07/10/23 -Philip's Carbon Market News

African Countries Seek Common Rules to Tap Carbon Market African governments are trying to devise a common set of rules to govern the fast-growing market for carbon credits as they channel a large share of revenue toward state coffers.

Zimbabwe roiled the $2 billion global industry in May when it decreed that half of all proceeds from the offset sales would go to the state. Kenya is now seeking to regulate the industry and Malawi has formed an agency to do the same. Zambia may follow Zimbabwe’s lead, Collins Nzovu, Zambia’s environment minister, said Thursday.

Carbon offsets are in high demand as businesses around the world try to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. Climate and environment ministers in Africa are exchanging notes on how to profit from the nascent, largely unregulated but potentially lucrative market.

Article 6.2 of Paris Agreement in action - Down To Earth Over two dozen bilateral agreements have been signed since 2020- 7/7/23 A country can also purchase offsets from another country to achieve its national targets, such as the carbon sequestered in a plantation in the latter country’s territory.

The rules for such bilateral deals are written in Article 6.2 of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Article 6.2 allows countries to enter into mutual agreements to trade mitigation outcomes (MO) that can be reported and accounted for under an international framework.

In other words, mitigation efforts in one country could be used to fulfill NDC targets in another country.

Article 6.4 of the Agreement, on the other hand, envisages a global unified carbon credit mechanism, which many consider to be a successor to the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).