DR Congo Enacts Carbon Market Law Establishing an Agentic-AI National Sovereign Carbon Registry

Ordinance-law signed on 7 Sept. regulates DRC carbon market and institutes a sovereign system Agentic-AI Digital Public Infrastructure for Article 6

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, September 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has signed an ordinance-law establishing the legal regime of the carbon market in the country. The instrument was signed in Kinshasa on 7 September 2026 and enters into force on the date of its promulgation. It was read on national television, RTNC, on the evening of 11 September 2026 in the programme Lecture des ordonnances présidentielles.
The act was signed by President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo and Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka.

Under its first article, the ordinance-law fixes the legal regime of the carbon market, recognises, regulates and supervises voluntary carbon market activities undertaken on Congolese territory, establishes the institutional architecture of the national carbon market, and institutes a national carbon registry described in the text as the national sovereign and authentic system of record for mitigation outcomes and internationally transferred mitigation outcomes.
The preamble sets out the State's own rationale. It describes the DRC, through its equatorial forest, its hydrographic network, its biodiversity and its strategic minerals, as a genuine solution-country in the global response to climate change, and cites the necessity of bringing Article 6 of the Paris Agreement into national law.

The ordinance-law was made under an enabling law adopted on 15 July 2026, which authorised the Government to legislate by ordinance, and rests on the Constitution and on the 2011 law on the fundamental principles of environmental protection as subsequently modified. Congolese media reported that the Council of Ministers adopted the draft on 29 August 2026.

The framework addresses a long-standing gap between what Congolese carbon assets are worth and what they realise. The DRC received about USD 55 million for 11 million tonnes under a World Bank forest programme reported in June 2025, close to USD 5 per tonne. Credits authorised under Article 6 bilateral arrangements have traded far higher, with Carbon Pulse reporting Swiss programme pricing around USD 40 per tonne in 2025. The Africa Carbon Markets Initiative estimated in 2024 that Africa supplies roughly 20 percent of global credits while receiving about 5 percent of the proceeds.

"The gap between 5 dollars and 40 dollars is not a gap in the quality of the forest," said Ivano Iannelli, CEO of TRST01 UAE, a technology partner in the Congolese registry platform. "It is a gap in what a buyer can verify. A tonne that a compliance buyer can defend to their own regulator is worth a multiple of a tonne that arrives with a story attached, and that difference is decided by the system of record, not by the trees."

The regulatory institution already exists. The Autorité de Régulation du Marché de Carbone, ARMCA, was created by decree in June 2023 as a public establishment under the Ministry of the Environment, Sustainable Development and New Climate Economy, led by Prof. Dr Marie Nyange Ndambo.
Lumière Credit Carbon Plateform S.A.S. is the platform being built to serve the national registry function, a joint venture between La Congolaise de Gestion des Crédits Carbones and M&M Greentech with TRST01. Information is published at https://lumiere.gouv.cd.

"Governments have been collecting this data for years to meet their reporting obligations, and filing it where nobody reads it twice," Iannelli said. "What changes now is that the State has given itself a legal instrument that makes the record sovereign. The capability sits inside the country rather than leaving with the consultant."

The full text, including the articles and annexes not read on air, is expected to be published in the Journal Officiel. Implementing texts and the establishment of the institutional architecture are to follow. The registry and its governance are expected to be presented officially at COP31 in Antalya, from 9 to 20 November 2026.

About Lumière
Lumière Credit Carbon Plateform S.A.S., registered in Kinshasa, is developing the digital platform supporting the Democratic Republic of the Congo's national carbon registry, built on the principles of transparency, trust and impact. https://lumiere.gouv.cd

About TRST01
TRST01 provides AI-native climate intelligence, digital monitoring, reporting and verification, and Paris Agreement implementation infrastructure, with operations across India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. https://trst01.com
Media contact
Ivano Iannelli, CEO, TRST01 UAE
ivanoi@trst01.com
+971 50 558 7503

Ivano Iannelli
TRST01
+971 50 558 7503
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