THE African continent is trailing behind with projects aimed at fighting climate change as provided under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.

This was said by the Assistant Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Namibia and Head of its Environment Unit, Martha Mwandingi, in Windhoek recently.

This, according to her, is due to a misconception that CDM is too difficult to understand.

"CDM is really all about development, but some in the private sector are not aware of the benefits and opportunities which they can get from it," she said.

CDM is one of the arrangements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which allows industrialised country companies to invest in green-house gas reduction projects in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emissions reduction in their own countries. This scheme allows them to earn carbon credits, called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs).

Other schemes include the Joint Implementation, European Union Trading Scheme and Voluntary Carbon Markets.

Mwandingi said at the moment there are very few CDM projects in Africa, compared to countries such China, India, Brazil and South Korea, which account for over 70 per cent of all CDM projects.

By January 2009, countries like Namibia, Zambia and Malawi did not have a single CDM project, whereas Kenya was leading with eight projects, Tanzania had six and Mozambique had one.

"Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for two per cent of registered projects and four per cent of CERs through to 2012," she said.

Globally, the number of projects in the CDM pipeline from January 2005 to January 2009 numbered about 4 660. This has created a CDM market worth US$8 billion per year over four years.

Mwandingi said it is also a misconception that Africa offers few CDM opportunities.

She said CDM is more than just heavy industries - projects can range from generating cleaner energy through the use of renewables (such as hydro and wind-power) to supply electricity to the grid, local communities and commercial facilities and the use of biomass for bio-gas energy generation.

The Kyoto Protocol binds 38 industrialised countries to reducing their green-house gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2012, the year in which the Protocol expires.

Carbon dioxide (which is released through the burning of fossil fuels) has been singled out as the main gas warming the world's atmosphere, thus causing climate change.

Martha Mwandingi was a speaker at the Climate Change Symposium, organised by Nedbank's Go Green Fund, in Windhoek recently. Her topic was 'The Global Carbon Market & The Clean Development Mechanism: Opportunities for Africa.'

She said climate change is a reality that will continue to impact across resource sectors.

Environment and Tourism Minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said Africa and Namibia in particular, had not fully benefited from technology transfer and capacity building as provided under the Kyoto Protocol.

She called for a simplification of CDM technologies and an increased coverage of small-scale CDM projects targeted for small economies and developing countries.

Namibia is a party to the UNFCCC and participates in convention meetings and ongoing negotiations to bring about a more robust agreement at COP 15th, scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark, at the end of this year and which will replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.