The Wire

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol established the mechanisms for emissions-trading by giving incentives to participating parties to find solutions to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, with options for trading excess carbon. 

International carbon trading issues such as oversupply, reports of corruption and abuse, and a lack of accounting rules have impinged its success over the years to mitigate climate change.

The recent negotiations at COP26 in Glasgow saw increased transparency of the rules for global carbon trading, covered in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement from COP21, in 2015. The rules also allowed the fossil fuel industry to offset its carbon emissions, and continue polluting.