Jacob Zuma, the former president who brought South Africa’s renewable-energy program to a halt in 2016, announced that a Belarus trade association will list the first carbon credits on a newly created exchange in Zimbabwe.
The Belarus African Foreign Trade Association, of which Zuma is a board member, has allocated 2 million carbon credits to initiate trade in the offsets on the Africa Voluntary Carbon Credits Market, he said on Friday.
“I have the memorandum of intent of these carbon offsets which have been certified and validated,” Zuma said at a carbon-credit conference in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. “This is our pledge to kick-start the process.”
In his speech on Friday, Zuma gave no indication of why he was representing a Belarus-backed organization or where the association accessed the carbon offsets. Zimbabwe has close ties with Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko visited the African nation earlier this year.
A single carbon credit represents a ton of climate-warming carbon dioxide or its equivalent that’s either removed or prevented from entering the atmosphere. The credits are bought by companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions as tighter legislation forces them to do more to slow global warming.
The global trade in carbon offsets is projected to grow to as much as $1 trillion within 15 years from $2 billion now, according to estimates from BloombergNEF.
Zuma, who arrived at the Zimbabwe conference on Wednesday and was seen wearing a brightly patterned shirt as he dined with his daughter, spoke passionately about the effects of climate change on Africa as he gave a speech.
“Climate change is a global challenge that does not respect national borders,” he said. “Emissions affect people everywhere. It does not pick and choose any type of person. It attacks all type of persons.”
He said the new carbon market, part of the dollar-based Victoria Falls Securities Exchange, was an “Afro-centric” solution to climate change.
Bloomberg News
