Nice read....poor countries encouraged to sell CC's
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Saturday, 12 December 2009
Tanzania: Sell 'Carbon Credits', Poor Nations Told
Posted by NGO News Africa on: Saturday, December 12, 2009
Developing countries can effectively cut global emissions of heat-trapping gases while raising their incomes. That can be done through preventing deforestation.
According to an agribusiness and climate change consultant based in Kenya, Mr Peter Kagode, developing countries can sell "carbon credits" to industrialised countries which fail to meet emission limits imposed under international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol.
An avoided deforestation initiative could be worth more than $100 million a year to Tanzania, depending on how much deforestation it could "avoid" and the market price for carbon offsets.
This is based on a market rate of $4 per a tonne of carbon dioxide -the current trading price of Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). CCX is the first US voluntary pilot programme for trading of greenhouse gases but prices are much higher than the CCX level in Europe.
Between 2000 and 2005, Tanzania lost an average of 352,570 hectares of forest a year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. But, even as the policymakers, business people and environmental activists see the potential of the initiative, some fear how the deal could be made possible in the country without setbacks.
Envirocare Tanzania environmental officer Abdallah Mkindi supports the initiative in principle, but calls for the launch of a campaign to raise awareness on how indigenous communities can take part in the conservation efforts without negatively impacting on their daily lives.
"It also depends on what species to be planted, because we must preserve our indigenous species even as we rush into unlocking the potential of carbon trade," he said.
The initiative, put forth in 2003 by a coalition that now includes 15 developing countries, calls for compensation from industrialised nations in exchange for tropical forest conservation.
Source: The Citizen
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