Hundreds of millions of dollars pledged for African carbon credits at climate summit
- Media Manager
- Sep 5, 2023
- 1 min read
Microsoft Start - Reuters
Written By: Duncan Miriri
Published: September 5th, 2023
An initiative to boost Africa's carbon credit production 19-fold by 2030 drew hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges on Monday, as Kenyan President William Ruto opened the continent's first climate summit.
In one of the most anticipated deals, investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) committed to buying $450 million of carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), which was launched at Egypt's COP27 summit last year.
"We must see in green growth, not just a climate imperative but also a fountain of multi-billion dollar economic opportunities that Africa and the world is primed to capitalise," Ruto told delegates.
African leaders are pushing market-based financing instruments, such as carbon credits, or offsets, which can be generated by projects that curb emissions, usually in developing countries, such as planting trees, or switching to cleaner fuels.
Carbon credits can then be bought by companies to offset emissions they are unable to cut from their own operations to help meet climate targets. One credit is equivalent to saving or avoiding one ton of carbon dioxide.
Organisers of the three-day summit in Nairobi say they aim to showcase that Africa as a destination for climate investment rather than a victim of floods, drought and famine.
