Publication: Clean Development Mechanism Potential and Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date
2010
ISSN
1381-2386
Published
2010
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Sub-Saharan Africa lags far behind other regions in terms of the implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects due to several reasons. One of the reasons is a general perception that, since the region contributes very little to global GHG emissions, it also offers few opportunities to reduce these emissions. Using a bottom-up approach, this study investigates the technical potential of reducing GHG emissions from the energy sector in Sub-Saharan Africa through the CDM. The study finds that sub-Saharan Africa could develop 3,227 CDM projects, including 361 programs of activities, which could reduce approximately 9.8 billion tons of GHG emissions during the CDM project cycles. The study also estimates that the realization of this CDM potential could significantly enhance sustainable development in the region as it would attract more than US$200 billion in investment and could generate US$98 billion of CDM revenue at a CER price of US$10/tCO2. Another notable finding of the study is that the realization of this CDM potential could supply clean electricity by doubling the current capacity and thereby providing access of electricity to millions of people in the region. However, realization of this CDM potential is severely constrained by a number of financial, technical, regulatory and institutional barriers.
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Publication Low-Carbon Energy Projects for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa : Unveiling the Potential, Addressing the Barriers, Volume 2. Results per Country(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008)Amid rising oil prices and the adverse effects of global climate change, Sub-Saharan Africa has an unprecedented opportunity: choosing a cleaner development pathway via low-carbon energy alternatives that can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, at the same time, meet current suppressed energy demand and future needs more efficiently and affordably. Indeed, countries across the region stand to benefit from an increasing array of financial instruments from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Carbon Finance (CF) products to the newly created Climate Investment Funds (CIF), with which to develop clean and efficient energy. These and other innovative instruments can help to channel the additional funds needed for investing in new and existing generation assets to increase energy services via efficiency improvements or by turning net energy consumers into net producers in return for avoidance of future GHG emissions. Using such instruments, global efforts to combat climate change can provide the region's countries energy solutions for sustainable socioeconomic development. While opportunities for such sustainable solutions are considerable in theory, to date, Sub-Saharan Africa has missed out. In the context of the CDM, for example, the region's current shares in the project pipeline are only 1.4 percent only 53 out of 3,902 projects or nine times smaller than its global share in GHG emissions. 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African countries that have recently received debt relief however need to be cautious when resorting to market-based borrowing.Publication Carbon Tax under the Clean Development Mechanism: A Unique Approach for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Developing Countries(2009)This study examines the economic and environmental implications of a unique Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme in which a non-Annex B country (Thailand) introduces a carbon tax and exports the resulting emission mitigation as certified emission reductions (CERs). A general equilibrium model for Thailand has been developed for analysing this carbon tax-cum-CDM (CT-CDM) policy. The study finds that, unlike a carbon tax policy, the CT-CDM policy could increase economic welfare in Thailand, depending on CER price and schemes of recycling carbon tax- and CER-revenue to the economy. The CT-CDM policy is found to increase economic welfare at a very low CER price (US$55/tCO2).Publication A General Equilibrium Analysis of Demand Side Management Programs under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-03)This paper analyzes the economic and environmental consequences of a potential demand side management program in Thailand using a general equilibrium model. The program considers replacement of less efficient electrical appliances in the household sector with more efficient counterparts. The study further examines changes in the economic and environmental effects of the program if it is implemented under the clean development mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, which provides carbon subsidies to the program. The study finds that the demand side management program would increase economic welfare if the ratio of unit cost of electricity savings to price of electricity is 0.4 or lower even in the absence of the clean development mechanism. If the program's ratio of unit cost of electricity savings to price of electricity is greater than 0.4, registration of the program under the clean development mechanism would be needed to achieve positive welfare impacts. The level of welfare impacts would, however, depend on the price of carbon credits the program generates. For a given level of welfare impacts, the registration of the demand side management program under the clean development mechanism would increase the volume of emission reductions.Publication Africa's Future, Africa's Challenge : Early Childhood Care and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This book seeks to achieve a balance, describing challenges that are being faced as well as developments that are underway. It seeks a balance in terms of the voices heard, including not just voices of the North commenting on the South, but voices from the South, and in concert with the North. It seeks to provide the voices of specialists and generalists, of those from international and local organizations, from academia and the field. It seeks a diversity of views and values. Such diversity and complexity are the reality of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) today. The major focus of this book is on SSA from the Sahel south. Approximately 130 million children between birth and age 6 live in SSA. Every year 27 million children are born, and every year 4.7 million children under age 5 die. Rates of birth and of child deaths are consistently higher in SSA than in any other part of the world; the under-5 mortality rate of 163 per 1,000 is twice that of the rest of the developing world and 30 times that of industrialized countries (UNICEF 2006). Of the children who are born, 65 percent will experience poverty, 14 million will be orphans affected by HIV/AIDS directly and within their families and one-third will experience exclusion because of their gender or ethnicity.
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