Acting Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Polycarp E. Chigbue, has hinted that the adoption of voluntary carbon market could lead to a revenue estimated at $2 billion globally in 2021.
He also stated that Africa alone would get over $1.5 trillion from the market by 2050.
Speaking during a stakeholders workshop on exploring the potentials and challenges of VCM in Abuja, Chigbue recognized the market as key to moving to a low carbon economy, with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement allowing countries to trade carbon credits to meet their emission reduction targets.
He stated, “Markets are broadly grouped into two categories: compliance and voluntary carbon markets. Voluntary carbon markets encompass all transactions of carbon offsets not purchased under a regulated market, while compliance carbon markets are marketplaces for regulated entities obtain to offsets under regulatory regimes.”
The vice chancellor explained that although the compliance market is still hypothetical for Africa, the voluntary carbon market (VCM) has existed for over two decades, showing remarkable growth and improvement since its inception, primarily spearheaded by the private sector.
On the gains of the markets to Nigeria, Director, Resource and Environmental Policy Research Centre Environment for Development Nigeria, Prof. Nnaemeka Chukwuone, said that the first gain is the reduction of carbon emission caused by climate change.
“So, the first gain is to reduce emission and help the country to achieve its targets in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) as this will be in line with the Paris Agreement. So, it will help Nigeria,” he said
“Beside that, it will help Nigeria to generate revenue. There is a lot of revenue attached to carbon market estimated to be over $2 billion by 2030. Also, it will help to create jobs.
“If you have offsets in the forestry sector you will have a lot of money coming from carbon markets and people will be working in that sector. If you have in agriculture or in energy, you will create a lot of jobs” he said
