Federal Department of the Environment, Transport,
Energy and Communications (DETEC)
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN

Article 6 Implementation
Partnership

3rd Joint Working Group meeting
Simon Fellermeyer, Climate Policy Adviser
Federal Office for the Environment

Climate change in Switzerland
Deviation from 1961 – 1990 mean temperature

Climate change - MeteoSwiss (admin.ch)2

Climate change in Switzerland
Deviation from 1871 – 1900 mean temperature

Current global mean
temperature is 1.3 °C
above the pre-industrial
average of 1871-1900.

Climate change - MeteoSwiss (admin.ch)3

Climate change is visible
Rhone glacier4

Climate change is visible
Trift glacier

2002

2003

2007

2019
Photos: Jürg Alean

SWITZERLAND’S ARTICLE 6 DEVELOPMENTS

Bilateral agreements• Switzerland signed 13 bilateral agreements with Peru, Ghana, Senegal, Georgia,Dominica, Vanuatu, Thailand, Ukraine, Morocco, Uruguay, Chile, Tunisia

Bilateral climate agreements (admin.ch)7

Authorized actvities under bilateral agreements• Switzerland authorized 5 projects
activities• Activities with Ghana and Vanuatu
are authorized for use towards NDC
AND other international mitigation
purposes (voluntary offsetting) will partially compensate
emissions of the Swiss federal
administration• E-bus activity with Thailand
authorized for NDC use only
Registered compensation projects abroad (admin.ch)8

First initial report submitted• Switzerland submitted its initial report and communicated its method forcorresponding adjustments to avoid double counting:• Trajectory of minus 35 percent over the period 2021-2030 (Swiss NDC)

230517_InitialReport_Switzerland.pdf (unfccc.int)
Swiss NDC 2021-2030 incl ICTU_0.pdf (unfccc.int)9

First ITMO transfer for NDC use – a great successFirst ever ITMOs for NDC use (klik.ch)

10But critical questions asked

COP28: First-ever Article 6.2 issuance raises additionality concerns as ITMO transfer looms, say NGOs « Carbon Pulse (carbon-pulse.com)
Switzerland’s pioneering carbon offsets strategy raises questions - SWI swissinfo.ch
New electric buses in Bangkok – no substitute for climate protection in Switzerland | Alliance Sud

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Reflections on ITMO transfer process• Cumbersome but workable process through cancellation and re-issuancearrangement with Thailand which involved significant coordination efforts between
both administrations• Verified emission reductions first permanently cancelled within Thailand Voluntary
Emission Reduction (T-VER) Program Registry• 1916 units subsequently issued as ITMOs into the account of the KliK Foundation inthe Swiss Emissions Trading Registry• Switzerland advocates for an interconnected international registry solution in
Article 6 negotiations that allows for links between national registries where desired bycountries (sovereign decision, no requirement)• Would render cooperation more transparent and easier to implement
12Reflections on Article 6 cooperation developments• Bilateral Article 6.2 cooperation is resource intensive• Coordination efforts between public administrations and private entities• Commonly accepted high integrity standards would support faster implementation• Looking to 6.4 Mechanism, or VCM initiatives?
• Continuous revisiting of cooperation modalities with growing multilateral regulatory
clarity• Switzerland will continue the bilateral 6.2 implementation and engage for a quick
and high integrity operationalization of the 6.4 mechanism

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