How far has COP27 inched beyond past climate deals?

How far has COP27 inched beyond past climate deals?

Beyond the headlines from the annual U.N. climate conference, progress in advancing the global climate agenda relies on the behind-the-scenes efforts of technocrats over years.

Below are some of the steps forward at this year's COP27 summit concluded at the weekend in Egypt:

THE SHAPE OF CARBON MARKETS

Countries have been negotiating how to make international trading in carbon offsets work since the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the launch of the system is likely to be several years off as the debate continues into 2023.

Offsets allow countries or companies to pay others to cut greenhouse gas emissions to make up for their own.

By the end of the first week of COP27, officials had agreed to put off decisions on which projects - from wind farms to tree planting - should be eligble to generate carbon offset credits.

In the second week, countries made progress on setting out how country-to-country trading would work as well as clarifying some aspects of how countries could authorise a project within their borders to sell credits abroad, Laura Albuquerque, a senior manager at consultancy WayCarbon, said.

Negotiators also finalised most of the guidelines for how carbon credits under an old offset trading system could be brought in line with the