Kazakhstan has established a legal basis for taking part in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, opening the way for the country to trade carbon credits internationally. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a package of amendments to Kazakhstan’s Environmental Code into law this week, setting out how the Central Asian nation can participate in Articles 6.2 and 6.4 — the mechanisms that let countries cooperate and trade emission reductions towards their national targets.
Green Earth team member planting saxaul trees as part of the Greening of the Dried Aral Sea Project, Green Earth.
Both houses of parliament approved the amendments in late June. The changes add a new article to the country’s 2021 Environmental Code and run throughout the roughly 300-page document, inserting clauses that reference Article 6 of the Paris Agreement across its provisions.
“The Republic of Kazakhstan shall transfer the results of climate change mitigation within the framework of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement for accounting as national contributions of other countries in the cases and under the conditions stipulated by this law,” the amendments read.
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The law redefines Kazakhstan’s carbon balance as the country’s total emissions, less its carbon absorption, plus the carbon credits it transfers to other countries under Article 6. It also calls for a national carbon registry and an Article 6 buffer account. The buffer account holds credits that cannot be transferred internationally and cancels them if a carbon project reverses.
“A buffer account is an account established in an international registry under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement that contains carbon credits intended to offset potential losses in the mitigation benefits of greenhouse gas absorption projects,” the document states.
Under the new rules, carbon projects face an eligibility assessment before approval, and a share of the credits they generate is reserved for Kazakhstan’s own national target. The measures place the quality and traceability of each project at the centre of how the country takes part in international carbon markets, tying market access to the standards a project can meet.
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As Article 6 markets open across new jurisdictions, the standards applied to carbon credit development become the measure of a project’s value.
As Article 6 markets open across new jurisdictions, the standards applied to carbon credit development become the measure of a project's value. Green Earth develops large-scale nature-based carbon projects accredited to leading international standards, with full supply-chain oversight from initial design and implementation through to long-term monitoring and credit issuance. In Kazakhstan, the Greening of the Dried Aral Sea Project is restoring the dried banks of the Aral Sea through saxaul planting, delivering verified environmental impact across ecosystems, communities, and biodiversity. As Kazakhstan sets the rules of participation, Green Earth's project on the ground is already built to meet them.
