Article 6 of the Paris Agreement lets one country use an emission reduction achieved in another toward its own climate target. For Indonesia, that means a carbon credit can be exported only when the government authorizes it and applies a corresponding adjustment by adding the transferred tonnes back to Indonesia's own emissions ledger, ensuring the same reduction is never counted twice.
What a Corresponding Adjustment Actually Does
The mechanism is simpler than the jargon suggests. If a project in Kalimantan reduces one tonne and that tonne is sold to a buyer in another country, two things must happen simultaneously: the buyer's country counts the tonne toward its target, and Indonesia stops counting it toward its own NDC.
Without that second step, both countries would claim the same reduction and global accounting would overstate progress. The adjustment is the bookkeeping entry that prevents it.
The practical consequence for a seller: an exportable credit is worth more than a domestic-only one, because a buyer subject to a compliance obligation abroad generally cannot use an unadjusted unit. But the adjustment is a sovereign decision, not a project decision.
| Domestic unit | Authorized / adjusted unit | |
|---|---|---|
| Counts toward Indonesia's NDC | Yes | No — transferred away |
| Usable for foreign compliance | Generally no | Yes |
| Requires government authorization | No | Yes |
| Recorded in SRUK | Yes | Yes, with authorization status |
Authorization: The Gate Before Export
Under the framework established by Perpres 110/2025 and implemented through Permen LH/BPLH 10/2026, international transfers require an Authorization, issued within 15 working days, alongside the corresponding adjustment.
That timeline is the administrative step, not the whole journey. Authorization is granted against a project that has already been registered, validated, implemented and independently verified. A project arriving at the authorization stage without defensible measurement does not get there faster by asking.
6.2 and 6.4 Are Different Routes
Article 6.2 governs cooperative approaches, which are bilateral arrangements between two governments where each defines eligibility, methodologies, and reporting between themselves. Most active Southeast Asian arrangements today run on this track.
Article 6.4 is the centralized mechanism supervised under the UNFCCC, with its own methodology approval process. It is slower to stand up but does not require a bilateral counterpart.
For an Indonesian project developer the practical difference is who sets the rules: under 6.2 the buying government's requirements matter enormously, and those requirements are frequently stricter than the host country's.
What Buyers Actually Diligence
Foreign buyers paying an Article 6 premium check three things in sequence.
First, legal status: is the unit authorized, and has the corresponding adjustment been applied and recorded? This is binary and verifiable in the registry.
Second, methodological integrity: which methodology, what sampling design, what uncertainty was reported and what deduction followed. Registry listing proves a unit exists; it says nothing about how carefully the underlying tonnes were measured.
Third, reversal exposure: what happens if the carbon is lost. Buffer contributions and permanence arrangements determine whether a credit survives a fire or a harvest.
The second is where most projects are weakest, and it is decided years earlier — at sampling design, not at sale.
What This Means for Project Design
If international sale is the intent, three decisions should be made at design time rather than retrofitted.
Choose a methodology the target buyer's jurisdiction recognises. Build the monitoring plan so uncertainty is quantified and reported rather than estimated late. And keep the data chain traceable from the final tonnage back to individual field measurements, because that chain is exactly what an authorization file and a buyer's diligence both interrogate.
Frequently Asked Questions
RegulationIt is an accounting entry where the host country adds back the transferred tonnes to its own emissions total, so the reduction counts only once globally.
Sources
1. Perpres 110/2025 — https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/ (search "110 Tahun 2025"; accessed 16 Sep 2026)
2. Perpres 110/2025 explainer — https://www.trucarbon.co/perpres-110-2025 (accessed 17 Sep 2026)
3. SRUK explainer — https://www.trucarbon.co/sruk-carbon-unit-registry-explained (accessed 17 Sep 2026)
4. SRUK launch, Permen LH/BPLH 10/2026 and POJK 10/2026 — https://iki-indonesia.id/government-launches-sruk-carbon-unit-registry-permen-lh-bplh-no-10-2026-ojk-issues-pojk-no-10-2026-overhauling-carbon-exchange-rules-idxcarbon/ (29 Jul 2026)
All regulation numbers must be verified against https://peraturan.bpk.go.id before publication.
Selling into a compliance market?
Compliance buyers examine sampling design, uncertainty and data traceability directly — and a later finding of ineligibility returns the liability to them. TREEO builds the evidence file that answers it.
