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Second all-Africa Carbon Forum to be held in Nairobi, Kenya on 3-5 March 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 13, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Conference, Trade Fair and Capacity Development to build on CDM gains on continent – IETA, UNEP, UNDP, WB, UNITAR, UNCTAD and UNFCCC

In an effort to build on growing interest in the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism (CDM) in Africa, partner UN agencies and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) have announced they will organize a second all-Africa Carbon Forum, at the United Nations Gigiri complex in Nairobi, Kenya, on 3-5 March 2010.

In November 2006, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Nairobi Framework, aimed at spreading the benefits of the CDM. Since then, interest in the mechanism in Africa has grown, and with it the number of projects and hosting countries. Still, Africa accounts for less than 2 per cent of the more than 1,890 plus CDM projects registered to date in 58 countries.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), expressed his satisfaction with the announcement.

“The world is now focused on the urgent task of negotiating a comprehensive, fair and effective climate change deal at Copenhagen in December. Meanwhile, the clean development mechanism – a clear success of the Protocol – continues to create incentive for investment in climate change mitigation and generate funds for adaptation,” said Mr. de Boer.

That the private sector is anxious to see another carbon market event in Africa “is a good indication of CDM’s potential on the continent. It’s important that that potential is showcased and capitalized on, for the good of those countries that have yet to reap the full benefits of the mechanism,” he said.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, which is headquartered in Nairobi, said: “I am delighted that the second all-Africa Carbon Forum is being hosted here in East Africa. Kenya is a developing economy with a huge potential for carbon market projects, from the 7,000 MW-potential of geothermal whose development is now expanding up the Great Rift Valley to the emergence of big wind farms and the vast latent potential of solar.”

Success of the Nairobi Framework will depend on close collaboration between the Framework partners and the private sector, said IETA president Henry Derwent, whose association of more than 170 international companies “is excited to be bringing the Carbon Forum back to Africa.” IETA was a co-organizer of the first all-Africa Carbon Forum, in Senegal in September 2008.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank (WB), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(UNCTAD) and the UNFCCC secretariat have joined to implement the Nairobi Framework.

Under the CDM, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to sustainable development can earn saleable certified emission reduction credits (CERs). Countries with a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol can use CERs to meet a part of their obligations under the Protocol.

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About the UNFCCC
With 192 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 190 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction committments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.


About the CDM

There are currently more than 1890 registered CDM projects in 58 countries, and about another 2300 projects in the project validation/registration pipeline. Based on estimates in submitted project design documents, the CDM could generate more than 2.9 billion certified emission reductions by the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, each equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide.
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