Carbon Trading Policies and Climate Change Mitigation in Africa: A Systematic Literature Review

Carbon trading in Africa is promoted by Africans and international actors as a market-based instrument for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting sustainable development; however, its effectiveness in Africa remains contested. This chapter conducts a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed, English-language studies on carbon trading and climate change in Africa published between 2001 and 2023. The study searched across ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore using multiple keyword combinations, yielding 101 records; after PRISMA-guided screening of inclusion and exclusion, the authors used eleven (11) articles for thematic synthesis and quality appraisal. The evidence base skewed towards a few countries (notably South Africa, Ghana, Central African states, and Senegal) and mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), REDD+ initiatives, and soil and forest carbon-sequestration projects. The reviewed studies show that carbon trading can generate emission reductions, green jobs, and additional farm income, and incentivize improved forest management and low-carbon technologies. However, African participation in carbon markets remains marginal, constrained by weak governance, limited technical capacity, high transaction costs, regulatory uncertainty, and volatile credit prices. The benefits of carbon trading in Africa are not equal, with frequent misalignments between market logic, local development, and justice priorities. There is a mixed methodological quality as major studies are descriptive, lack explicit inclusion/exclusion criteria, and provide limited empirical evaluation of long-term outcomes. The review concludes that while existing architectures have not yet delivered broad-based climate or development gains for Africa, reformed governance, robust Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems, enhanced carbon literacy, and alignment with the SDGs, especially through emerging voluntary markets, could improve performance. Future research should broaden geographic and linguistic coverage and examine the distributional and justice impacts, including gender, indigeneity, and rural livelihoods.