A growing market in carbon credits (handel med CO2 kvoter) to cut greenhouse gas emissions (udledning af drivhusgasser) may become a tool to help Africas poor, a World Bank official said on Tuesday.
– We are interested in this market simply because it can help create an additional resource to solve these problems that are very difficult to solve, Karan Capoor, a senior financial specialist at the World Banks Africa region carbon finance team said at a carbon finance investment conference near Johannesburg.
Carbon markets are seen as a cheap and possibly profitable measure to fight climate change. Africa accounted for 3 percent of certified emission reduction (CER) permit sales last year, by volume, versus 61 percent from China and 12 percent from India, the World Bank says.
One of the biggest obstacles to carbon trading in Africa is a lack of finance plus the complexity of carbon markets. The continent also does not have as much heavy industry as China or India from which to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Conference organizers said African organizations or individuals could develop projects to reduce carbon emissions, selling the emission cuts to governments or companies in developed countries.
Among the projects offered to financiers at the three-day conference were a natural biogas program in Kenya, gas recoveries from landfills in Rwanda, solid waste management in Uganda and an organic produce initiative in South Africa.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
