The Green Economy and Climate Change (Carbon Market) Regulations, 2026 establish Zambia’s comprehensive legal and institutional framework for carbon credit generation, authorization, issuance, and trading. Published on 9 January 2026, the regulation operationalizes Zambia’s participation in both international carbon markets (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement) and the voluntary carbon market, while ensuring environmental integrity, transparency, and alignment with national development priorities.

Institutional Framework
• Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA): Acts as the central implementing authority and registry administrator; oversees monitoring, verification, and issuance of credits .
• Director (Government authority): Grants authorizations and oversees approvals.
• Technical Committee: Evaluates project concept notes and proposals
• Integration with the National Carbon Registry under the MRV system.

Project Eligibility and Exclusions
Ineligible activities include:
• Fossil fuel lock-in projects
• Certain industrial gas projects (e.g., HFC-23, adipic acid N₂O)
• Nuclear energy
• Large-scale hydropower (20 MW)
Projects need to ensure alignment with environmental integrity principles

Project Development Cycle
1. Concept Note Stage
• Project developer submits a concept note to the Director, with applicable fee.
• Content requirements:
- Demonstrate additionality, regulatory surplus, and financial viability.
- Confirm project is not ineligible.
- Show contribution to SDGs and national development plans.
- Include (where applicable) a community development and benefit-sharing agreement.
• Administrative review timeline: Within 5 days of receipt, the Director must notify the developer whether the concept note is duly completed.
• Referral timeline: If complete, within 5 days, the Director refers the concept note to the Technical Committee.
• Technical evaluation outcome: If approved, the Technical Committee issues a letter of no objection (for projects requesting corresponding adjustment), or a letter of endorsement (for projects not requesting it)

2. Project Proposal Stage
• Submission deadline: Project developer must submit a project proposal within 90 days of receiving z letter of no objection.
• Validation requirement: Proposal must be validated by an accredited verifier before submission.
• Completeness check timeline: Within 5 days of receipt, the Director notifies whether the proposal is duly completed.
• Evaluation timeline: If complete, within 10 days, the Director submits the proposal to the Technical Committee.
• If approved, the Technical Committee issues a formal project approval

3. Post-Approval Notification
• Start of activity notification: Within 10 days of commencing the carbon credit generation activity, the project developer must inform ZEMA of:
- Project start date
- Intended verification process

4. Monitoring and Verification Cycle
• Monitoring: Ongoing obligation by project developer, including the preparation of monitoring reports.
• Verification: Independent verifier issues a verification statement confirming emission reductions achieved, credits to be issued, and SDG contributions.
• Submission to ZEMA: Developer submits the verification statement and monitoring report.
• ZEMA assessment timeline: Within 30 days of receipt, ZEMA must conduct quality assurance and completeness checks.
- If satisfactory, ZEMA informs the Director to proceed with issuance
- If not satisfactory, ZEMA conducts a ground inspection and submits findings within 10 working days. The Director then notifies developer within 5 days, requesting corrections
- Resubmission: Developer submits revised documents following notification.

5. Issuance Process
Two pathways:
• Article 6 / Corresponding Adjustment: Issued by ZEMA as mitigation outcomes and requires consistency checks with monitoring and verification data.
• Voluntary Market Credits: Issued through external registries where projects are registered .

Process for Article 6 projects:
• Request submission: Developer requests issuance via the National Carbon Registry.
• ZEMA review timeline: Within 5 days, ZEMA assesses consistency with monitoring and verification.
• Confirmation timeline: Within 1 day of confirmation, ZEMA informs the Director.
• Issuance instruction timeline: Within 3 days, the Director instructs ZEMA to issue credits.
• Final issuance timeline: Within 5 days, ZEMA issues the carbon credits.

Authorization and Market Participation
• Developers must obtain a Certificate of Authorization to trade.
• Two participation routes:
- With corresponding adjustment (Article 6 transactions)
- Without (voluntary carbon market)
• Authorization required: At concept or project proposal stage depending on project type.

Transfer of Carbon Credits
• Transfers conducted via the National Carbon Registry.
• For Article 6, credits become Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) and they require corresponding adjustments recorded in the registry
• First transfer is conditional on payment of share of proceeds, and will be considered as follows:
- NDC achievement: First international transfer.
- Other International Mitigation Purposes (OIMP): Use or cancellation.
• Voluntary credits: Transferred via voluntary market registries

Share of Proceeds Benefit Sharing
• Article 6 transactions (with corresponding adjustments) require a mandatory payment of share of proceeds to the government through Community development and benefit-sharing agreements
• Not applicable to projects under Paris Agreement mechanisms without corresponding adjustment

Safeguards and Integrity Measures
Strong safeguards include:
• Additionality and baseline requirements
• No double counting (registry-based tracking)
• Leakage and non-permanence risk management
• Alignment with IPCC methodologies
• Mandatory stakeholder consultations

Registry and Transparency
• Establishes a National Carbon Registry for tracking all carbon credit generation activities and recording issuance, transfers, and corresponding adjustments.
• Integrated within the national MRV system.

Compliance, Enforcement, and Penalties
• Existing projects must comply with new regulations within one year of entry into force.
• The Director may issue compliance orders for violations.
• Penalties include fines and imprisonment (up to 5 years).

Validation and Verification Body:
A Verifier (which corresponds to a Validation and Verification Body or VVB) must be registered with the government and hold active international accreditation, rather than a specific national accreditation.

Recognition of methodologies by regulation:
The regulation recognizes the Verra, Gold Standard (GS) as a framework and its methodologies as valid tools for project development and impact assessment.

Registration of the PD or project with the national registry for VCM and Article 6:
The regulations requires the project for VCM with Corresponding Adjustment and Article 6 to be registered in the national registry.

Approval for listing, issuance, trade, authorisation and corresponding adjustment:
The regulations establish a strict hierarchy of approvals required at various stages of a project's lifecycle, from initial concept to final trade and corresponding adjustment (CA). Before a project can be officially recognized or proceed to full development, it must receive preliminary approval. Issuance of carbon credits requires a multi-step verification and government affirmation process. Trading is contingent upon holding a specific legal permit and authorization and corresponding adjustment involves explicit government declarations.

Annexes
First Schedule (templates and forms)
• Concept Note (MAIN)
• Community Development and Benefit Sharing Agreement
• Letter of No Objection: Concept Note
• Letter of Endorsement: Concept Note
• Project Proposal
• Approval: Project Proposal
• Application to Trade in Carbon Credits
• Certificate of Authorisation to Trade In Carbon Credits
• Request for Issuance of Carbon Credits as Mitigation Outcomes
• Application for Registration as a Verifier
• Declaration for Registration as a Verifier
• Certificate of Registration as a Verifier
• List of National Experts
• Compliance Order

Second Schedule
• Prescribed Fees

Third Schedule
• Share of Proceeds

Fourth Schedule
• List of indicators

Green Economy and Climate Change (Carbon Market) Regulations, 2026

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

Compulsory, required payments to the government that are levied more-or-less in proportion to the services provided. Fees and charges range from entrance fees to national parks, charges on land-based sewage discharge.

Tradable permits are market-based tools that grant permission for specific activities, frequently used to regulate emissions. These permits can be issued within a trading system to manage environmental impacts.

A financial institution that manages a country's currency and can promote climate-related initiatives through green monetary policy and other means.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Electrical energy generated from mechanical devices driven by flowing fresh water.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

the fair distribution of risks and opportunities of climate change and the transition to a regenerative economy, cognisant in particular of disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities and the working class

Procedural justice means ensuring that decision making is safe, transparent and inclusive, emphasizing the agency and influence of vulnerable groups and those most impacted.

Green Economy and Climate Change (Carbon Market) Regulations, 2026

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Just transition

Climate justice

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance