On 3 - 5 September nearly 500 climate experts are meeting in Senegal for a regional conference - African Carbon Forum – which also serves as a new marketplace for CO2 trade. The UNEP Risoe Centre has taken part in the sponsoring and planning which includes an open competition for African participants. India, China and Brazil are responsible for 80 percent of all so-called CDM projects today. These projects aim at making developed countries invest in sustainable energy plants in developing countries and then buy a share of the achieved emission reductions thus getting permission to discharge a similar CO2 quota.
So far the African continent has not come very far with respect to this kind of trade, but the conference next week, African Carbon Forum, should remedy this. The organisers expect it to be an annual recurrent event like Global Carbon Expo and the corresponding Latin American Carbon Forum.
The UNEP Risoe Centre plays a central role in the Latin American Carbon Forum and has also put considerable effort into this week's African Forum aimed at people who work with CO2 reducing projects or trade in CO2 quotas.
”CO2 trade is a relatively new and very complex market. Before establishing a wind farm in Tanzania, not only will the promoters have to account for the technical details but also for the CO2 savings compared to a traditional, coal-fired plant. The plants will have to be sold even before they have been started. That is why we need UNEP’s Capacity Development for CDM-program (CD4DCM) to provide help to review quality demands and prepare the account correctly,” says scientist Glenn Stuart Hodes from the UNEP Risoe Centre.
Competition offers the best participants access to the market
UNEP has sponsored around 30 ” free places” to African participants in African Carbon Forum, and they have been very interested in participating. In order to find the persons who would benefit most from the conference, UNEP organised a competition. All suggestions have been screened with regard to certain selection criteria and the winners have had both their travel and admission to the conference paid.
The conference takes three days. There will be lectures for all the participants, workshops in small groups and opportunities to enter into co-operation and trade agreements. In the longer run UNEP hopes that African Carbon Forum will increase the political focus on the fact that the number of African CDM deals on the global market must grow.
Facts
African Carbon Forum has been organised by UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) in cooperation with UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP Risø, the World bank and African Development Bank.
Visit the website of the UNEP Risoe Centre
African Carbon Forum
For further information contact:
John M Christensen, Head of the UNEP Risoe Centre (URC) E-mail John.christensen@risoe.dk +45 40178357
Mette Annelie Rasmussen, UNEP Risø Centre (URC) Outreach and Information Officer, e-mail mette.annelie.rasmussen@risoe.dk +45 4677 5131/ +45 26786718
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