AFRICA : Can carbon trading spur growth?

Photo: Cathy Williams/IRIN

Companies can invest in alternative energies like solar power to earn carbon credit.

DAKAR, 5 September 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds attending the first all-African carbon forum agreed entrepreneurs in Africa need cash to break into the expanding international carbon emissions trading market.

Polluters looking for credits

The carbon forum matched investors seeking a higher greenhouse emission allowance than permitted by the Kyoto Protocol with profitable projects that cut greenhouse gases in developing or emerging countries. Each investment translates into ‘certified emission reduction credits’ (CER).

The investor buys the right to pollute by helping someone else not to pollute.
 
Projects that come under this scheme, known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) include tree-planting, and renewable wind and solar energy initatives, which help cut greenhouse gases.

Africa-based projects currently make up about four percent of a nascent industry that already turns over US$57 billion a year. 

Entrepreneurs in Africa say the continent cannot afford to fall behind.

“The lack of ownership by African investors [in this market] is one of the major constraints for the future development of this continent…This market is destined to grow, and Africa, particularly its private sector, must develop a larger presence in it,.” said Thierno Bocar Tall, director of a regional biofuel and renewable energy project.

Benefits

Sub-Saharan Africa produces less energy than Spain, leaving about 500 million people without electricity, according to Dana Rysankova, a World Bank energy specialist in the Africa Department .

By boosting its participation in carbon reduction projects, Africa’s private sector can spur economic growth, boost energy production and reduce carbon emissions according to Ryasnkova.

But to even begin meeting their own energy needs, African governments will need to dedicate six percent of their annual budgets to their energy sectors, she said.

Financial barriers

For Mario Lundovic, an adviser at the African Development Bank, most African banks are too small to interest large–scale carbon reduction projects.

Private-public investment partnerships are complicated to pull off anywhere, but particularly in Africa, according to Moctar Diaw, director of sustainable energies in the Senegalese cement industry.

He says he wants to reduce how much energy his industry uses, but finding investment has been tough.

Increasing investments

About 3,200 low-emissions energy projects have been identified across Sub-Saharan Africa, which are seeking investments of US$175 billion.

If financed, officials at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change says these projects have the potential to cut global carbon emissions by more than 700 million tonnes per year, while quadrupling Sub-Saharan Africa’s current level of energy production.

The World Bank recently signed Senegal’s first CDM with the state-run Rural Electrification Agency to provide 1.5 million energy-efficient light bulbs to families in rural areas. Investors and entrepreneurs have identified 24 other projects across the country, including a wind farm in Saint-Louis 185km from Dakar, which aims to reduce the country’s gas and diesel dependency produce 30,000 MW of energy per year.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has invested US$30 million in building up local expertise in carbon trading in Africa.

“Africa has an enormous potential to be eligible for more investment,” said Bakary Kanté of the UNEP. But as yet, it lacks the cash.

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