Musa Makina
THE Zimbabwean government is intensifying efforts to generate verifiable emission reductions through certified climate action projects as part of its strategy to combat the effects of climate change.
In an interview Minister of Environment Sithembiso Nyoni outlined the government’s push to establish a robust framework for carbon credit generation. She emphasized that this initiative is central to mitigating climate change impacts.
“To generate carbon credits, the ministry is working on ensuring Zimbabwe becomes fully compliant by setting up its own portal, registry, and system for managing the projects we expect people to engage in,” Nyoni explained.
“We’ve categorized our projects into various groups, including national projects that extend beyond our borders.”
Nyoni highlighted the importance of forest conservation in generating carbon credits, revealing that the government is encouraging the preservation of indigenous forests. She added that efforts are underway to cultivate indigenous forests that will contribute to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Green Belt, noting that indigenous forests have a higher carbon credit yield compared to exotic species.
“We are also focusing on the preservation of our indigenous forests and have mobilized local communities skilled in germinating native seeds. Our goal is to develop around seven indigenous forests that will contribute to the broader SADC Green Belt,” Nyoni said. “These forests will earn more carbon credits than exotic trees.”
In August 2023, the American-based Voluntary Registry Offsets Database (VROD) revealed that Zimbabwe had issued a total of 31,293,689 carbon credits from 27 projects. However, only 9,295,023 of these credits were active, with the remainder retired and valued at US$871,408.91.
In response to this, the government is focused on finalizing carbon credit legislation to ensure the country does not miss out on future carbon credit opportunities. Since the introduction of Statutory Instrument (SI) 150 of 2023, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of players and prospective project developers showing interest in Zimbabwe’s emerging climate economy.
The government’s push for carbon credit generation is expected to enhance the country’s contributions to global climate goals while also fostering economic growth through climate action initiatives.
