The Article 6 Climate Cooperation Fund (ACCTIF) is one of the major GGGI programmes in Nepal.  ACCTIF is one of the two carbon procurement funds under GGGI’s Carbon Transaction Facility—an initiative designed to help countries such as Nepal transition from carbon market readiness to real, high-integrity climate transactions. ACCTIF focuses on building bilateral partnerships under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, enabling countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Nepal, and Zambia to prepare and transact Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) with Sweden through its Swedish Energy Agency. By supporting institutional readiness, developing strong mitigation activities, and facilitating transparent buyer–seller engagement, ACCTIF aims to play a central role in unlocking climate finance for Nepal while driving sustainable development.

GGGI Nepal office speaks with Ash Sharma, Fund Manager of the Article 6 Climate Cooperation Fund (ACCTIF), who is visiting the country from 4-13 February 2026.

Ash Sharma presenting on understanding MOPAs and carbon projects at an ACCTIF Workshop, Unlocking Climate Finance: Understanding Article 6 and Financing Carbon Projects in Nepal. © GGGI Nepal/ACCTIF/Diwakar Rai

This is your second visit to Nepal for GGGI. Tell us a little about the ACCTIF programme?

The ACCTIF programme is essentially one of the driving engines behind GGGI’s global Carbon Transaction Facility. I think of it as the part of the system that helps countries actually do Article 6 climate cooperation rather than just talk about it. In simple terms, ACCTIF builds partnerships between countries and Sweden, which seek to purchase high‑integrity carbon credits (ITMOs) through its Swedish Energy Agency. Behind the scenes, ACCTIF supports Nepal to get its institutions ready, design strong mitigation projects, and prepare the technical documentation needed to take a project from concept to a carbon transaction.

What makes ACCTIF interesting and relevant for Nepal is that it combines hands-on support with real market opportunities. It’s not just about capacity building – it’s about creating an actual pipeline of projects that can deliver measurable emission reductions and sustainable development benefits. Nepal will get help with everything from project screening and design to negotiating Mitigation Outcome Purchase Agreements, ensuring the whole process is transparent, fair, and aligned with national climate goals. In short, ACCTIF is helping Nepal move from market readiness to real deals that bring in climate finance while driving greener, more resilient development.

What are the opportunities for the Article 6 mechanism in Nepal?

When you look at Nepal through the mitigation lens, there’s a lot of mitigation potential — far more than one would expect from a landlocked, low-emitting and mountainous country. Energy is the biggest opportunity. Nepal plans to massively scale up renewables, from hydropower to solar and wind, aiming for over 14,000 MW by 2030 and 28,500 MW by 2035, which is a huge leap from today’s capacity. That creates pathways for high-integrity mitigation activities under Article 6 — whether it’s grid-connected hydropower, distributed renewables, smart metering, or waste-to-energy projects that the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) explicitly promotes. Clean cooking is another major opportunity: millions of households still rely on traditional biomass, so the push toward electric cookstoves, improved cookstoves and biogas opens up programme‑scale interventions that could generate mitigation outcomes. And then there’s transport — Nepal wants 90–95% EV sales for private vehicles by 2030‑2035, plus electric public transport systems and even electric rail.

Ash Sharma responding to questions at an ACCTIF Workshop, Unlocking Climate Finance: Understanding Article 6 and Financing Carbon Projects in Nepal. © GGGI Nepal/ACCTIF/Diwakar Rai

So, what is ACCTIF doing in Nepal at the moment?

2026 is a busy year for ACCTIF in Nepal. Our work is centred around supporting the Government to put in place the institutional and governance systems to enable Article 6-ready mitigation projects, real investments to meet development needs and reduce carbon emissions.

Nepal’s NDC lays out a huge menu of mitigation possibilities that are ideal for Article 6 cooperation, especially because most of its targets are conditional and explicitly meant to leverage climate finance and carbon markets. On the project development side, ACCTIF is advancing a commercial-scale biogas programme and evaluating further Nepal-based mitigation activities from last year’s Expression of Interest pipeline in the low-carbon transport and waste management sectors.

Alongside the project pipeline, ACCTIF is continuing its governance work in Nepal—mainly supporting the government to operationalise its Article 6 Guidelines. ACCTIF will also support validation of the Mitigation Activity Design Document (MADD), facilitate issuance of host country Authorisation Letters, and deliver capacity‑building on aspects such as MOPA negotiations, equipping Nepal’s institutions to engage confidently in Article 6 transactions.

Nepal is in the driver’s seat of its carbon market journey — GGGI is simply providing the tools, readiness, and access to finance that enable full national ownership and leadership of the process.

Ash Sharma engaging with stakeholders at an ACCTIF Workshop, Unlocking Climate Finance: Understanding Article 6 and Financing Carbon Projects in Nepal. © GGGI Nepal/ACCTIF/Diwakar Rai

In your view, what does success look like for ACCTIF in Nepal, and more generally?

For Nepal, success for ACCTIF really comes down to turning all our groundwork into the country’s first high-integrity Article 6 transactions. GGGI leverages synergies from its work in 20 countries globally to support the Ministry of Forests and Environment by exchanging experiences and jointly developing knowledge and tools to advance the evolution of international carbon markets in the country. In practical terms, that means getting key projects fully developed into Mitigation Activity Design Documents (MADDs), validated, and ready for contracting. ACCTIF aims to support Nepal to secure at least one Mitigation Outcome Purchase Agreements (MOPA), which would mark a major step from readiness to real, contracted ITMO generation. At the same time, success also hinges on Nepal finalising its national Article 6 Guidelines.

More broadly, success for ACCTIF is about building a credible multi-country portfolio of high-quality, validated mitigation activities and converting them into MOPAs, forming the first tranche of real Article 6 transactions funded by Sweden. The programme’s longer-term success is defined by catalysing carbon trading under Article 6, demonstrating environmental integrity, and establishing durable national systems that enable sustained participation in carbon markets well beyond these first transactions.

Ash Sharma at an ACCTIF Workshop, Unlocking Climate Finance: Understanding Article 6 and Financing Carbon Projects in Nepal. © GGGI Nepal/ACCTIF/Diwakar Rai

Lastly, what’s your favourite thing about visiting Nepal?

Nepal is an incredible and diverse country with great potential. My favourite thing about visiting Nepal is getting to work side‑by‑side with our amazing GGGI country team — they’re earnest, dedicated, and being rooted in the local context, deeply knowledgeable. There’s also something special about being able to contribute, even in a small way, to Nepal’s Article 6 journey through stakeholder engagement, governance development, and project design.

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