THE AFRICA CARBON MARKETS INITIATIVE - A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING

24 The African Carbon Markets Initiative The assumption of a carbon market existing in 2050 means surrendering to an acceptance of climate breakdown: If companies are still seeking to buy carbon credits overseas by mid-century the market will have failed to deliver the desired climate objectives of the carbon market. [...] Yet, the plan of the ACMI is to massively expand this logic and mindset, favouring maximisation of tonnes of carbon over and above the development needs of the African people. [...] A study commissioned by Carbon Market Watch75 found the market extremely opaque, and that the lack of transparency made it extremely difficult to track a credit price from the payment made to the credit producing project to the price paid by the offsetting company. [...] Analysis from DeSMog shows that the chief beneficiary of growing voluntary carbon markets “may not be the climate — but the bankers and brokers betting that carbon trading is on the cusp of exponential growth.”77 Registries preside over the market and the legitimacy of the credits that offset projects generate. [...] We therefore recommend that African governments and supporting companies to call for an alternative ‘polluters pays’ fund that is run and implemented from Africa, which: » Shortens the connections between polluting companies making the payment and projects in Africa, removing the market brokers and most of the middlemen, and maximising the resource transfer to the projects.