Nations could kick-start the first global framework to oversee carbon markets as early as next month should they overcome resistance from some countries, according to a UN climate official.

A staged approach under the United Nations would begin with more transparency among countries favoring markets as a climate-protection policy, according to Niclas Svenningsen, manager of strategy, collaboration and communication in the Sustainable Development Mechanisms program at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn.

The European Union, Indonesia and the U.S. are among supporters of rules to ensure internationally traded emission credits properly represent greenhouse-gas savings, according to submissions to the UNFCCC.

A global overseer would boost private-sector confidence in the efforts, Anthony Hobley, president of the Climate Markets & Investment Association, a lobby group that includes JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Cargill Inc., said last month.

“The first stage could be implemented quickly because it's an exchange of information,” Bonn-based Svenningsen said. “While the UNFCCC secretariat does not have experience rating carbon markets as such, we have more than a decade of unique experience and expertise.”