6.2. The hope and expectation is that Article 6.2 can unlock new demand not previously seen in the VCM, in which buying countries mobilise finance for mitigation in the Global South, improving integrity and NDC alignment for both sides.
Because Article 6.2 operates at government level, it does restrict the participation of private sector players such as traders, the event heard. If credits are intended for use to meet NDCs, then government engagement is mandatory, even when bilateral agreements aren’t the trigger for demand.
Agustina Cundari spoke at a U.S. Dairy Council-sponsored event in the AgriZone looking at how international trade can be leveraged to advance sustainable and resilient food systems. Agustina underlined that If we can connect trade and carbon markets properly, we will move from promises on paper to implementation on the ground for agricultural and land-use targets in NDCs.
Many NDCs include agriculture, land use and food systems as key mitigation and adaptation pillars, but public finance alone is not enough. This new next generation of NDCs its much more explicit about trade-exposed sectors, agricultural value chains and how Article 6 will be used to support them. Market incentives like carbon credit trading and sustainability standards can create new finance pathways for producers and agribusinesses.
All event times are listed in Brasilia time (BRT), which is three hours behind GMT and 11 hours behind Singapore time.
The IETA/ICC Business Hub is located in Pavilion D145 (see image below). It's in area D of the Delegation Pavilions hall, quite close to the main entrance, and our neighbours are Colombia, the World Meteorological Organisation, Saudi Green Buildings Forum and the Oceans pavilion.
IETA has two side event venues within the Hub: the Boardroom and the Side Event Theatre. You can find the IETA schedule of events here, while the UNFCCC has produced an online schedule of side events here.
IETA's programme of side events at COP30 is now over. However, our Pavilion partners ICC will host the daily BINGO briefing at 0900 BRT on Thursday and Friday.
But that doesn't mean there aren't still some very relevant events going on elsewhere around COP.
Korea's Climate Change Center and the Gold Standard host an event at 1130 BRT in Side Event Room 2, where they'll discuss how Article 6 and new markets can deliver for people and nature. in addition to environmental integrity, the event will explore opportunities to reshape carbon markets under the Paris Agreement, through benefit-sharing, climate justice, SDG impacts, and designing for both adaptation and mitigation.
And at 1500 BRT in Side Event Room 9, Climate-KIC and the Sustainable Finance Observatory will investigate what can happen when bringing together cities, industry, and financial institutions to create ‘lead markets’ for sustainable solutions. The session will focus on the role of financial engineering, showcasing approaches from the Global North and South to unlock private investment for mitigation and adaptation.