Personal carbon trading

By Peter Okong’o

For most Africans, carbon trading still sounds very alien, but the reality is that it is a potential money-spinner.

Even more interesting is the concept of personal carbon trading, where families are offered financial carrots to cut down on activities that contribute to global warming.

Carbon Manna Unlimited, a little-known outfit operating from the US is doing just that, albeit on a pilot basis, in Mbeere and Bungoma districts.

Their targets are the lowly farmers who cut down trees and bushes for fuel, and to make way for crops.

In the process, they cause permanent damage by eliminating forests that serve as carbon sinks, thereby, contributing to global warming.

I know, it all sounds rather technical, but it really isn’t.

If you can offer an alternative and more efficient stove, for instance, to a poor farmer, and pay him to cut his carbon emissions, then there is no better argument for the project.

Even more interesting is the incorporation of wireless technology into the picture. Using Zap and M-Pesa to wire funds to the beneficiaries also contributes to the growth of the services, and is a more efficient way than turning to banks.

In any case, commercial banks lack the combined reach that the two mobile money transfer services have.

And the lower the farmer goes below the limit set for emissions, the more money he or she is likely to earn, and the greater the incentive, therefore, to cut emissions. Available information indicates pre-selling tens of thousands of tonnes of bundled carbon micro credits provides the start-up capital needed to buy stoves and cell phones for the participating families, thus making the system self-funding and markets-based.

That is not to say there are no potential hurdles ahead for the project.

For instance, monitoring the farmers to ensure that each family adheres strictly to the agreed limits is not going to be easy.

However, this project, more than any other we’ve heard of before, offers a better chance to push forward sales of energy-saving jikos.

If you can distribute five million jikos, this could translate to Sh15.4 billion in annual revenues, when translated into a business with modest costs.

The United Nations, for one, sees personal carbon trading as the best way to educate illiterate masses on the benefits of global warming.

Because the project falls within the UN’s definition of a Clean Development Mechanism, it stands a better chance of getting funding directed to such environmental programmes.

The traditional three-stove cooking fire is by far among the biggest causes of deforestation and respiratory problems in Africa.