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By BEFANE Brice (BEFANA) Research Officer at the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy and Investments, Author and teacher
Software and electronics engineer
“Today, with the sudden global awareness of environmental concerns that have been raised for decades by nature protection associations and NGOs such as Greenpeace, the debate on the preservation of our planet is once again at the forefront. These questions are all the more relevant as political, geostrategic and economic interests have been added to environmental issues. The environment is profitable. Indeed, a very lucrative market has developed over the years around the themes of preserving forests, marine ecosystems, safeguarding the ice floes and oceans, and protecting animal species.
Global warming is also a current concern. This is why since 1995, more than a hundred countries from around the world have met every year at the COP to discuss the climate and the fight against global warming. Due to the complexity of the subject and the issues behind it, it is a long process that combines environmental, economic, social and diplomatic issues.
The first COP took place in 1995 in Berlin. It sets quantified greenhouse gas emission targets for each country or region and corresponding reductions to be achieved. This quantified commitment is followed by a series of measures and political commitments.
The second COP took place in Geneva in 1996. It took place just after the publication of the second report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which reinforced the charges on the role of greenhouse gas emissions of anthropogenic origin.
In 1997, the Conference of the Parties took place in Kyoto for its third year. For the first time in human history, a binding protocol aiming to regulate the CO2 emissions of more than a hundred countries is drawn up. The objectives are quantified: to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% by 2020, using 1990 as a reference year. For the European Union, this objective translates into a total reduction in its emissions of 8%. (https://www.compteco2.com/).
Along the same lines, in recent years, there has been an increasing need to find mechanisms that could enable organizations and states working to preserve the environment by helping to limit the effects of global warming to make substantial profits rewarding the virtuous practices they promote.
This is how carbon credit schemes were set up. Originally, the carbon credit system also known by the acronym “ETS” for Emissions Trading Schemes was set up in 2005 by the European Union in order to measure, control and reduce emissions from sectors emitting greenhouse gases such as industry and electricians.
In concrete terms, the European carbon market works like this: emission credits are granted for 1 tonne of carbon sequestered or avoided. A carbon credit is therefore equivalent to 1 ton of CO2. It allows its holder to emit more greenhouse gases (compared to the current rate set by the Kyoto protocol) (Source: AGP).
These carbon credits are awarded to states or companies that participate in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It should be understood here that some countries, due to the efforts (environmental policy, legislation) they make to preserve their environment, contribute more than others to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, a country could receive compensation for each ton of carbon it contributes to sequestering, therefore retaining through the absorption of said gas by the equatorial forest or by wetlands, mainly mangroves.
A mainly forested country (around 85% of the territory), Gabon sequestered an additional 3.4 million tonnes of CO2 in 2016 and 2017. From an economic point of view, if we refer to the current value of the carbon credit on the European markets which is €32 (https://www.agoterra.com/), during this period, the sale of carbon credits could have contributed to the State budget to the tune of €108,800,000, or 71,388,895,882 CFA francs according to the current Euro exchange rate.
These are only projections that do not detract from the tremendous economic potential that carbon credits represent for so-called green countries like ours. Such cash contributions could, however, help to successfully complete the many development projects (construction of roads, schools, universities and hospitals, water supply, electricity and Internet supply) which are all challenges for the new authorities of the republic.
What is not at all a figment of the imagination is that Gabon, our country, was the first African country to receive in June 2021 a results-based payment for the reduction of its emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation. This first payment is made within the framework of the historic agreement signed in 2019 between Gabon and international partners for 150 million US dollars over ten years under the aegis of the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), a multi-donor fund managed by the United Nations.
Carbon credits could constitute an additional source of foreign currency for Gabon if certain prerequisites are met.
First, it is necessary to refine national expertise in this area, by directing students, academics and professionals towards specific training on these themes on the one hand.
It is necessary to allow compatriots who wish to do so to invest in professional circles (conferences, trade fairs, international meetings) devoted to environmental issues, but especially to carbon credits, and to set up mechanisms that would facilitate the emergence of an ecosystem of national actors specializing in the issue, on the other hand. The goal here is to have a pool of local experts available.
This would concretely involve the creation of a fund that would finance initiatives in this direction. This fund could also award scholarships to our young compatriots wishing to flourish in environmental issues. This fund would be directly financed by the sale of carbon credits. Once again, the potential is enormous since according to the report of the National Climate Council entitled SECOND NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTION (2nd NDC) 2020-2025, “Gabon currently absorbs around 100 million net tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (103 million tCO2eq in 2020). Over the last decade, Gabon has thus absorbed a little over a billion net tonnes of CO2eq and increased its net sequestration capacity by around 100 million tonnes. Gabon has increased its net absorptions, where most countries have experienced a net increase in their emissions.
[1] Said of a landscape, a soil, a relief whose formation results essentially from human intervention (definition from the Larousse dictionary).