Friday, 09 December

Dear <<First Name>>

There was encouraging news for carbon markets this week with the launch of a new database aiming to tackle issues around transparency and quality control.

Although regulated markets such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have always had transparent registries, the voluntary market is far more opaque due to the proprietary nature of voluntary standards. This has prompted important questions over the environmental integrity of projects and “double counting” that have served to stifle the market’s growth.

The Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) is a global tracking system co-founded by the World Bank and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) that links, aggregates and harmonises all major carbon registry data in one place. With this free and publicly available data, people will be able to get a better sense of what is happening across different programmes all over the world.

This is a good thing. At Camco, we believe in the transformative power of markets, and that the innovation that carbon markets - and also renewable energy credits for that matter - can bring to the deployment of a carbon price will help drive behaviour towards a low-carbon future. We also believe in robust markets that are sustainable and deliver environment integrity and thus support the CAD Trust as a means to increase transparency and avoid any perception of double counting.

Much of the talk on Article 6 at COP27 was dedicated to the same issue of getting the record keeping right for 6.2 and 6.4. For more on that, watch Karl Upston-Hooper’s interview with IETA President and CEO, Dirk Forrister, filmed at the climate conference. 

Cheers 

Geoff Sinclair

Managing Director, Camco 

West Africa

Ghana/Sierra Leone: SEFA finances studies for two biomass plants (Afrik 21)
- The fund is providing a repayable grant of USD1 million to NewAfrica Impact to carry out two feasibility studies for the plants. 

Renewables: ECOWAS signs MoU for USD787,000 of sustainable energy (ESI Africa)
- The ECOWAS Commission has signed an agreement with the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation to support gender, agriculture and sustainable energy development.  

The Gambia: Government pays D28 milion for additional electrification (AllAfrica)
- The funding for the country's flagship Programme for Accelerated Community Development Rural Electrification Project will allow the project to extend electrification to seven additional villages in the North Bank Region.

East Africa

Djibouti: CWP Global signs renewables and green hydrogen agreement (PV Tech)
- The renewables company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Djibouti to develop a 10GW renewable and green hydrogen hub in the country.

Southern Africa

South Africa: Canadian Solar secures 256MW module supply deal (PV Tech)
- The company has signed the agreement with South African independent power producer SOLA Group.

Africa - other

Climate: ACCF launches women and youth entrepreneurship project (AfDB)
- The Africa Climate Change Fund Secretariat has launched the scheme to support mechanisms for climate adaptation finance that will develop innovative, transformative climate-resilient bankable projects aligned with African countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions.

Green finance: African Development Fund mobilises USD8.9 billion for Africa’s low-income countries (AfDB)
- Development partners have agreed to commit the amount to the ADF's 2023 to 2025 financing cycle in what is the largest replenishment in the history of the fund.

Solar: New deal to increase energy access across Sub-Saharan Africa (ESI Africa)
- Symbiotics Investment has arranged for a USD10 million green bond for Proparco to on-lend to Greenlight Planet for its off-grid solar systems sales. 

Pacific

Climate: Nations unite as historic climate justice vote draws near (Pina)
- An alliance of activists and organisations held a climate justice flotilla sailing past the UN HQ and the Statue of Liberty with banners calling on countries to vote yes to the Vanuatu-led bid for an International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on climate change at the UN General Assembly.

Rest of the world

Finance: Vanguard quits climate alliance in blow to net zero project (FT)
- The world’s second-largest asset manager cites investor ‘confusion’ amid increase in criticism from Republicans. 

Renewables: Sector’s growth is being turbocharged, says IEA (IEA)
- According to Renewables 2022, the latest edition of the IEA’s annual report on the sector, the global energy crisis has triggered unprecedented momentum behind renewables, with the world set to add as much renewable power in the next 5 years as it did in the last 20. 

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