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

Isramart news:
Conference, Trade Fair and Capacity Development to build on CDM gains on continent — IETA, UNEP, UNDP, WB, UNITAR, UNCTAD AfDB and UNFCCC

The programme is set and the list of participants is growing fast for the second all-Africa Carbon Forum, set to take place at the United Nations Gigiri complex in Nairobi, Kenya, 3–5 March.


The forum, an initiative of the Nairobi Framework partner UN agencies and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), will build on the growing interest in the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) in Africa.


Under the CDM, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to sustainable development can earn saleable certified emission reduction credits. Thus, the CDM is stimulating investment in clean, sustainable development, while helping to address climate change.


Countries are eager to scale up and extend the benefits of the CDM to more countries. The all-Africa Carbon Forum, which will bring together project developers, buyers, service providers, national CDM representatives and various other private and public sector stakeholders, is an important part of that effort.


The more than 500 expected participants will include some 60 national representatives – so-called CDM designated national authorities and national focal points – from more than 30 African countries. The conference programme is focused on topics of special interest to CDM in Africa with the expressed intention of catalyzing CDM activity on the continent – emerging opportunities in the area of agriculture, forestry and land use; carbon finance in waste management; reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in Africa; opportunities for renewable energy; Africa-friendly methodologies and programmes of multiple CDM project activities; and raising capacity of CDM stakeholders, to name a few topics.


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 2,040 plus CDM projects registered to date in 62 countries.


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), the African Development Bank and the UNFCCC secretariat have joined to implement the Nairobi Framework.



About the CDM


There are currently 2045 registered CDM projects in 62 developing countries, and about another 2200 projects in the project validation/registration pipeline. The projects registered to date are expected to generate more than 1.7 billion certified emission reductions

(CERs) by the time the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, each equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide.