Gabon One Forest Summit: Rwanda seeks to learn from other countries about Carbon Market
TAN Reporter
Rwanda’s Minister of Environment Dr. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya has announced her country’s plan to enter the Carbon Market as it reaches 30.4% of the National Forests Cover. She made the comment during an interview held at the sideline of the ongoing “One Forest Summit” taking place in Gabon.
This summit is a key moment to move forward on climate action and the preservation of biodiversity, by promoting solidarity between the three major forest basins on a global scale: the Amazon forest, the Congo basin and the tropical forests of South East Asia.
By sequestering millions of tonnes of CO2, these forest basins play a critical role in regulating the climate.
“Rwanda is going to benefit a lot from this summit. There are a lot of planned topics of discussions including the one on carbon market. I think you know that in Rwanda there is a national plan to consider how to trade our forests or trade environmental activities through the Carbon Market.” She said,
The carbon market is a global market in which carbon credits can be bought and sold in line with specific standards and guidelines. The goal of the carbon market is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Minister Mujawamariya added that Rwanda will soon release the national status with regards to the Carbon Market.
“With the ongoing summit we will learn from others, especially for the Carbon Market, we will have a lot to learn from Gabon as a country which is familiar with the Carbon Market” Minister Mujawamariya added.
Gabon, a country whose territory is 88% covered by forest equatorial region, one of the two main green lungs of the planet, is at the forefront in the fight against global warming and the protection of biodiversity, which were very early raised to the rank of priorities at the national level.
As a pioneer, Gabon has also voluntarily committed to protecting a third of its natural spaces, both land and sea.
Preparing for more than a decade for the post-oil era, Gabon has adopted an economic model combining industrial development and sustainable management of its natural resources, as shown by the exploitation of timber, of which Gabon is one of the main global producers.
Learning the best practices from such a country is of great value for Rwanda which is also investing a lot of efforts in environmental protection as well as in the fight against the effects of climate change.
Despite its low level of emissions, Rwanda has the potential for a range of carbon market projects due to its vision to become a developed, carbon-neutral, and climate-resilient economy by 2050.
The carbon market will play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to the sustainable development of the country.
In Rwanda, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) are the two operational mechanisms. Carbon credits in Rwanda are currently dominated by improved cookstove projects which account for 87% of total Certified Emission Reductions issued, while lighting and solar together represent 9% and 4% respectively.
By December 2020, more than 2,250,000 carbon credits had been issued to Rwanda from the Clean Development Mechanisms and the Voluntary Carbon Market. All CDM activities have issued 724,320 Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) while the VCM activities have issued 1,525,680 Voluntary Emission Reductions (VERs).
