At least 130 civil society organisations have urged the UN carbon market body to suspend further issuance, transfer and use of credits linked to a cookstove project in Myanmar.
The project became the first to receive carbon credits under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement in February 2026.
The groups have raised concerns over the reliability of emissions reductions, independent verification, human rights safeguards and possible financial benefits to Myanmar's military authorities.
Earlier analyses cited by the groups estimated that the project was over-credited by factors of 14 under the Clean Development Mechanism and seven under Article 6.4.
The appeal comes as the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body meets in Bonn from October 5 to 9, with campaigners demanding an independent investigation.
At least 130 civil society organisations, networks and other stakeholders have called on a United Nations carbon market body to suspend credits linked to a cookstove project in Myanmar, the first to receive carbon credits under the Paris Agreement’s new carbon market mechanism.
The groups have urged the Supervisory Body of the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) to immediately halt any further issuance, transfer or use of credits associated with the project, known as PoA 10471.
Their demand comes as the body holds its 23rd meeting in Bonn, Germany, from October 5 to 9, 2026, where members are discussing how the new carbon market will operate, including the approval, issuance and tracking of credits.
In an open letter dated October 6, 2026, the organisations raised concerns about the project's environmental integrity, monitoring and verification processes, human rights safeguards and the participation of local communities.
They also called for an independent and detailed assessment of the project.
The signatories include the Global Forest Coalition, Biomass Action Network's Asia Pacific Working Group, the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, North American Climate, Conservation and Environment, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network and Bio Vision Africa.
Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement establishes a UN-supervised carbon crediting mechanism that allows verified emissions reductions from projects in one country to be credited and potentially transferred to buyers in another.
Rules governing the mechanism were finalised at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2024.
The Myanmar cookstove project, managed by South Korea's Climate Change Center (CCC), became the first project to receive credits under the mechanism in February 2026.
The project involves distributing fuel-efficient Envirofit M5000 cookstoves to households in Myanmar.
According to the project, the stoves can reduce household firewood consumption by more than 50 per cent, potentially lowering emissions and reducing pressure on local fuelwood resources.
The UN said credits authorised for use in South Korea could be transferred to Korean entities for compliance under the country's emissions trading system, contributing to its nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.
The remaining credits would be used by Myanmar towards its own climate commitments.
However, civil society groups have questioned whether the emissions reductions claimed by the project can be reliably verified, particularly given Myanmar's political and security situation.
Article 6.4 has taken years to build, and its credibility rests on the confidence that its credits would represent real, verifiable emissions reductions, said Trishant Dev, deputy programme manager, Climate Change and Green Economy unit for Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment.
“Its first issuance is therefore a test of the system itself. When serious integrity concerns are raised, the Supervisory Body cannot wave them through. It must examine the evidence in the open and show that the mechanism’s safeguards actually work, something necessary to maintain trust and confidence in a UN-led carbon market,” he said.
The project was designed and registered before Myanmar's military coup in February 2021 but continued operating during almost the entire monitoring period used to calculate its first Article 6.4 credits.
That period ran from January 2021 to May 2022.
The project operated in parts of Myanmar affected by violence, displacement and reports of human rights abuses following the military takeover.
According to the civil society letter, the project was implemented and monitored for almost the entire 17-month period by the Dry Zone Greening Department and other authorities operating under military control.
The groups questioned whether reliable monitoring and independent verification were possible under these conditions.
They also raised concerns about the financial arrangements associated with the project.
The letter said there was insufficient publicly available information about who had received financial benefits from the project.
It warned that Myanmar's military authorities might have benefited, or could continue to benefit, from funding arrangements and credit transfers associated with the project, first under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and subsequently under Article 6.4.
The letter did not establish that such financial benefits had been received.
The groups also questioned why the project's monitoring documents had not adequately addressed the changes in Myanmar's political and security conditions or their possible effects on emissions reductions.
According to the letter, verification was conducted remotely, without site inspections because of security risks.
The process relied on just 22 online interviews, only two of which were with women, despite the project having distributed nearly one million cookstoves.
The signatories argued that this raised doubts about whether sufficient evidence had been collected to support the claimed emissions reductions.
The letter also cited earlier analyses that questioned the accuracy of the project's emissions calculations.
A 2025 analysis estimated that the project had received 14 times more credits than justified under the earlier CDM framework.
A separate analysis published in June 2026 estimated that credits issued under Article 6.4 could exceed actual emissions reductions by a factor of seven.
The concerns centred on assumptions about how much fuel households would otherwise have consumed and the methods used to calculate emissions savings.
These estimates have been cited by the civil society groups as evidence that the first credits issued under the new mechanism may not represent the emissions reductions claimed.
“The Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism has fallen at the first hurdle,” said Oli Munnion, climate justice and forests campaign coordinator at the Global Forest Coalition.
“The Supervisory Body must immediately suspend this credit issuance and investigate how on earth it was approved in the first place.”
The organisations also raised concerns about whether the project adequately involved women and protected their rights.
The letter argued that the project fell short of the principles outlined in the UN climate convention's Gender Action Plan.
Although women and girls were identified as beneficiaries, the groups said there was insufficient evidence to establish the benefits they received because the project did not adequately monitor household air quality or fuel consumption.
The letter also argued that women and girls performed much of the unpaid work associated with the project, while having limited opportunities to participate in monitoring or important decisions.
Of the 231 households surveyed during the monitoring process, 80 per cent of interviews were conducted with male household heads, according to the letter.
The groups said this raised questions about whether women's experiences and views had been adequately represented in the project's assessment.
They called for closer scrutiny of stakeholder participation and safeguards, particularly given the difficulties of conducting consultations in conflict-affected areas.
The concerns have been raised as the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body holds its 23rd meeting in Bonn.
The meeting, scheduled for October 5 to 9, is considering several aspects of the new carbon market, including credit approval and issuance, the carbon registry and procedures following the issuance of credits.
The civil society organisations said the meeting offered an opportunity to examine the Myanmar project's approval and decide whether further action was needed.
They have called for an immediate suspension of further credit issuance, transfers and use while an independent investigation is carried out.