Key challenges for carbon credit project development in Africa

Carbon credits have become an essential tool in the fight against climate change. They allow individuals and companies to offset their carbon emissions by investing in projects that reduce emissions and promote sustainable development. However, the development of carbon credits in Africa faces a number of key challenges that need to be addressed to unlock the full potential of this market.

Project Development

One of the major challenges is the limited mechanisms available to de-risk and enable investment in project development and supply. This includes the lack of futures contracts, project supply-chain financing, and insurance, which make it difficult for project developers to secure funding and manage risks. High intermediation costs also reduce the revenue share for carbon credit suppliers, making it less attractive to invest in projects.

Another challenge is the shifting and confusing demand trends that could impact common African carbon credit types. For example, there is confusion around the role of avoidance credit types for high-integrity offsets, which could impact demand and pricing.

Pricing may not accurately reflect the value of African carbon credits and their co-benefits, such as energy access and biodiversity. This can make it difficult for project developers to secure funding and create viable business models.

Concerns about the integrity of certain credit types, such as emissions reduction/avoidance related to fossil fuel transition, also limit investment and project development.

Finally, there is a high reliance on relationships, brokers, and traders to bring supply to the market, which can create inefficiencies and limit access to funding.

Financing

Another challenge is the limited number of project developers operating in Africa and the low capacity of existing developers. There are gaps in carbon market expertise, implementation capabilities, local expertise, and core business capabilities, which can make it difficult to develop and implement projects.

The high capital intensity for project development and the complex and unfavorable regulatory landscape, such as related to land rights, concessions, and credits ownership, also create barriers to entry.

Methodologies are not always relevant for Africa, such as limited methodologies related to pastureland or diesel replacement, or technology use not designed for Africa. High certification, validation, and verification costs and long lead times further limit investment and project development.

Fragmented ownership of/access to credit-generating assets and insufficient local validation/verification capacity, including a lack of African-based validation/verification bodies, also pose challenges.

Finally, there is a high degree of local relationships and community buy-in required to ensure project success, which can be difficult to establish and maintain.

Validation/Certification

Distrust of project-based REDD+ opportunities vs. jurisdictional projects and lower ease of doing business in some areas due to factors such as lack of infrastructure further complicate validation and certification.

Conclusion

Addressing these challenges is critical to unlocking the full potential of carbon credit development in Africa. Solutions include creating new de-risking mechanisms, reducing intermediation costs, and creating more relevant methodologies. Financing and regulatory barriers can be addressed through capacity building, simplifying regulations, and creating new funding mechanisms. Finally, improving validation and certification processes and creating more African-based validation/verification bodies can increase trust and reduce costs. By addressing these challenges, carbon credit development in Africa can play a key role in achieving sustainable development and mitigating climate change.