Africa’s Carbon Markets Move from Policy to Transactions

Africa’s Carbon Markets Move from Policy to Transactions

Africa’s carbon market debate is beginning to move beyond whether the continent can become a significant supplier of carbon credits. The harder questions now concern which projects can secure authorisation, attract capital, survive increasingly demanding integrity tests and ultimately complete transactions.

That transition will frame the Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) 2026, taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 13 to 15 October. Hosted by Rwanda’s Ministry of Environment, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and African Development Bank (AfDB) as host organisations, the gathering comes as several African governments move from developing carbon market policies towards the practical machinery required to operate them.

The transition can already be seen in Ghana. Its Carbon Market Office has established procedures covering project approval, Article 6 authorisation, registry operations, transfers and corresponding adjustments. Ghana’s 2024 progress report recorded 69 Article 6 project requests during the year, with 17 fully onboarded onto its Carbon Registry. Three mitigation activities had received authorisation, covering 5.9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in authorised Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs). By July 2026, the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre’s Article 6 Pipeline recorded Ghana with five bilateral agreements and 44 Article 6.2 activities.

Briefing

• Carbon Markets Africa Summit 2026 will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 13 to 15 October.
• The programme is shifting towards investment, project execution, Article 6 transactions and market infrastructure.
• Ghana provides one of Africa’s clearest examples of an operational Article 6 framework, with 44 Article 6.2 activities recorded by July 2026.
• More than 10 African governments and over 20 investors and financiers are expected to participate in CMAS 2026.
• Dedicated deal rooms, project showcases and technical sessions will connect policy, finance, MRV, authorisation and project development.

Building the Article 6 Infrastructure

Carbon markets have long offered an attractive proposition for African economies. Emissions reductions or removals generated through forestry, renewable energy, clean cooking, waste management, agriculture and other projects can potentially create internationally tradable assets while directing finance towards activities that might otherwise struggle to attract conventional investment. Turning that proposition into a functioning market is considerably more complicated.

Credits need credible methodologies. Emissions reductions have to be measured, reported and verified, while projects require suitable validation and verification capacity. Governments participating under Article 6 need rules governing authorisation and corresponding adjustments, and developers need sufficient certainty that a project designed today will remain capable of generating acceptable credits several years into its operating life.

Buyers have also become more discriminating. Integrity concerns in parts of the voluntary carbon market have increased scrutiny of methodologies, additionality, permanence, leakage and the actual environmental and social outcomes behind individual credits. Africa is consequently building its carbon market at a time when simply producing credits is no longer enough.

The African Union formalised its Africa Action Plan on Carbon Markets in September 2025, establishing a continental framework for more effective African participation in carbon trading. The work grew from earlier efforts to develop common African perspectives on buyers, sellers, investors, governance and the capacity gaps limiting participation. National implementation remains critical because Article 6 ultimately depends on governments having the institutional machinery to make decisions about projects and transferred mitigation outcomes.

Ghana illustrates how detailed that machinery becomes. Its Article 6 arrangements divide responsibilities between government ministries, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Carbon Market Office and committees responsible for oversight, approvals and technical advice. The framework covers authorisation, methodologies, validation and verification, issuance and transactions rather than treating carbon finance as a simple exchange between a project developer and an overseas buyer.

The country has also established bilateral carbon cooperation arrangements with countries including Singapore. The Ghana-Singapore framework includes a joint committee responsible for processes, environmental integrity criteria, registry arrangements and project authorisation rules. Developers seeking to participate therefore need to understand not only carbon methodologies and technical delivery, but national authorisation requirements, host-country climate commitments, registry procedures and the requirements of acquiring countries.

Building an Investable Project Pipeline

CMAS 2026 is positioning investment and transactions much closer to the centre of its programme, including investor and buyer roundtables, project showcases, technical workshops, solution labs and dedicated deal rooms. The official programme describes a market moving from readiness towards delivery, with attention turning towards credible supply, policy certainty and projects capable of reaching investment.

A technically plausible carbon project is not automatically an investable one. Developers may need early-stage capital, regulatory approval, recognised methodologies, reliable measurement systems, insurance, verification, registry access and ultimately a buyer willing to contract for the resulting credits. Each stage introduces another party and another potential source of delay.

More than 10 African governments and over 20 investors and financiers are expected to be represented at the summit, with contributions also coming from organisations including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and European Commission. A UNEP-hosted Nature Deal Room will bring governments, corporate buyers, investors, standards bodies and market intermediaries together around nature-based transactions.

The format addresses a practical problem facing the sector. Good projects and available capital do not automatically find one another, particularly when investors must also evaluate regulatory approval, credit quality and long-term delivery risk. Carbon projects can require considerable development work before the underlying asset is sufficiently defined for capital providers or buyers to assess it with confidence.

Integrity Becomes Commercial Infrastructure

Much of the carbon market’s recent debate has revolved around integrity, often as though it were primarily a reputational issue. It is increasingly an investment issue as well. A credit that cannot withstand scrutiny is a weak financial asset, and uncertainty over measurement, authorisation, ownership or permanence affects what buyers will pay, whether financiers will support development and whether insurers can price project risk.

Measurement, reporting and verification, usually shortened to MRV, consequently sits close to the commercial foundations of the market. CMAS 2026 will examine MRV systems, ratings, validation and verification capacity, registry interoperability and project authorisation alongside financing and investment. Africa will need more local technical capacity in these areas if the volume of projects grows significantly.

Shikha Sharma, Global Technical Lead for Offsets & Removals at SGS, sees governance and capability as central to Africa’s opportunity. “I genuinely think Africa could become the defining force in global carbon markets. The continent has extraordinary natural assets. If Africa gets governance right, invests in local capabilities and keeps integrity at the centre, it won’t just supply the market. It will influence how the market operates globally.”

Africa’s experience with earlier international carbon mechanisms also provides grounds for caution. UNDP has noted that the Clean Development Mechanism mobilised thousands of projects and billions of dollars globally, while its benefits were unevenly distributed and Africa received a relatively small share. Article 6 therefore arrives with the unresolved question of whether a new market structure can distribute investment differently.

The answer will depend on projects progressing through development, verification, authorisation, financing and sale. Countries able to provide predictable procedures, credible administration and sufficient technical capacity should be better placed to convert potential projects into transactions.

Climate Finance and Development

Carbon finance is particularly attractive to African governments because the potential value extends beyond emissions accounting. Projects can overlap with energy access, agriculture, forestry, waste management, industrial development and rural livelihoods, directing capital towards national development priorities while generating measurable climate outcomes.

Fatmata Lovetta Sesay, Resident Representative of UNDP Rwanda, describes the development objective in broader terms. “For UNDP, the true value of carbon markets lies in what they make possible: finance for national priorities, decent jobs, resilient livelihoods, and sustainable development. The task before us in Kigali is to build markets that are credible, investable, and designed to deliver real value for African countries and communities,”

Delivering that value will require governments to negotiate carefully over how credits are authorised and how the underlying benefits are distributed. An authorised mitigation outcome transferred internationally under Article 6 has implications for the host country’s own climate accounting, while projects based on forests, land or community resources raise questions about ownership and benefit-sharing alongside carbon value.

The African Union’s continental work has consequently placed governance and African participation alongside market expansion rather than treating transaction volume as the sole measure of success. The experience of earlier carbon mechanisms gives governments another reason to consider where value is created, who captures it and whether domestic institutions have sufficient capacity to participate throughout the market rather than simply supply credits.

Carbon Markets Africa Summit 2026

The institutional architecture is now becoming more visible across Africa. Governments are establishing carbon market offices, registries and authorisation procedures, Article 6 projects are moving through national pipelines, investors have a growing range of projects to assess and buyers are applying greater scrutiny to the credits they purchase.

The gaps are becoming clearer as well. Africa needs sufficient MRV and validation capacity, predictable national rules, functioning registries, credible methodologies and finance capable of carrying projects through lengthy development cycles. CMAS 2026 is being organised around many of those practical constraints, bringing policymakers, investors, buyers, developers and technical specialists into the same programme.

The credibility of Africa’s carbon market will ultimately be built project by project and transaction by transaction. Policy frameworks can make those transactions possible, but functioning markets require buyers prepared to buy, investors prepared to commit capital and projects capable of producing carbon assets that withstand technical, regulatory and financial scrutiny.

CMAS 2026 will bring many of those participants into the same rooms in Kigali. The more revealing measure of Africa’s progress will come afterwards, as projects move through authorisation, secure finance and reach completed transactions.

Key Industry Questions

1. What is the Carbon Markets Africa Summit 2026? CMAS is a specialist African carbon market gathering bringing together governments, project developers, investors, corporate buyers, financiers, standards organisations and technical specialists. The 2026 event takes place in Kigali from 13 to 15 October.
2. What is Article 6 of the Paris Agreement? Article 6 provides mechanisms through which countries can cooperate towards their climate targets, including the international transfer of mitigation outcomes. Article 6.2 enables bilateral and multilateral cooperative approaches between participating countries.
3. What is an ITMO? An Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome is an emissions reduction or removal transferred between countries under Article 6.2 and accounted for towards agreed climate purposes.
4. Why are corresponding adjustments necessary? Corresponding adjustments are an accounting mechanism designed to prevent the same emissions reduction being counted towards climate targets by both the country transferring the mitigation outcome and the country acquiring it.
5. What does MRV mean in carbon markets? MRV stands for measurement, reporting and verification. It provides the technical processes used to quantify emissions reductions or removals and demonstrate that claimed climate outcomes have occurred.
6. Why is Ghana significant in African carbon markets? Ghana has developed an operational Article 6 framework including a Carbon Market Office, national registry, authorisation procedures and bilateral cooperation arrangements. By July 2026, the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre recorded 44 Article 6.2 activities in the country.
7. What types of African projects can generate carbon credits? Potential activities include forestry and nature-based solutions, clean energy, clean cooking, waste management, regenerative agriculture, blue carbon and engineered carbon removal, subject to the methodology and market mechanism involved.
8. What is preventing more African carbon projects from attracting investment? Constraints vary between markets and projects but can include regulatory uncertainty, development capital, MRV capacity, validation and verification, project quality, authorisation, registry infrastructure, transaction costs and uncertainty over future demand.
9. Are voluntary and Article 6 carbon markets the same? No. Voluntary carbon markets generally involve organisations purchasing credits voluntarily, while Article 6 provides mechanisms for international cooperation between countries under the Paris Agreement. Individual projects and credits may nevertheless interact with national authorisation and accounting requirements.

Strategic Takeaways

1. Africa’s carbon market is moving into the commercially decisive work of authorisation, verification, registries, finance and transactions.
2. Countries with predictable approval systems and functioning market infrastructure are likely to have an advantage in attracting project developers and capital.
3. Carbon integrity increasingly affects asset quality, financing and buyer confidence rather than operating solely as a sustainability consideration.
4. Local MRV, validation, verification and carbon market expertise will need to expand alongside the project pipeline.
5. The strongest test of Africa’s carbon market development will be the number and quality of projects reaching completed transactions, rather than forecasts of the market’s eventual size.