UNFCCC chief encourages China to help Africa lay groundwork for CDM

China could be of tremendous assistance if it works with African countries wishing to lay necessary groundwork for the Clean Development Mechanism , UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer told Xinhua during the first Africa Carbon Forum in Dakar.

"China has been very successful in encouraging private sector participation in CDM. A good part of that success is due to the government's decision to pursue CDM, and its success in laying the policy and procedural groundwork for CDM," said de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change .

The CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol, allowing 40industrialized countries with greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emission in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.

According to de Boer, Africa is the continent hit the hardest by climate change. There are to date more than 1,150 CDM projects in 49 countries, but just 27 of these are in Africa.

"Outside Africa, the CDM has been a great success. It has provided an important source of investment and financial flows for clean development, it has stimulated technology transfer and two percent of credits issued under the CDM are going toward adaptation to climate change," de Boer said at the opening ceremony of the Africa Carbon Forum in Dakar which is held on September 3-5.

The three-day forum, being held under the umbrella of the Nairobi Framework initiative to expand the reach of the CDM, will combine a carbon investment Trade Fair, a conference and a policy forum as well as targeted capacity building on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol for climate change officials and carbon market participants in Africa.

The international carbon market and initiatives like the Kyoto Protocol's CDM are important tools for stimulating that investment.

There are many challenges for Africa to attract investment to pursue a green path to development, as well as the resources to adapt to inevitable effects of climate change.

De Boer said African countries have enormous potential in CDM projects, so if they could establish a clear policy to inspire private sector investors' confidence, "we are seeing an increase in the CDM projects on the continent."

The executive secretary also told Xinhua that China is acutely aware of the threat posed by climate change and is already taking steps to reduce emission.

The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol will end in 2012. The countries of the world have pledged to negotiate a follow-on agreement. These negotiations are going on now, and exactly what shape the agreement will take will not be known until December 2009, in Copenhagen, Demark.

Source:Xinhua