[Title] COP30 Joint Statement, Early Mover Group of Article 6.2 Bilateral Cooperative Approaches

Background

- COP29 in Baku marked the full operationalization of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This achievement represents nearly a decade of multilateral negotiations and establishes a foundation for enhanced international cooperation on climate action.

- The operationalization of Article 6 creates unprecedented opportunities to mobilize public and private finance for decarbonization activities and contribute to nationally determined contributions (NDCs) while ensuring environmental integrity through robust accounting and transparent reporting frameworks.

- As one of the early mover countries, Japan and its partner countries has been implementing the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) consistent with Article 6.2.The JCM now encompasses partnerships with 31 countries across the world. Since its inception, the JCM has facilitated the deployment of advanced decarbonizing technologies and contributed to sustainable development in partner countries.

- In addition to JCM, the momentum for cooperative approaches under Article 6.2 is gaining strength globally. To date, 13 Parties have submitted their initial reports, and participating parties continue to engage towards the achievement of NDCs.

- These diverse groups, spanning different regions and cooperations, collectively establish a robust foundation for scaling up international cooperation under Article 6. The existing cooperative approaches have successfully demonstrated tangible results in delivering measurable mitigation outcomes while fostering technology transfers and mitigation co- benefits.

Statement

In order to strengthen the implementation of bilateral cooperative approaches under Article 6.2, we support the following actions and express our willingness to work together through learning by doing approaches, as outlined below.

1. Accelerate Article6.2 preparatory process for long-term investment

- The scale of investment required for global decarbonization necessitates unprecedented mobilization of public-private finance. Bilateral cooperative approaches under Article 6.2 can serve as critical catalysts for further investment by creating revenue streams that improve project economics.

- For securing long-term investment, we reaffirm the importance of accelerating the following preparatory process:

-- Predictable and transparent frameworks and procedures

-- Robust and practical methodologies for calculating GHG emission

reductions and removals

2. Practice, Streamline and Flexibility for broader participation

- We emphasize that the full operationalization of Article 6 provides opportunities for various stakeholders to participate in driving climate action through bilateral cooperative approaches.

- We acknowledge that the following priority actions are essential to broaden participation.

-- Practice: Prioritizing early actions through learning from practical experience in implementing cooperative approaches is essential to advance real reduction and removal activities through decarbonization efforts.

-- Streamline: Standards, rules and procedures should be streamlined in respective bilateral cooperative approaches while taking into consideration environmental integrity and user-friendliness. Streamlined processes can reduce unnecessary burdens for project participants and encourage further investment.

-- Flexibility: Technical and procedural arrangements should be adjusted in respective bilateral cooperative approaches in a practical and flexible way so that real reduction and removal activities are scaled up.

3. Continuous support on capacity building programmes

- We recognize existing challenges, such as the development of institutional arrangements necessary for implementing Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

- In order to accelerate readiness to implement Article 6, we reaffirm our willingness to work together in promoting cooperation on capacity building programmes such as the Paris Agreement Article 6 Implementation Partnership (A6IP).