Africa poised for climate bourse

opening of the exchange, most likely at the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa.
The official platform launch and opening to expression of interests is expected mid-November. Already, the carbon offsets business had started work on establishing mechanisms to oversee the issuance of voluntary offsets.
The major motivation for the Africa Climate Bourse model was to encourage the rapid development of carbon markets in a continent that has lagged behind all in this respect. 
“In many instances acquiring expertise is an expensive process and many potential projects fail to see the light of day as a result,” the project sponsors said recently.
“The Africa Climate Bourse will provide opportunities, which will allow projects to go through the same international quality validation and verification standards but at lower costs and concessions made for projects with values falling below set thresholds. This can be reflected in cases where the projects are community run and there is no adequate financing for the processes.”
Projects that will be allowed to list are expected to have a socio-economic benefit to the communities in which they operate. ACB Ltd said it will, therefore, quote renewable energy firms, recycling companies, wastewater firms, microfinance houses and others of similar environmentally-responsible and beneficial operations.
The ACB will not necessarily operate along the same lines as those of a general stock exchange like the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. There will be no stockbrokers, but trading will be open to participants all over Africa and facilitated by banks. 
“It is an exciting project and will no doubt spur African sustainable development and environmental finance,” said ACB Ltd, a UK-based firm specialising in environmental and sustainability financial services, sustainable companies’ stock exchange and voluntary carbon offsets.
The UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change statistics show that a total of 4 200 clean development projects will be registered by year-end. Some three billion Certified Emission Reductions are expected from these activities.
Yet Africa’s share of total projects initiated remains very small. In 2012, China is expected to register 59 percent of CERs, India 12 percent while Nigeria, Africa’s biggest participant will register only 1,2 percent. CERs are a type of emissions unit issued by the CDM for every tonne of carbon dioxide reduced. These units are also called carbon credits and your properly registered and certified projects can then sell the credits on the international carbon market.
What this means is that your project can earn money from traceable efforts of limiting pollution through controlling carbon emissions.
Mr Canicious Mushavi, a local carbon markets specialist who was also part of a group of international experts visiting the JSE last month exploring opportunities for the Climate Bourse, said the project was excellent for African firms struggling to raise funds.
“It is a great opportunity for us as Africa,” he said.
“I mean, seriously, problems have been on securing a good capital base for renewable energy. So there was need for a regulated platform for this.”
Emissions trading (carbon markets) is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives, as defined by the online dictionary, Wikipedia. This kind of trading specifically targets carbon dioxide, recording the highest greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere. It is also the biggest driver of climate change and global warming. To achieve effective and measurable pollution control, the Kyoto Protocol has developed the Clean Development Mechanism.
The Protocol’s CDM is also meant to encourage the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries or companies to provide technical assistance to developing countries to reduce emissions or enhance their sequestration capabilities. The objective is to create sustainable benefits and global emission reductions in a cost-efficient manner. The Kyoto Protocol requires that all CDM projects be subjected to validation and verification or certification by a third party, otherwise known as a designated operational entity.
To date, there are no DOEs in the country. This then means that if an organisation intends to earn carbon credits it is forced to use a foreign operational designated entity. However, that may soon be corrected.
The University of Zimbabwe and the Rapid Clean Development Mechanism Trust in Harare have entered into a strategic partnership to develop and promote opportunities offered under the protocol. In a previously unpublished interview with this writer earlier this year, the trust’s spokesperson, Mr Abdallah Barry, said the partnership will result in a significantly increased capacity to develop carbon-credit generating projects in Zimbabwe.
“The Clean Development Mechanism represents an important potential instrument in Zimbabwe’s efforts to attract investment, create employment, reduce poverty, improve output and efficiency and protect the environment,” he said.
The partners expect that within the next year there will be an accredited DOE under the UNFCCC. Mr Barry said the trust was now working with the UZ on a number of green initiatives that include improving energy efficiency in industrial processes, as well as developing energy-saving solutions for domestic utilisation.
In Zimbabwe several sectors have been targeted for the generation of CERs by the CDM executive board. These include the renewable and non-renewable energy sector, construction, agriculture manufacturing, transport, mining, fuel and chemical industries.
Controlling emissions growth through carbon offsets is one of the numerous ways that the world is pursuing in order to limit growth of climate change-causing carbons, which are growing 1,6 percent yearly, on average.
Scientists believe tighter emissions control will contain world temperatures from growing beyond acceptable and manageable levels set at 2 degrees Celsius. If this is not achieved, and if the current GHG growth trajectory is sustained, temperature rise will hit an unbearable 6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
God is faithful.
l [email protected]