The Paris Agreement: The future relevance of UNFCC-backed carbon markets for Africa

The African Group has emerged as a key voice calling for the continuation of successful elements of the CDM to be transferred into the PA and should be influential in shaping the transition from the current CDM to the mechanisms established in the Paris Agreement. Our policy brief analyses the future relevance of UNFCCC-backed carbon markets for Africa in light of decisions made in Paris.

We conclude that market mechanisms will continue to be an important part of the multilateral climate regime after 2020. Beneficial for Africa would be the swift operationalization of Article 6.4, building on the modalities and procedures of the CDM and advancing those CDM reform elements that have worked for Africa.

It is now crucial to clarify which existing CDM activities can be transferred into the regulatory environment of the Paris Agreement. Moreover, further measures to strengthen investment certainty are proposed, including through innovative linkages with climate financing institutions. Recommendations are provided both for the UNFCCC negotiations as well as for mobilising new investments.

The policy brief has been published with the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), the central hub for demand-led knowledge generation on climate change in Africa and an integral part of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) program. ClimDev-Africa is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). This policy brief has been realized with the support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) in the context of an ongoing project to strengthen the African CDM Pipeline.