African Carbon Support Program Looks Back At COP17 and Ahead to 2012 (AfDB)

15 December 2011
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African Development Bank (Abidjan)
press release

After extended negotiations, the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban concluded with the adoption of the "Durban Platform," a set of decisions that lay the groundwork for adopting a legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, and no later than 2015. Governments, including those from 35 industrialized countries, also agreed on a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol from 1 January 2013. Parties to this second period will submit their quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives for review by 1 May 2012.

"This is highly significant because the Kyoto Protocol's accounting rules, mechanisms and markets all remain in action as effective tools to leverage global climate action and as models to inform future agreements, "stated Ms. Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

This means that mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) will remain operational beyond the end of 2012. The CDM allows projects that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in developing countries to attract financing from the global carbon markets. The African Development Bank's (AfDB) African Carbon Support Program (ACSP) works to increase the number of CDM-registered projects in Africa.

In 2012, the ACSP is moving forward with four projects it has selected from AfDB's portfolio to receive advance CDM project cycle support. They are an Ethiopia-Kenya hydro power interconnection project, the Itezhi Tezhi hydro power project in Zambia, a project to develop cable propelled cars in Lagos, Nigeria and the Ouarzazate concentrated solar power project in Morocco.

The ACSP is assisting project owners in securing funds to cover transactions costs from potential carbon credits buyers and other instruments and hire a qualified consultant for project design development and validation, quality control and registration. These projects are expected to be registered before the end of December 2012.

The ACSP plans to continue screening projects mainly from least developed countries (LDC) for their CDM potential as they arise in 2012 and to initiate CDM capacity building and technical assistance programs in select regional member countries.

Read the original article on African Development Bank (AfDB).

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