Limited awareness limits councils’ capacity to reap carbon credits spoils

ENVIRONMENT, Climate and Wildlife Minister, Dr Evelyn Ndlovu, has urged local authorities to take advantage of the vast investment opportunities from global climate financiers by developing projects that address carbon emissions concerns.

Speaking in Bulawayo yesterday while addressing a two-day Capacity Enhancement Workshop for Urban Local Authorities on Climate Change Mainstreaming and Carbon Trading, Dr Ndlovu said local authorities could reap millions of dollars from such projects and boost revenue which they could use to enhance service delivery.

“Our urban environs have vast potential to supply the global carbon market with high integrity carbon credits and in turn benefit us in terms of low carbon development, infrastructure improvement and enhanced revenue inflows,” she said.

“We have methane capture from engineered landfills to generate electricity, manufacture of biochar from sewerage, which can be applied in agricultural processes, combustion of solid waste to generate electricity, capture of biogas from liquid waste to energy, electrification of mass transport systems through for example, the introduction of e-buses, urban forestry programmes for sequestering carbon and renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and street lighting, and the list goes on,” she said.

Dr Ndlovu said there were six big projects lined up in some rural districts councils, which will unlock revenue for them.

She said local authorities have been slow in taking up the new revenue stream.

“Carbon investors are showing renewed interests in the Zimbabwe carbon credit market. We are going to have six big projects from RDCs and we look forward to having urban local authorities implementing similar projects,” said Dr Ndlovu.

“The investors are there but you as local authorities have been lagging behind.”

She called for due diligence when entering into partnership with investors and said council should also follow their master plans.

Dr Ndlovu said the two day training was to equip council workers with knowledge on the country’s Carbon Trading (General) Regulations promulgated in May 2025 that will help them understand how the carbon markets operate.

“The investment that Central Government is channelling towards strengthening of the carbon trading regulatory framework and institutional arrangements is meant to build a secure market that benefits all.

“This is after a sad realisation that local authorities have over the years lost millions of US dollars because of the absence of requisite regulations and a robust registry to monitor and keep track of carbon market activities.

“The 2025 regulations are now in place to address these challenges and carbon investors are showing renewed interest on Zimbabwe,” said Dr Ndlovu.

Minister Ndlovu said the carbon market can help local authorities finance their master plans development. — @themkhust.