Carbon Trading Comes to Africa

Africa, which emits only a tiny fraction of the world’s greenhouse gases, can nonetheless play a role in slowing global warming. That’s the claim of governments and investors who are meeting this week at the Africa Carbon Forum in Senegal. Convened by the United Nations and the International Emissions Trading Association, the forum aims to pair clean-energy projects in developing countries with investors who want to earn carbon credits to offset their pollution elsewhere. Proposals in search of money include a wind farm in Senegal, an Ivory Coast biofuel project, and a solar university in Nigeria. “Although Africa is tiny in terms of its contributing to the problem, it can potentially make a huge contribution to the solution,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change. But critics allege “greenwashing,” saying some African carbon-credit projects are unnecessary or environmentally harmful.