2010/11/14

(BN) Kenya to Establish Africa’s First Carbon Trading Program in 2011

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Kenya to Establish Africa's First Carbon Trading Program in 2011
2010-11-12 17:55:05.917 GMT


By Lauren van der Westhuizen and Sarah McGregor
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Kenya will establish Africa's first
emissions trading program next year to take advantage of revenue
from carbon credits, a Finance Ministry economist said.
The Nairobi Climate Exchange would serve east and southern
Africa and eventually all of the continent, Erastus Wahome,
chief economist at the ministry's economic affairs department,
said today by phone from Nairobi, the capital.
"The scheme will be piloted by the end of June 2011 and
will roll-out in a period of five years with the support of
fiscal transfers from the central budget," Patrick Karani,
director of the Bureau of Environmental Analysis, said today.
The Nairobi-based non-profit organization provides consulting
services to the government on how such a climate exchange
platform could work in the context of the Kenyan economy.
BEA will advise the government on the best regulatory
framework for a trading program in climate and carbon
commodities and establish policies to guide its development,
Karani said in an e-mailed statement.
It will aid the ministry to identify and prepare a
portfolio of carbon projects in Kenya so that European and U.S.
companies looking to offset their emissions can easily find a
project to invest in, he said.
The Kenyan government has allocated 2 billion shillings
($24 million) in the current fiscal year to develop a policy
around carbon trading and initiatives to generate CO2 credits,
Wahome said.

For Related News and Information:
More clean energy and carbon news: GREEN <GO>
Top stories in Kenya: TNI KENYA <GO>

--Editors: Randall Hackley, Jonas Bergman

To contact the reporter on this story:
Lauren van der Westhuizen at +27-21-410-0222 or at
lvanderwesth@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net.