UN Approves First Carbon Credit to Myanmar Woodstove Project

The United Nations announced Thursday the approval of the first carbon credits under a global market aimed at reducing emissions, a mechanism that has faced scrutiny over greenwashing concerns.

The UN-run market, established under the Paris climate accord, allows companies and countries to offset their excess emissions by financing projects that cut greenhouse gases in other nations.

Critics fear that if set up poorly, such schemes can undermine the world's efforts to curb global warming by allowing countries or companies to greenwash – or overstate – their emissions reductions.

The first credits issued under the new carbon market involve a project in Myanmar that distributes efficient wood-burning cookstoves that reduce harmful household air pollution and ease pressure on local forests, the UN's climate agency said.

Implemented in partnership with a South Korean company, the project will generate credits that will count towards the climate targets of South Korea and Myanmar.

The UN climate agency said the credited emissions reductions are 40 percent lower than under a previous scheme as more conservative calculations are applied under the new Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM).

"Our focus is on building confidence in this market from the outset, and this first issuance shows that the system is working as intended," Jacqui Ruesga, vice chair of the UN body supervising the PACM, said in a statement.

More than two billion people around the world cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fuelled by kerosene, coal or biomass such as wood, crop waste or dung, according to the World Health Organization.

The resulting air pollution kills millions of people each year.

- France24