Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, and now a board member of the Belarus African Foreign Trade Association, announced that the association will list the first carbon credits on a newly created exchange in Zimbabwe.
Zuma said on Friday at a carbon-credit conference in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls, that the Belarus-African association has allocated 2 million carbon credits to start trade on the Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market.
"I have the memorandum of intent of these carbon offsets, which have been certified and validated," the former South African leader said. "This is our pledge to kick-start the process."
One carbon credit corresponds to one metric ton of greenhouse gas-emitting carbon dioxide or its equivalent that is either eliminated or prevented from escaping into the atmosphere. The credits are purchased by businesses to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions as stricter regulations force them to take more responsibility for slowing global warming.
The global trade in carbon credits is expected to increase from $2Bln now to as much as $1 trillion within the next 15 years, according to BloombergNEF estimates.
During the forum, Zuma discussed the effect of climate change on Africa, emphasizing its global nature. He described the new carbon market, part of the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange, as an Africa-centric solution to the problem of global warming.
"Climate change is a global challenge that does not respect national borders," Zuma said. "Emissions affect people everywhere. It does not pick and choose any type of person. It attacks all types of persons."
African countries are working together to establish common standards and guidelines for gaining access to the carbon credit market, which could provide financing for their climate action plans.
To facilitate this, Zimbabwe hosted the first Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market Forum in Victoria Falls. The Zimbabwean government is working to transform the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange into a major hub for carbon credit trading in Africa.
According to Justin Bgoni, chief executive of the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange, the organization is at present in talks with the Zimbabwean government and an unidentified partner to start trading carbon offsets.