UN rules for carbon trading between nations approved

New rules allowing wealthy polluting countries to buy carbon-cutting "offsets" from developing nations were agreed at UN climate talks on Saturday, a move already raising fears they will be used to greenwash climate targets.

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This decision, taken during extra time at the COP29 conference, is a major step forward in a debate that has dragged through climate talks for years, and diplomats broke into applause when the decision was gavelled.

Supporters say a UN-backed framework for carbon trading could direct investment to developing nations where many credits are generated.

Critics fear that if set up poorly, these schemes could undermine the world's efforts to curb global warming.

An Lambrechts Greenpeace from said the agreement delivered "carbon markets with loopholes and a lack of integrity" that would allow fossil-fuel companies to keep polluting.

Reuben Manokara of WWF said the final text was "a compromise" and though not perfect it provided "a degree of clarity that has long been absent" from global efforts to regulate carbon trading.

Carbon credits are generated by activities that reduce or avoid planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, such as planting trees, protecting existing carbon sinks or replacing polluting coal with clean-energy alternatives.

Until now, these credits have mainly been traded by companies on an unregulated market dogged by scandal.

But the 2015 Paris climate deal envisaged that countries could also take part in a cross-border trade of carbon reductions.