Domestic Legal Regimes for Carbon Trading in African Countries: The State of Play

Significant impediments to realizing the full potential of Africa’s carbon markets in financing the continent’s energy transition goals lie in the critical gaps within its regulatory framework, necessitating the need for clear, adequate and robust regulatory frameworks able to tackle these challenges. This chapter delves into the current state of carbon market regulation in Africa, through a comparative analysis of mitigation approaches in Kenya and South Africa, alongside Nigeria’s nascent carbon market development, exposing critical deficiencies in governance, transparency, and tracking that undermine market credibility and ultimately hinder investments in the continent’s green economy. Our recommendations include the urgent need to expedite policy and regulatory frameworks in the pipeline, increased stakeholder engagements, prioritizing community-based models and approaches that adopt the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and recognize fundamental human rights of local indigenous people and communities in carbon reduction projects, minimal governmental interference in voluntary carbon markets, preservation of market integrity through integration of international evaluation, reporting and verification standards, amongst others.