Open-source solution that helps countries securely issue, monitor, and trade carbon credits
This work has been strengthened through collaboration with partners from the Digital For Climate (D4C) working group, including European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), European Space Agency (ESA), and World Bank Group.
Carbon markets are trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. Companies or individuals can use carbon markets to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon credits from entities that remove or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are broadly two types of carbon markets: compliance and voluntary. If held to high standards of integrity and transparency, carbon markets can help accelerate the needed transformation by effectively putting a price on pollution and creating an economic incentive for reducing emissions.
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes the framework for countries to cooperate in meeting their climate goals through market-based and non-market approaches. Specifically, Article 6.2 allows countries to trade emission reductions and removals with one another through bilateral or multilateral agreements. These traded credits are called Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs). Article 6.2 sets specific requirements for participating Parties in terms of tracking and reporting:
Although other setups are possible, like using existing registries, many countries opt to establish national carbon registries to both meet Article 6.2 obligations and maintain broader sovereign oversight of domestic carbon market activities. However, countries face a number of common barriers to doing so:
Drawing on its experience in supporting countries with carbon market readiness, and in response to this global need, UNDP has developed the open-source National Carbon Credit Registry—a scalable and interoperable solution that enables countries to establish sovereign national registries.
UNDP’s open-source National Carbon Registry provides countries with a comprehensive platform to implement and manage carbon markets. The system enables governments to issue, track, transfer, and manage carbon credits with confidence, ensuring integrity and transparency throughout the credit lifecycle.
By providing free access to the source code and clear installation guidance, the Registry allows countries to customise the system to their specific institutional, policy, and technical contexts. This open-source approach reduces duplication, accelerates implementation, and can lower development costs by up to 70%.
Each National Carbon Registry is fully sovereign. Governments retain complete ownership of their system, with responsibility for hosting, operation, and management in line with national data protection frameworks. Decisions on data access and information sharing remain entirely under the authority of each government.
Using UNDP’s open-source codebase and templates as a foundation, countries can define their functional requirements and customise the National Carbon Registry to reflect national workflows, policies, user groups, and data needs. The registry can also be extended to cover multiple carbon market mechanisms beyond Article 6.
The system includes a default process flow provided as a reference model that countries can adapt to their own context:
The Registry is designed to be fully customizable. Countries have already adapted the platform to fit a wide variety of contexts, including:
By offering an open-source, accredited digital public good, the National Carbon Registry helps bridge the digital divide by making essential climate technology accessible to all countries, regardless of their technical starting point. Its adaptable, reusable software and design patterns allows nations to build and customize robust carbon market systems without bearing the high costs or long timelines typically associated with proprietary solutions. This inclusive approach ensures that even countries with limited digital infrastructure or resources can effectively participate in global carbon markets, advance their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, and benefit from shared knowledge and interoperable systems that promote collaboration and equitable access to digital climate solutions.
The open-source National Carbon Registry is enabling countries to establish secure, transparent carbon credit systems aligned with national carbon market frameworks. Côte d’Ivoire has launched its registry alongside a market policy and carbon market bureau, while Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe are in the final stages of deployment following recently adopted regulations. Nepal, Namibia, and Chile are advancing implementation in parallel with policy development, with additional countries preparing to start the process.
With the core features of the Registry in place, priority areas for future development include enhancing reporting functionality to fully align with UNFCCC requirements, improving integration of data at a global level, and facilitating interoperability and connection between national registries. There is strong interest from countries in connecting the Registry with voluntary market registries, the UNFCCC Article 6.4 mechanism, and peer registries under bilateral Article 6.2 agreements. Another priority is linking carbon market data directly to NDC tracking systems, creating a seamless flow between credit issuance, use, and national climate targets.
