Dominican Republic integrates Carbon Market into its climate policy

The Dominican Republic took a step forward in its climate policies by integrating the Carbon Market approach, by renaming the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism, which, according to decree 358-25, will henceforth be called the National Council for Climate Change and Carbon Market.

This renaming is an adaptation of the national legal order to the mandates of the Paris Agreement and its rulebook, completed in November of last 2024 at COP29 in Azerbaijan where the regulation of its Article 6 and all its sections was definitively approved.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which facilitates and regulates national and international cooperation for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the Carbon Market, replaces the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism, one of the tools created by that treaty that provided support to projects that could generate certified carbon credits.

In total, the Dominican Republic enabled 15 projects endorsed under the Clean Development Mechanism, being the Caribbean country with the largest number of initiatives developed.

The country has already developed tools such as the Emissions Trading pilot system, as part of the CiACA (Collaborative Instruments for Ambitious Climate Action) initiative of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and with the technical support of the Caribbean Regional Collaboration Centre.

Furthermore, the national private sector is developing initiatives such as Sustainable Companies and aligning their sustainability programs, to generate a voluntary market for greenhouse gas emissions that paves the way for the Dominican Republic’s insertion into the international carbon market.

Through decree 358-25, the entity maintains its role as the National Designated Authority before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to endorse or object to reports of carbon emission reduction or capture at the national level, which facilitates the participation of the Dominican private sector in carbon markets.

The decree 358-25 also stipulates that the National Council for Climate Change and Carbon Market be attached to the Ministry of the Presidency.