NAIROBI, March 4 (NNN-KBC) — President Mwai Kibaki of kenya has urged African countries to strategically position themselves to fully benefit from the lucrative carbon trade that presently stands at billions of dollars annually.

Addressing the Second Africa Carbon Forum at the United Nations Office here, he urged African scholars to use scientific evidence to demonstrate the real value of forests in carbon reduction in order to negotiate binding Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM).

The president noted that according to the Stockholm Environment Institute, the global carbon market was currently worth 126 billion USD and projected to be worth 2.0 trillion to 3.0 trillion USD by the year 2020.

“For Africa to benefit from this massive global market, the private sector, civil society and communities must play a major role. We must not lose sight of our internal responsibilities and abilities which could also enable us to internalize an African CDM market.”

The president also urged the forum to come up with recommendations to ensure that Africa became competitive in the carbon market and trade, and also guarantee that part of the benefits accrued were channeled to local communities as well as environmental conservation programmes.

Locally, he said, the government had developed a national climate change response strategy detailing measures to address the adverse effects of climate change on a longer-term basis.

During the forum President Kibaki also articulated the need for African countries to develop national strategies to combat climate change as they seek the support of developed countries. “We ought to bear in mind that addressing the impacts of climate change is about our countries and the survival of our people,” he stressed.

At the same time, he called on the continent to advocate for all nations to demonstrate the required political will to undertake greenhouse gas emission reduction targets as recommended by the 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Noting that Africa bore the brunt of climate change in spite of accounting for a very small proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, he said: “Our continent has benefited the least from the Clean Development Mechanisms. There is urgent need for us to critically examine the fundamental impediments to the flow of these Mechanisms into Africa.”

Africa, he emphasized, must actively be involved in negotiations and development of new international mechanisms in order to ensure African countries are adequately catered for in terms of benefiting from the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM).

Noting that forestry and land-use are two areas where Africa has comparative advantage and potential to benefit from new funding avenues, President Kibaki regretted that these two areas had not been anchored within the Clean Development Mechanisms.

He also said the success of the CDM market would depend on a global commitment and will to comprehensively address all aspects of CDM mechanisms, particularly emission reductions and financial support to developing countries.

Meanwhile, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in a new assessment published Wednesday, said Africa had more than 120 carbon market projects that were either up and running or in the pipeline in areas ranging from wind power to forestry schemes.

The study showed that, however, in comparison with the rest of the world, the continent was still lagging behind, with the potential for clean and green energy largely under-exploited while growth in CDM projects under the Kyoto Protocol remained uneven.

The carbon market projects were dominated by the larger economies such as Egypt and South Africa which had 32 and 13 projects respectively. In Kenya and Uganda the number of projects up and running, or in the pipeline has jumped from two in 2007, to 15 and 12 respectively.

In comparison, many countries on the continent such as Zambia, Madagascar, Cameroon and Mali only have one or two. Equatorial Guinea was among several countries which had none.

These were among the findings compiled by the UNEP Risoe Centre during the opening of the 2nd Africa Carbon Forum.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The growth of the carbon markets in Africa are both cause for optimism, and cause for concern. On the one hand, the work of UNEP and a myriad of other partners on capacity building, catalyzing finance and other barrier-breaking initiatives have been bearing fruit among an ever wider range of countries.

“But in order to realize only a few percentage points more of the massive potential for wind, solar, biomass and waste into energy schemes, action across a range of challenges needs to be stepped up.” — NNN-KBC

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