Exclusive-Suriname aims to be first to sell Paris Agreement carbon credits -adviser
- Media Manager
- Sep 13, 2023
- 1 min read
Microsoft Start - Reuters
Written By: Jake Spring
Published: September 14th, 2023
The South American forest nation of Suriname plans to become the first country to sell carbon credits under a system set up by the 2015 U.N. Paris Agreement to help curb climate change, an adviser on the sale told Reuters.
The prospective sale is a bid to attract investors with government-backed carbon credits that follow U.N. guidelines, as companies grow wary of buying from private initiatives in the voluntary carbon market after studies found several projects failed to deliver promised climate contributions.
"This is the first signal of whether the Paris Agreement is actually working," Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition of Rainforest Nations, told Reuters in an interview. Suriname is a member of the coalition, and Conrad is advising on the sale.
The sale is divisive among carbon market experts. Some say that selling credits from places like Suriname could bring needed financing to developing countries. Others have expressed concern that the credits might not represent legitimate actions to limit global warming.
Suriname's forest credits are generated using a baseline it registers with the United Nations stating how much carbon stock its forest contains. If the country protects its forest so the carbon stock rises, it can package those gains as carbon credits.
Suriname is one of a handful of "carbon-negative" countries, with its vast jungle absorbing more greenhouse gas than the developing nation emits.
The Paris Agreement says that countries can sell emission reductions in the form of credits known as "internationally transferable mitigation outcomes" or ITMOs, to other countries or companies to use toward their own targets.
