Although sub-Sahara Africa
is responsible for only 2 percent of global GHG emissions it should not loose
out on the sustainable development market. "Only about two percent of the
entire CDM projects worldwide are in Africa
which is unacceptably low in contrast to 45 percent located in China,
16 percent in India
and 13 percent in Chile,"
head of Nigeria-based International Centre for Energy, Environment and
Development Ewah Otu Eleri said recently. To date Africa has just 53 of 3,902 projects worldwide -- just
1.4 percent of the total, and nine times smaller than its share of global
carbon dioxide emissions, according to a World Bank study released in Dakar on Wednesday September 3 2008.
Critics have argued that Africa gets a small fraction of the CDM
intervention because it offers smaller emissions reduction potential compared
to Asia and Latin America. i.e., countries
with higher economic growth also attract more investment.
That the
CDM benefits the great emerging economies of China and India, among others, more than Africa because of their fast rate of development and
stable conditions for investment.
Africa must grasp funds generated by carbon credit trading to pay for cleaner low
carbon energy and help fight climate change that threatens to undo years of
economic development, Yvo de Boer, the UN climate chief said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the first pan-African carbon-trading forum designed in part to
match specialist investors with low-emission projects in Africa,
de Boer added "If you look at the potential impacts of climate change
those are likely to undo many of the investments that have been made to
eradicate poverty, so I think dealing with climate change is an economic
imperative,"
Experts see a market for carbon dioxide
allowances and emission reduction credits eventually developing into the
world's largest commodities exchange, rivalling oil trading.
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