Kenya misses out on carbon trading billions

For example, redesigning the office to be more lit and, therefore, use less electricity will first benefit the company through reduced power bills and money from sale of the carbon market will become additional revenue.

The global carbon market involves sale of what are known as Carbon Emission Reduction (CER) units, with one unit being made up of one tonne of carbon dioxide that a project has succeeded in preventing from being released into the atmosphere.

One CER costs $10 or Sh760 based on Wednesday’s exchange rate. But this price changes depending on the players involved.

Lack of adequate skills to design viable carbon market projects is being attributed to failure by the government to set up a coordinating authority on climate change investment projects in Kenya that could play the role of promotion, awareness and capacity building.

Such an authority exists in South Africa, the leading African country in ownership of the number of carbon market projects.

Martin Takalani, a senior official of the South African authority under the Department of Energy said the country has 136 carbon market projects, of which 30 are already earning money. Kenya is second with 15 projects and it is not clear how many are earning from the carbon trading market.

National Environment Management Authority (Nema) is charged with the responsibility of being a focal point in coordinating carbon market projects, but the industry said the authority is not visible in the Kenya’s carbon market circles.