Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) on Tuesday published the Draft Climate Change (Carbon Trading) Regulations, 2025. They set out processes for the creation of a budget Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), the instrument through which countries can trade emissions reductions under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. According to Quantum Commodity Intelligence, it provides that only emission reductions beyond Kenya’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) would be eligible for international compliance transactions. The National Climate Change Council would determine the volume of tradable credits per NDC cycle, and the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry would be required to publish and publicise the carbon trading budget. It also gives the government the power to withhold ITMOs in the course of project authorisation. It prioritises ITMO emission reductions in hard to abate sectors, and clarifies that credits that have been approved for trade as an ITMO cannot be used domestically. It then establishes a national carbon market and related exchange for the trade of national credits, including voluntary ones.
