Briefing 2: Transactions on Forest Carbon

The document outlines how forest carbon is monetised through compliance and voluntary markets, detailing Ghana's role as an early adopter of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. It describes Ghana's regulatory pathway for carbon projects, highlights key transactions like the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme and the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project, and identifies risks such as double counting and bargaining power asymmetries. The briefing concludes with recommendations to codify regulations, standardise transaction documents, and target high-integrity market segments.

• Forest carbon is monetised through two primary market families: compliance markets, which are created by law and feature mandatory demand, and voluntary markets, which are driven by corporate climate commitments and private standards.
• Ghana has established itself as a leader in operationalising Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, becoming the first African country to do so through bilateral agreements with partners including Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea.
• Ghana has successfully secured significant results-based payments for forest carbon, including over USD 21 million from the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility for the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme and USD 30.1 million in grant funding from the Green Climate Fund for the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project.
• All carbon transactions in Ghana must follow a regulated eight-step pathway involving the Forestry Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), culminating in registration in the Ghana Carbon Registry to prevent double counting.
• Significant transactional risks exist in Ghana, specifically the potential for double counting where project-level activities overlap with jurisdictional programmes, a lack of formal 'nesting' rules, and a bargaining power imbalance between local communities and international buyers.

APA

ClientEarth (n.d.). Briefing 2: Transactions on Forest Carbon. https://www.clientearth.org/media/lmrgmcun/transactions-on-forest-carbon-ghana-briefing.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Briefing 2: Transactions on Forest Carbon. n.d. https://www.clientearth.org/media/lmrgmcun/transactions-on-forest-carbon-ghana-briefing.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Briefing 2: Transactions on Forest Carbon |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/lmrgmcun/transactions-on-forest-carbon-ghana-briefing.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearthndbriefing, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Briefing 2: Transactions on Forest Carbon}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/lmrgmcun/transactions-on-forest-carbon-ghana-briefing.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }