The Global Carbon Council, a Doha-based international carbon credit program, is in talks to list its credits on several exchanges in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the council’s COO, Kishor Rajhansa, said in an interview for local daily The National.
The council is looking to list carbon credits issued by it to clean energy projects from nearly 45 countries at carbon exchanges based in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to Mr. Rajhansa.
As the executive explained, the Global Carbon Council does not plan to have its own exchange, but rather acts as a regulator with its main responsibility being to bring the “highest quality” assets in the market.
The Global Carbon Council already has an agreement with the Egyptian Stock Exchange, which launched Africa’s first regulated voluntary carbon market (VCM) in January.
According to Mr. Rajhansa, the council is also in talks with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which established the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company (RVCMC) last year in partnership with Saudi Tadawul Group.
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Credits issued by the Global Carbon Council comply with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), a program by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Global consultancy McKinsey has estimated that the market for carbon credits could be worth more than $50 billion by 2030.
Mr. Rajhansa said that the Global Carbon Council plans to offer its credits both for selling and for spot transactions, explaining that with spot transactions prices are better because the risks related to project registration and issuance have been taken out.
He added that the council may start a carbon finance facility in 2024, to be run independently by buyers of carbon credits.
“The idea is to give the predictability of carbon finance to the market and to give a good market price for the project owner and not let intermediary entities take away all the profits,” Mr. Rajhansa told The National.
According to the executive, a year ago the council had asked for an expression of interest from market players to apply for an independent carbon facility, and it received many responses.
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