The first-ever exchange of carbon credits between countries under a new Paris Agreement mechanism is facing criticism over whether the offsets deliver the emission reductions claimed.
Switzerland has bought from Thailand the first batch of carbon offsets under the mechanism, created through the rollout of electric buses in the Thai capital Bangkok as part of a bilateral partnership.
It is the first-ever completed transaction under article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement and the parties involved hailed it as a “beacon moment for climate action” and “a very important milestone”.
But an umbrella group for Swiss charities said the switch to electric buses “would have most certainly happened” without the offsets, raising questions over their integrity.
The Swiss government plans to use the credits towards achieving its emissions reduction goals under the Paris Agreement. If the quality concerns are correct, that means Switzerland would be given a licence to pollute without funding real climate action.
The controversy raises questions over the regulation of the offsets traded under the system. Currently, there is no centralised oversight of the credits and an EU attempt to introduce tighter controls at Cop28 failed.
Swiss-Thai cooperation
Switzerland is one of the most active proponents of bilateral credit trading under article 6. The December transaction is part of a wider agreement signed between Switzerland and Thailand in early 2023.
While the credits will ultimately be used in government plans, private operators are tasked with carrying out the project.
The project is coordinated by South Pole, a Swiss company that is one of the world’s leading sellers of carbon credits and has been mired in controversy over the last year.
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Energy Absolute, a Thai renewable energy company, is generating credits by converting thousands of petrol-fueled private buses in Bangkok to electric vehicles. Switzerland’s Klik Foundation, which represents fossil fuel importers in the country, is funding the programme through the purchase of credits.
Swiss law requires fuel importers to compensate for part of their carbon dioxide emissions. The Klik Foundation buys credits on the companies’ behalf and finally transfers them to the federal government, which will count them towards its emission reduction targets.
The Thai electric bus scheme is among dozens the Swiss group is looking to implement across the world.
Additionality doubts
The Thai project developers claim that, without the funding guaranteed by the sale of offsets, the switch to electric buses would have not been economically viable.
So the offsets will cut emissions beyond what would have happened anyway, they argue. This is known as ‘additionality’.
Alliance Sud disputes this, casting doubts over the integrity of the credits. In a research dossier, it claimed “additionality is at best non-transparent, and at worst, non-existent”.
Alliance Sud said the economic justification for the project failed to take into account the long-term benefits of direct investment from the Energy Absolute group, which specialises in renewable energy and electric vehicle manufacturing.
An e-bus operated by Thai Smile Bus, the beneficiary of the offsetting scheme. Photo: Patiparn.Nice2002bkk
It found that the same transport operator targeted by the project had already been running electric buses in Bangkok well before the start of the offsetting scheme – as early as 2021, over a year before the start of the project.
In a statement, the Klik Foundation did not address the buses seen in 2021 but says “the first 120 buses” seen in 2022 were just a pilot programme.
“This project shows it is basically impossible to have a guarantee that these certificates can be a real substitute of domestic emission reductions which Switzerland should instead focus on,” Delia Berner, an international climate policy analyst at Alliance Sud, told Climate Home. “Switzerland is leading in a negative way”.
‘Pure speculation’
Mischa Classen, an independent carbon market consultant and former director of the Klik Foundation, disagrees with Alliance Sud’s analysis.
“From my knowledge, Thailand has no policy intervention that would support private bus operators to switch to electric, which is the main additionality argument in this project. There’s no economic reason for a private company to use [electric] buses that are more expensive than others”, he added.
A spokesperson for the Klik Foundation told Climate Home the Alliance Sud’s claims on additionality are “pure speculation”. “Energy Absolute needs the financial support through the purchase of credits to make the project feasible”, they said.
A spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Office of the Environment (FOEN) said that only offsets that generate additional emissions cuts would be approved, following checks with the environmental authority of the host country. “In the view of the FOEN, as well as the Thai authority, this is the case with the e-bus project in Bangkok”, it added.
Swiss government plans
Switzerland has been among the most active countries in signing preliminary agreements for the bilateral exchange of offsets. The government expects to achieve a third of its total emission reduction by 2030 through projects abroad.
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It is pushing ahead with the rollout of these deals despite a lack of certainty over the rules governing the mechanism.
Talks over article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement collapsed at Cop28 following a bitter dispute over integrity, with the European Union pushing for stricter rules and the USA wanting more flexibility.
While negotiators will try again to strike a deal at Cop29 in November, countries can still go ahead with their agreements under an initial rulebook agreed in Glasgow.
Classen says Switzerland’s first transaction is adding to positive momentum for countries that are already seriously interested in Article 6.
“It is the final result of a long, hard process and it is not a decision you can just switch on or off. You need well-designed bilateral agreements setting minimum standards and a lot of political labour to establish carbon market regulations. The case of Thailand shows that it’s possible”, he added.
The post First ever Paris Agreement offsets face integrity questions appeared first on Climate Home News.
Saturday, 17 October 2026
7.18 AM AWST
Hi folks! We’re joining you live from the Rainbow Warrior where we will be providing you with updates as our four activists continue scaling and occupying Woodside’s gas platform. The activists are peacefully protesting against Woodside’s latest gas expansion plans, the Browse project, which would see up to 57 toxic wells drilled at Scott Reef.
“Right now our activists are scaling Woodside’s massive Floating Production Unit. They are scaling the South-East pillar and the underside of the Helideck. They’ll be setting up camp soon and have plenty of provisions with them – so stick around!”
5:45 AM AWST
Our RHIBS are in the water! We’ve deployed our four activists and our ship crew on our small fast boats, headed to the gas platform. We’re carrying crew and equipment, plenty of food, all of our safety climbing gear, some big banners, cameras and a whole lot of heart… someone even has something to read after they get settled in.
5:26 AM AWST
Before sunrise activists prepared to launch RHIBS from the Rainbow Warrior.
Looking for a front seat view?
You can follow along with the Live Rainbow Warrior bow cam here!
Looking for more?
Follow us on Instagram for a peek behind the scenes and hear from our Rainbow Warrior crew.
Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Climate Change
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
PERTH, Saturday 17 October 2026 — Four Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists are scaling and occupying a Floating Production Unit at Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, displaying banners reading: “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef.”
- Photos and video available here and here. More will be uploaded throughout the day.
- Content and live updates will be uploaded to a live blog and to Instagram
Early this morning at 05:45 AWST, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists launched from the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, scaling and attaching themselves to a Floating Production Unit (FPU), a key piece of gas processing infrastructure at the Scarborough gas field over 200km off the coast of Exmouth.
Woodside has since confirmed it has initiated a temporary shut down of the FPU.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is occupying the gas platform in peaceful protest of Woodside’s plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef as part of its Browse proposal.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Greenpeace Australia Pacific is taking action today to expose the unacceptable risk to Scott Reef posed by Woodside’s plans.
“Australians love our oceans. Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal would turn the magnificent Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. Woodside wants to drill up to 57 toxic wells around Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, home to nesting green sea turtles, and endangered species like pygmy blue whales and the dusky sea snake; it is a place like nowhere else on Earth.
“Woodside has an alarming track record of oil spills, incidents and environmental neglect, and can’t be trusted with our oceans. From whaling in Albany in the seventies, to Woodside’s threat to Scott Reef today, there’s more than fifty years of history, of Greenpeace taking action off WA’s coasts to protect our oceans.
“There’s no future in new gas projects. Our future is in secure homegrown renewable energy, green industry and exports, where communities and places like Scott Reef are protected — there’s no future in dirty gas shipped offshore.
“The prospect of drilling for oil or gas on the Great Barrier Reef would be considered absolute madness today, but that is exactly the decision before the government: save Scott Reef or risk its destruction at the hands of a gas corporation.”
From aboard the Floating Production Unit, Dr Chris Holden, Greenpeace Australia Pacific activist said: “As a doctor, when I see new fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project being put forward, I can’t help but think about the impact this is going to have on the health of our communities and planet, and feel a sense of duty to act.
“Not only will this project do irrevocable harm to nature at Scott Reef, it will have a terrible impact on our climate, putting all of our lives at risk.
“On the Rainbow Warrior I’m carrying a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report, which warns that health impacts of climate change are worsening, with millions dying needlessly each year due to fossil fuel dependence, growing emissions, and failure to adequately adapt.
“With warnings like this from the leading global health professionals, our government simply can’t allow fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project to go ahead. It is their duty to do what is in the best interest of our communities.”
Almost half a million people have signed a petition calling on the government to Save Scott Reef and Woodside’s Browse gas project.
-ENDS-
Notes:
- Dial-in, SimSat and Zoom interviews with Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, currently aboard the Rainbow Warrior, can be organised separately
Media contact:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific media team on +61 406 231 892 or +61 407 581 404
The board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will decide on Thursday on whether to “provisionally set aside” $20 million for Nepal to deal with some of the effects of the climate-driven flood it suffered in August.
The motion, seen by Climate Home News, has been drafted by a group of board members from both developed and developing countries and so is likely to pass easily at the fund’s first-ever extraordinary board meeting on October 22.
It invites the government of Nepal to submit a proposal for how to use the money, with the board then deciding at one of its regular board meetings whether to approve the proposal or not.
While Nepali officials have described $20 million as merely “symbolic” in the face of the $4.8 billion estimated costs of recovery and reconstruction, it would be the first time the new FRLD – agreed in 2022 months after devastating floods in Pakistan – has set aside money for a specific disaster.
Until now the fund has only taken requests through a single call for proposals, launched at COP30 in Belém last November, that gave countries six months to submit requests.
Most of the 180 projects the FRLD is currently considering are designed to help countries avoid damage from future climate disasters, for example by strengthening responses to floods in Bangladesh and Lagos.
The draft decision says Nepal’s proposal will serve as a pilot for how funding requests can be submitted outside of the fund’s current timetable. That could let governments seek funds quickly after a climate disaster strikes, rather than waiting for the next call.
This arrangement would set the fund apart from other United Nations funds designed for climate adaptation or cutting emissions like the Green Climate Fund.
Climate campaigners from Fill the Fund said the draft decision is “a real step forward” as it is “the first time this Fund has moved to respond to a specific disaster”.
Too little, too late
The FRLD was agreed by governments at COP27, set up and operationalised at COP28 in 2023 but has yet to award any money. The 180 funding requests it is currently considering would cost around $2.8 billion, but it only has $350 million to allocate.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described the amount of money available in the fund as “ridiculously small” and Fill the Fund said $20 million “is a meaningful signal but it is a drop against an ocean of need”.
A glacial rock and ice collapse sent a torrent of water and debris through Nepal and the Chinese-administered region of Tibet on August 26. It killed more than 1,400 people, left thousands more missing and destroyed homes, bridges, roads and hydropower plants. Nepal’s finance and environment ministers quickly appealed to the FRLD board for funds, saying that “time is of the essence”.
Their call was followed swiftly by a letter from developing country FRLD board members urging the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary meeting to allocate funds to Nepal.
But developed countries initially called for an informal consultation rather than a full board meeting. It took a further 45 days for the board’s co-chairs to organise an extraordinary board meeting for October 22 and to draft a motion for adoption.
Fill the Fund called for a permanent way of the fund rapid responding to disasters as “Nepal should not have required historic letters, an informal drafting group and the Fund’s first-ever extraordinary meeting simply to unlock an emergency response. The next country cannot wait two months and a bureaucratic marathon. Speed must be built in, not improvised.”
The post UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery appeared first on Climate Home News.
UN’s loss and damage fund set to give Nepal $20m for flood recovery
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Live blog: Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside gas project to save Scott Reef
Greenpeace activists climb and occupy Woodside’s Scarborough gas project calling on the Australian government to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”
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