BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Carbon-trading deals involving forestry projects in developing countries could reduce poverty at the same time as they offer an inexpensive way to off-set carbon dioxide emissions. Under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized nations are allowed to meet part of their carbon emission reduction commitments by carrying out reforestation and clean energy projects in developing countries.
Ethiopia aims to accomplish key economic goals while reducing GHG emissions through efforts that include carbon trading. It’s Climate- Resilient-Green- Economy Strategy (CRGE) launched in 2012 underpins the country’s goal to become net carbon neutral by 2025. Experts estimate that such an accomplishment would involve the country in doubling its forest cover to around 30 percent of its landmass which makes it a daunting task.
The Ethiopian government has adopted and commenced the implementation of a UN initiative called REDD+[ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and (+) the role of sustainable management of forests, conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries ].
REDD+-Ethiopia considers carbon trading as financial tool as well as one of the benefits of the efforts being made towards implementing CRGE. So REDD+ can be taken as one of the instruments of CRGE being used to address the problems that the forest sector is facing presently. A country of a large expanse of deforested lands and degraded lands suitable for forest restoration, Ethiopia has a huge potential for REDD+ implementation resulting in accumulation of huge quantity of Carbon Credits that can be monetized in the Carbon market.
Ethiopia is not a stranger to carbon trading, now it is trying to do it in huge scale by implementing REDD+. Carbon Trading afforestation projects are a feasible income earning opportunity for farmers in Africa to diversify their agricultural enterprises and to get the most out of ,if any, their underutilized lands. However making a project qualified to get Carbon Credit is not an easy ride.
Policy and development agents at all levels should make sure that farmers get the required financial and technical supports to be effectively link to existing carbon markets. A policy environment that enables the necessary institutional mechanisms for community participation would be needed for the carbon trading afforestation contracts to work and bear fruits.
The use of forests to reduce emissions is not only financially viable, but could also bring significant benefits to the local communities involved. For Ethiopia, carbon trading also represents an opportunity to fund sustainable through financial inflows. However, with a low share of global carbon trade, there are strong concerns that Ethiopia is losing out this valuable opportunity. Markets for environmental services have been growing in recent years wherein more and more people are willing to pay for carbon project benefits.
For instance, Ethiopia after a project’s successful achievement of reducing deforestation and polluting gases in Bale and West Oromia, gained over 149 million birr from carbon trading sold through REDD+.
In a platform organized to promote carbon trading, Oromia Forest and Wild Animals Development Enterprise Director, Ararsa Regassa said that comprehensive work is being undertaken to ensure the public benefit from natural resources.
The project Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, plus the sustainable management of forests, and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) has made significant impact in natural resource development and conservation, he added.
According to him, by avoiding the emission of 5.5 metric tons of carbon, the country gained 149 million birr from carbon trading.
Some 60 percent of the money gained from carbon trading will be used for the enterprises sustainable forest development and conservation while the remaining will be apportioned among 36 natural resource cooperatives.
It is to be recalled that the World Bank (WB) paid 34,000 dollars for the purchase of carbon credit from the Humbo Community Based Forest Management Project, marking the first ever incident of carbon trade in Ethiopia.
“Reducing deforestation and improving livelihood of local communities that depend on forest resources will ensure that carbon credit can be sold to the likes of World Bank, Norway and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),” said Yitbetu Moges, Ethiopia’s national representative for REDD+ at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Forestry. Most of the money will be invested in rural development as part of anti-poverty, pro-forest, rural economy-oriented programs, he said.
The Oromia Forested Landscape Program will also look at studies commissioned by the Ethiopian government and World Bank that analyze drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.
Oromia has experience with reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through the Bale Mountains Eco-Region Project. Bale National Park is a global biodiversity hotspot. It was the first large-scale REDD+ project in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s goal is to become net carbon neutral by 2025. It aims to accomplish this through efforts that include carbon trading. This would involve the country doubling its forest cover to around 30 percent of its landmass.
Ethiopia established the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto protocol, which requires countries to create carbon sinks by planting trees on degraded land. The 2,700-hectare Humbo CDM carbon project in Ethiopia’s south was envisaged as a carbon sink program through which carbon was quantified and brought to the international market for purchase, with the World Bank as the primary client.
Ethiopia has failed to make the most of Clean Development Mechanism benefits, which allow emission reduction projects in developing countries to sell certified emission reduction (CER) credits, according to Zerihun Dejene, environmental program coordinator at local Ethiopian nonprofit PHE (Population, Health, Environment). Certified emission reduction credits can be either traded or sold to progress toward emission reduction goals.
It requires a tedious procedure and substantial investment and resources to make marketable carbon credits, Dejene said. Even then, a prospective buyer might reject them.
With the price of one ton of carbon decreasing from a high of $30 to less than $1 over the last decade, the lifespan of Clean Development Mechanism naturally came to an end. Yet even though Clean Development Mechanism was phased out when the historic Paris Agreement on climate change became effective in November 2016, the Humbo carbon project remains. Registered in 2009 with a 30-year lifespan, it is the only significant carbon finance project currently active in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia isn’t pinning its green economy hopes solely on a carbon trade strategy, though. It is also using other schemes such as constructing electric trains and other green energy projects. The country has already built Africa’s first electric trans-boundary railway project, the 467- mile Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, as well as the 20-mile Addis Ababa light rail project.
But proponents say the carbon trading projects can’t come soon enough. “At the moment we’re losing five times more forest than we’re planting,” Moges said.
When reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) goes operational, revenue earned by carbon trading goes directly to the local community while helping prevent floods and droughts that regularly cause misery in Ethiopia, he said.
“If Ethiopia is strategic in protecting its environment, natural resources like abundant water can be sold just as oil,” Moges said. “The difference being the former is renewable, and through this revenue it can power its industrialization, boost tourism, boost electricity generation thereby creating a wealthy green economy.”
The Ethiopian Herald 13 April 2021
