If Africa Will Agree To Stop Shooting at Itself, and if the Donor Countries Can Agree To Do Something Positive in the Follo-up To A World-Agreement on a new Climate Change agreement, Africa Should be Indeed a Major Part of a Carbon Trading Mechanism.

In Anticipation of the Above, Some Tough Minded People Want To Try To Have Propsals On The Table For Real Plans Of Action. We Wish Them, And Ourselves - the Best of Luck.

Subject: Solicitation of African Carbon Offset Projects & Travel Sponsorship Opportunity
Reply-To: “Lars Rosendahl Appelquist” <lars.rosendahl@risoe.dk>

July 2, 2008

At COP‐13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the first Africa Carbon Forum, in partnership with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the multilateral agencies supporting the Nairobi Framework, including UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, UNECA, and the World Bank. The Nairobi Framework aims to assist developing countries, especially those in sub‐Saharan Africa, to enhance their participation in the CDM. This groundbreaking high‐profile event will combine a carbon investment trade fair, a policy forum for African DNAs and climate change officials, as well as targeted capacity building for the CDM.

The Forum will take place from 3 ‐ 5 September 2008 at Le Meridien Hotel, Pointe Des Almadies, in Dakar, Senegal.

Further details and a draft agenda can be downloaded from the IETA website: http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index…

Despite the fast growth of the global carbon market and the urgent need to boost energy and infrastructure investment in Africa, local actors are only just beginning to tap into this market. The Africa Carbon Forum will strengthen links between CDM project developers and the region’s investment community, and facilitate knowledge sharing and transactions between project sponsors and global carbon offset credit buyers. Specifically, matchmaking and deal facilitation sessions will enable potential CDM project participants and developers to showcase their projects to interested parties, including investors and carbon buyers.

The organizers therefore invite all interested parties to attend and to submit their carbon offset project concepts for consideration.

As co‐organizers of the Forum, UNEP and UNDP have pledged to provide travel sponsorships for CDM project champions from across the African continent to attend the event, based on a competitive selection.

See attached document for additional details on the sponsorship procedures and requirements.

 http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index…

————-

BACKGROUND

At COP13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the 1st Africa Carbon Forum, in collaboration with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the partner agencies of the Nairobi Framework, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The World Bank and the African Development Bank. The Nairobi Framework was initiated with the specific target of helping developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, to improve their level of participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

OBJECTIVE

This event will bring together representatives from designated national authorities (DNA), national focal points (NFP), representatives from several UN agencies, governments and the private sector.

The Africa Carbon Forum is a platform that will strengthen links between CDM project developers and the region’s investment community, provide opportunities for DNA representatives to exchange views and share their experiences relating to the CDM, while facilitating knowledge sharing and transactions between project sponsors and global carbon offset credit buyers.

The Forum will take place from 3-5 September 2008 in Dakar, Senegal, at Le Méridien Hotel, located in the Pointe Des Almadies area.
The event will combine a carbon investment Trade Fair, a Conference and policy forum for African DNAs and climate change officials, as well as targeted capacity building on the CDM. Specifically, matchmaking and deal facilitation sessions will enable potential CDM project participants and developers to showcase their projects to interested parties, including investors and carbon buyers.

The complete schedule of this three-day event will be available shortly.

The Africa Carbon Forum provides a platform for companies to Present, Showcase, Meet and Interact. The exhibitor section will be open to the following types of entities:
• Service providers in the carbon market (Designated Operational Entities, Applicant Entities, methodology developers etc);
• Technology providers for new technologies to reduce GHGs (sector-based, technology based, other);
• Solution providers;
• Individual industrial organizations showcasing their solutions and achievements;
• Project developers;
• Funds that will purchase emissions reductions;
• CDM Host country governments and DNAs;
• Bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and foundations; and NGOs

——————-

Also from Denmark:

Based on the unequal geographical distribution of CDM activities where the Least Developed Countries (LDC) are largely under represented and the increasing microfinance activities in these countries, the Executive Board to the CDM launched the idea to explore the possibilities for combining CDM development with microfinance mechanisms. The COP endorsed the concept and the Government of Denmark decided to finance the project.

The purpose of the project is to identify possible synergies between the CDM, especially CDM Programme of Activities (PoA), and microfinance mechanisms. The objective is to enhance CDM activities in LDCs, in particularly sub-Saharan Africa, by exploring ways to improve the financial feasibility of mitigation projects that are pertinent to LDCs.

DANIDA has appointed the Danish consulting engineering company NIRAS A/S to execute the study for which we have engaged the services of the internationally recognised experts Ms. Christiana Figueres and Mr. Hans Jürgen Stehr to enhance our in house capacity.

We would like to report to the EB on the advance of PoAs worldwide. Thus, if you are developing a PoA we would like to know the country(ies), the sector, and the foreseeable CPAs. We are particularly interested in PoAs in LDCs and Africa, but would be happy to receive information on PoAs in other regions.

We will collate the information received and make it available to users of Climate L, as well as include it in the report to the EB. We recognise the sensitivity of particular information during the project development process due to competition issues and will thus make sure that no confidential information is distributed and that the information will be collected without attribution to who is developing the PoA if requested.

Ms. Hanne Holm-Jørgensen

NIRAS
Sortemosevej 2
DK-3450 Alleroed
Denmark

email:  hhj at niras.dk
phone: +45 4810 4766