Climate
Joint Implementation
A Kyoto Protocol flexibility mechanism letting one industrialised country earn emission reduction units from mitigation projects in another industrialised country.
Definition
Joint Implementation (JI), defined in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol, allowed a country with an emission-reduction commitment (an Annex B Party) to earn emission reduction units (ERUs) — each equivalent to one tonne of CO₂ — from an emission-reduction or sink-enhancement project in another Annex B Party, counting the units towards its Kyoto target.
References
Overview
What it means
Alongside the Clean Development Mechanism and international emissions trading, JI was one of the Protocol's three market-based "flexibility mechanisms", intended to lower the cost of meeting commitments and to channel investment and technology to host countries, notably economies in transition such as Russia and Ukraine.
Projects had to be additional to what would otherwise have occurred; verification ran under the host country's "Track 1" procedure or, where eligibility requirements were unmet, the international "Track 2" procedure overseen by the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee.
How it is used
JI operated during the Kyoto commitment periods (crediting from 2008). With the Protocol's second commitment period ending in 2020 and the Paris Agreement's Article 6 mechanisms succeeding it, JI is now of historical and analytical significance for carbon-market design.
Why it matters
JI pioneered project-based carbon crediting between states and its experience — including concerns about credit integrity and over-issuance — shaped the rules of today's Article 6 market mechanisms.
Review
Public comments appear only after editor acceptance. Draft comments stay in the review queue.
Reviewers choose the definition or an overview paragraph, leave a comment or replacement, and attach evidence or a source link.
Editors compare reviewer cards side by side. AI may help find agreement, conflicts, unsupported claims and possible source issues.
Only an editor-accepted synthesis changes the public page. Reviewer identities are shown only with consent and an editorial decision to attribute them.
Submitted reviews stay private until an editor decides whether to accept and attribute them.
Contribute to this entry
Help improve this definition
Your contribution is private while it is checked. Nothing changes on this page unless an editor accepts it.
Loading verified endorsements… Endorsements are not votes and never determine publication.
Endorse this definition
Endorse the exact version shown here. This is not a vote, and publication remains an editorial decision.
Review board
Comment on a specific line. Each reviewer stays separate until an editor accepts a merged draft.
Each person comments on the definition or overview in their own draft card, with role, evidence and suggested wording kept together.
AI can compare comments against the current text, flag conflicting claims, surface missing evidence and identify where reviewers agree.
An editor merges compatible suggestions into a draft change, checks sources, records disagreements and decides what can be published.