GANTA, Nimba County – The United Nations Development Programme during the weekend convened a technical panel of Liberian experts to chat about the course for a feasibility study on Liberia’s carbon market readiness.
By Fatu Kamara, contributing writer
The two-day engagement aimed at gathering technical information from national experts to contribute to the feasibility study for developing a carbon readiness roadmap for the forest sector.
UNDP program coordinator Abraham Tumbey said the carbon market roadmap will comprise outcomes from the gaps and needs assessments and insights from stakeholders across the country and technical experts’ recommendations that will help prepare Liberia toward a carbon readiness path.
Tumbey added that the roadmap will also ensure the drivers of deforestation and degradations are prioritized, support the identification of barriers to result-based payment, and propose investment offers that will capitalize on current opportunities as well as the potential emission reduction and results-based carbon finance.
In April 2022, the government of Liberia reached out for support to the UNDP to enable the country to leverage its access to mobilize climate finance.
The UNDP under its climate promise to the government has been working with stakeholders to develop a carbon readiness roadmap that will help Liberia reduce emissions from forest loss through sustainable management and protection of forests, thus contributing to climate action and also enabling access to results-based carbon finance that can expand Liberia fiscal space and accelerate inclusive and sustainable development.
The two-day engagement, which was held in Ganta, Nimba County had in attendance forty-five experts from the government, private sector, and civil society on policy and institutional framework, Nationally Determined Contributions, REDD+, safeguards, forest Monitoring and Reporting and Verification.
Dr. Sam Koffa, a senior research Scientist and consultant, speaking at the event, said the engagement is timely as carbon is a trending issue and more consultation to prepare Liberia to go into carbon marketing is key.
He added that the gathering was important in terms of finding out how prepared is Liberia for carbon trading and how communities can benefit from the process.
Also speaking, the head of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia, Loretta Pope-Kai stressed the pivotal role that civil society has to play in such national engagement in terms of ensuring that there is a clear legal framework on carbon, especially in terms of benefiting scheme to support the communities.
Liberia’s forests constitute 43 percent of the total remaining upper Guinean forest in West Africa and cover approximately 69 percent of the country’s total land surface as of 2019, according to the World Bank.
In 2018, the Liberian government ratified the Paris Agreement which is a legally binding international treaty aiming to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.3 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
Experts say Liberia has a lot to benefit from carbon marketing given the size of the forest that the country has, but this cannot be realized unless adequate frameworks and policies are in place, including mechanisms for benefit sharing.
Dorsla Farcarthy, the Team Leader on Green and Inclusive Growth reaffirmed UNDP’s commitment to continue to support the government in putting in place a carbon market readiness framework, recognizing that access to carbon markets can be realized once the institutional requirements for engaging are clear to parties and requirements are met, including dedicated institutional arrangements, legal national frameworks, strategies and potentially a national committee on Article 6 to implement activities and improve conditions for carbon market operations