Africa fast adopting CDM projects
DEVELOPMENT
By BiztechAfrica – April 28, 2012, 8:55 a.m.
African adoption of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects is currently higher than the world average, delegates at the Africa Carbon Forum in Addis Ababa have heard.
A record number of 1,200 registered participants took part in this year’s Africa Carbon Forum (ACF) in Ethiopia.
The annual forum is described as the leading knowledge-sharing and carbon trade platform in Africa. The event brought together project developers, service providers, buyers and sellers of carbon credits, and various other private and public sector stakeholders. All are hoping to tap the potential of carbon finance to promote low carbon development on the continent.
They heard that Africa currently has 85 registered CDM projects, representing just over 2% of the more than 4,000 projects registered. Recent data from the UNEP Risoe Centre shows that in the last three years there has been a significant increase in the number of CDM projects initiated in Africa compared to other regions of the world, a trend that is likely to continue.
Kai-Uwe Schmidt, team lead of Carbon Finance Assist at the World Bank, called the ACF one of the key climate events in Africa.
“This conference definitely exceeded our expectations.” he said, “especially in terms of the remarkable increase in the breadth and depth of the interactions among policymakers, experts, and practitioners from the public and private sectors. It has been a great place to see peers exchanging knowledge and collaborating on major issues, including low-carbon development strategies, action plans, climate, and carbon finance.”
John Kilani, Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Sustainable Development Mechanisms, said the conference showed that Africa is ready to actualize its potential toward a green growth economy.
“My wish is that participants will leave this conference knowing that Africa is now ready to participate actively in the CDM, while also remaining engaged in any discussion or consideration for new market approaches,” he said.
The high number of participants at the Forum, and the active interest and engagement shown by these participants, confirmed the statement made by Kurt Lonsway, Manager at the Environment and Climate Change Division of the African Development Bank, during the opening Plenary session, namely that increasing economic development on the continent means that “There is no better time than now to promote green and low carbon growth in Africa.”
Henry Derwent, President and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), said: “Africa Carbon Forum 2012 has shown that Africa has now enthusiastically absorbed the message that carbon reduction can be combined with development and increased income,” he said. “The world now needs to translate that enthusiasm into economic demand.”
This sentiment on the importance of the private sector was echoed by Yannick Glemarec, Executive Coordinator, UNDP-GEF, and Director of Environmental Finance, EEG. “It was promising to see the continuous private sector engagement in carbon finance and the high interest in scaled-up programmatic CDM. We are confident that Africa will be able to deliver climate change mitigation at scale.”
The Africa Carbon Forum is organized under the auspices of the Nairobi Framework, an initiative launched to help developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, increase their participation in the CDM.
