West African Alliance partners with Global Carbon Council to accelerate climate action

Global Carbon Council (GCC), an international carbon credit and sustainable development program based in the Global South, and the West African Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance (WAA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and promote carbon market instruments across West Africa, supporting regional ambitions to decarbonize.

The WAA is a sub-regional alliance of 16 West African countries, which was established to help West African countries participate in international carbon markets, benefit from technology transfer and access results-based climate finance for NDC implementation. The official signing ceremony took place on Monday at GCC’s Blue Zone Pavilion during the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the UAE.

The agreement will see GCC help WAA member nations develop the necessary infrastructure and policy frameworks to ensure the smooth roll-out of both voluntary and Article 6 carbon markets. WAA will benefit from GCC’s readily usable GHG standard for the issuance of high-quality voluntary and Article 6.2 carbon credits and its members will also be able to use GCC’s carbon registry to meet Article 6 requirements related to interoperable registries.

The partnership will see GCC and WAA work together to expand voluntary and Article 6.2 carbon markets throughout West Africa and support WAA member nations on the issuance of Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. As well as supporting West African countries on all areas of Article 6.2 operationalization, the pair will also support WAA member nations connect to GCC’s independent carbon registries.

Furthermore, the two organizations will collaborate on capacity building workshops and training programs for internal and external stakeholders including government and private sector organizations on project development, third-party validation and verification capacity in the region.