Joint Implementation (JI) is a ready-made carbon market mechanism that countries can use to cut emissions under an emission cap, the JI Supervisory Committee (JISC) agreed on Wednesday.

Despite project activities coming to a complete halt and slim prospects of future use by countries of the Kyoto Protocol mechanism, the JISC panel of government officials appointed from UNFCCC parties insisted JI had a role in future climate policy.

“Countries will need market mechanisms to focus and direct investment to where it is needed,” said JISC Chair Julia Justo Soto at the close of the body’s 37th meeting in Bonn. “With JI they have one, evolved and improved, built specifically for operation where greenhouse gas emissions are capped.”

The JISC passed a budget for 2016 and 2017 JI activities that slightly trims planned spending already below $1 million a year. It must be signed off by governments in Paris.

With project activities all but frozen, JI earns no income from oversight fees. However, it has built up enough of a surplus to maintain spending for core functions to 2020, the expiry of Kyoto’s second commitment period.

The JISC also agreed to allow accredited CDM verifiers to also act as certifiers under JI, rather than maintain a separate JI accrediting system.

With demand almost exhausted in main offset buyer the EU, there little-to-no demand for JI credits, called Emission Reduction Units (ERUs), and the mechanism is unable to issue new ERUs until enough parties ratify Kyoto II.

Since 2011, the JISC has recommended merging JI’s two-track approach, to prevent the re-emergence of heavily-criticized Track 1 projects that lack international oversight.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com