Africa urged to stop selling land, forests on ‘depreciated’ carbon credit market — AFC report

African countries must stop selling land on “depreciated” carbon credit market, and instead the continent should strive to become the global centre for high-value, high-integrity carbon credits, according to a new report from the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).
Released at COP28 by the Nigeria-based AFC, the positioning paper warns that at a critical moment in the fight against climate change, the world is squandering a significant opportunity by neglecting Earth’s most important natural carbon repositories – Africa’s forests, grasslands, peatlands and mangroves. While the global carbon markets potentially offer a pragmatic way to change this course for the better, under the current system too many countries are selling their valuable assets for meager returns, the AFC says. Worse, they risk enabling polluting countries and industries to ignore the burden of their ‘pollution per capita’ responsibilities and justify backsliding on urgent emission reductions.
“Tarnished and depreciated carbon markets” are failing to provide fair value given Africa’s enormous natural resources and must be reformed, says the AFC report. Therefore, it calls on African countries to stop selling land rights cheaply if they are to extract more value from the “tarnished and depreciated” global carbon credits market. It urges Africa’s political and economic leadership to take a strategic approach to harness the full benefits of a viable future carbon market, which Africa must lead. “The fact is the world is enticing Africa to repeat mistakes of the past,” writes Samaila Zubairu, AFC’s president and CEO. “We must take ownership of the conservation and expansion of our forests. We need to create our own carbon emissions reduction value chain with global participation that captures and retains value for Africa and the world for generations,” says Zubairu.