Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will deliver the keynote address at a high-level meeting hosted by The Rockefeller Foundation in New York, United States with global agencies and potential financial partners in attendance to facilitate the activation of the Voluntary Carbon Market in Africa.
Participants at the meeting include the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, GEAPP; UN-Sustainable Energy for All, SEforALL; the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, who have all been advocating and actively planning for the African Carbon Market Initiative.
The meeting which holds on Friday will also be attended by officials from the US government and will explore potential opportunities which carbon markets offer to generate resources for clean energy transitions while accelerating economic growth in Nigeria and other African countries.
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Ahead of the meeting, Osinbajo will on Thursday interact with some of the agencies with whom the Federal Government has been engaging on the Energy Transition Plan and the activation of the Voluntary Carbon.
An International Steering Committee is driving the activation of African Carbon Markets in Africa, under the auspices of the African Carbon Market Initiative.
Members of the Committee include the Nigerian Vice President, former President of Colombia, Ivan Duque Marquez, officials of the United Nations, United States Agency for International Development, USAID and the Gates Foundation.
With the African Carbon Market Initiative, launched last month at COP27 in Egypt, there are projections that Nigeria could mobilize $600 – 800 million per annum in the capital by 2030 assuming the current average price of $20 per ton of carbon from Voluntary Carbon Markets and potentially support 3-5 million jobs over the energy transition period.
Vice President Osinbajo is the Chair of Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan Working Group – a multi-ministerial team set up by President Buhari.
Editor; Oloyede Oworu
