Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI): Roadmap Report

The Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) aims to expand Africa's voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) to mobilize climate finance and create jobs. The report identifies a technical potential of up to 2,400 MtCO2e per annum by 2030 and proposes 13 action programmes to overcome barriers such as fragmented project development, high capital costs, and regulatory uncertainty. Key goals include increasing credit retirements to 300 MtCO2e and creating 30 million jobs by 2030.

• ACMI has set four core objectives for 2030: increasing African carbon credit retirements to ~300 MtCO2e per annum (a ~19-fold increase from 2020), creating or supporting 30 million jobs, mobilizing up to US$6 billion in capital, and ensuring transparent revenue distribution to local communities.
• The current African voluntary carbon market is highly concentrated and under-realized; only five countries—Kenya, Zimbabwe, DRC, Ethiopia, and Uganda—account for approximately 65 percent of credits issued over the last five years.
• Significant barriers inhibit the growth of African carbon markets, including a lack of local validation/verification bodies (VVBs), high upfront capital requirements, fragmented land ownership (with 80% of agricultural land held by smallholders), and regulatory uncertainty regarding land rights and credit ownership.
• ACMI proposes 13 action programmes to address value chain gaps, including the development of national VCM activation plans, the creation of an advance market commitment (AMC) to signal demand, and the establishment of a biodiversity/nature credit model to monetize ecosystem services beyond carbon sequestration.
• There is a critical need to adapt carbon credit methodologies to the African context, as current standards often fail to capture opportunities like fossil fuel displacement via distributed renewable energy (DRE) or savannah grasslands fire management.
• Intermediation costs in the African market are high and lack transparency, with some brokers and traders taking between 10 and 70 percent of the carbon credit revenue, which reduces the funds reaching local communities.
• ACMI emphasizes that integrity is central to its mission, advocating for the adoption of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles to ensure emissions reductions are real, permanent, and additional.

APA

Sustainable Energy for All (2022). Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI): Roadmap Report. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2022-11/ACMI_Roadmap_Report_Nov_16.pdf

Chicago

Sustainable Energy for All. Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI): Roadmap Report. 2022. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2022-11/ACMI_Roadmap_Report_Nov_16.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Sustainable Energy for All |title=Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI): Roadmap Report |date=November 2022 |url=https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2022-11/ACMI_Roadmap_Report_Nov_16.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sustainableenergyforall2022africa, author = {{Sustainable Energy for All}}, title = {{Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI): Roadmap Report}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2022-11/ACMI_Roadmap_Report_Nov_16.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }