The Paris Agreement Article 6.4 carbon market is meant to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. However, the Sustainable Development (SD) Tool meant to offer this defence is not fit for purpose, according to the findings of this joint investigation carried out by the Land Matrix Initiative and Carbon Market Watch.

This analysis finds that the current version of the SD Tool, even though it contains decent language on safeguards, provides only limited safeguards for communities affected by land-intensive projects, thereby increasing the risk of infringements of their land rights through carbon market projects. Key weaknesses include a failure to prioritise international human rights standards over weak or exclusionary domestic laws, few safeguards for communities that lack formal recognition, and too narrow an approach to free, prior and informed consent