Africa: Building capacity to attract carbon markets
Industrialised countries can earn greenhouse gas emission reduction credits by investing in projects that lower emission levels in developing countries, but little of this money has found its way into Africa.
This could be about to change. On 6 December at the climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) announced that efforts were being made to direct more money into Africa.
Industrialised countries can earn the credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), one of three options offered by the Kyoto Protocol to meet their emission reduction targets. They are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least five percent against a 1990 baseline in the Protocol's first commitment phase, which expires in 2012.
