Climate

Joint Implementation

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Definition

Joint Implementation (JI), defined in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol, allowed a country with an emission-reduction commitment (an Annex B Party) to earn emission reduction units (ERUs) — each equivalent to one tonne of CO₂ — from an emission-reduction or sink-enhancement project in another Annex B Party, counting the units towards its Kyoto target.

References

UNFCCCJoint implementation — mechanism overview

Article 6 basis, ERUs, additionality, Track 1/Track 2 procedures

FAOPolicy background — CDM and Joint Implementation

Three flexibility mechanisms, ERU definition, first commitment period 2008–2012

Overview

What it means

Alongside the Clean Development Mechanism and international emissions trading, JI was one of the Protocol's three market-based "flexibility mechanisms", intended to lower the cost of meeting commitments and to channel investment and technology to host countries, notably economies in transition such as Russia and Ukraine.

Projects had to be additional to what would otherwise have occurred; verification ran under the host country's "Track 1" procedure or, where eligibility requirements were unmet, the international "Track 2" procedure overseen by the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee.

How it is used

JI operated during the Kyoto commitment periods (crediting from 2008). With the Protocol's second commitment period ending in 2020 and the Paris Agreement's Article 6 mechanisms succeeding it, JI is now of historical and analytical significance for carbon-market design.

Why it matters

JI pioneered project-based carbon crediting between states and its experience — including concerns about credit integrity and over-issuance — shaped the rules of today's Article 6 market mechanisms.