MONROVIA – Liberia’s proposed carbon-market policy attempts to convert environmental wealth into regulated investment without surrendering community rights or public accountability. Its presentation to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai moves the country closer to participating in a growing global climate-finance system. The policy’s importance lies in the safeguards surrounding that opportunity. It establishes regulatory authority, public tracking, independent verification and formulas for sharing revenue among government, developers, landowners and communities. Those protections will matter because carbon trading can create wealth while also producing disputes over ownership, consent and benefit distribution. Implementation now becomes the decisive test. As THE ANALYST reports, officials assert that Liberia must prove that environmental assets can finance development transparently while preserving ecosystems and protecting the people whose lands generate the credits.
MONROVIA: The Government of Liberia has presented its consolidated and validated National Carbon Market Policy to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, outlining a regulatory framework through which the country intends to develop, manage and trade carbon credits while protecting community rights and ensuring transparent benefit-sharing.
Carbon Markets Authority (CMA) Chief Executive Officer Jeanine Cooper, Forestry Development Authority (FDA) Managing Director Rudolph Merab and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Executive Director Dr. Emmanuel K. Urey Yarkpawolo presented the policy Tuesday at the Executive Mansion. Technicians from the three institutions accompanied the officials during the presentation.
The policy provides a national framework for developing, regulating and trading carbon credits in Liberia. A carbon credit represents a verified reduction or removal of one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent, from the atmosphere. Countries, companies and other institutions may purchase the credits to help meet their climate commitments.
Environmental Assets Meet Global Markets
Liberia is well positioned to benefit from the growing carbon market because the country contains approximately 69 percent of the remaining Upper Guinean Forest ecosystem and contributes only a small share of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Liberia’s forests, mangroves, wetlands and other natural ecosystems absorb and store large amounts of carbon. These ecosystems also provide food, water, medicine and livelihoods for local communities.
The policy, however, is not limited to forests. It creates opportunities for carbon projects in agriculture, renewable energy, waste management, transportation, industrial production, coastal and marine ecosystems, urban development and ecotourism.
Potential projects include reforestation, mangrove restoration, solar and hydropower development, clean cooking, climate-smart agriculture, recycling, composting, landfill-gas capture and low-emission public transportation. The policy is intended to provide a regulated framework through which those projects can generate and trade carbon credits.
Regulation and Public Accountability
The Carbon Markets Authority will serve as the principal regulator and hold exclusive authority to approve the transfer and trading of carbon credits. It will work with the EPA, FDA and other relevant ministries and agencies when reviewing proposed projects.
The FDA will provide technical guidance on forest-carbon projects, while the EPA will oversee projects involving waste management, industrial emissions and certain marine and urban activities. The institutional arrangement is intended to ensure that projects are reviewed by the agencies possessing the relevant technical mandates.
To promote transparency, the policy calls for the establishment of a National Carbon Registry under the Carbon Markets Authority. The registry will record, track and account for every authorized carbon credit through the use of unique identification numbers.
Most information contained in the registry will be available to the public, except information protected by law or legitimate intellectual-property rights. The tracking system is intended to prevent the same carbon credit from being sold or counted more than once.
The EPA will lead the development and operation of Liberia’s Measurement, Reporting and Verification system. The system will measure greenhouse-gas reductions, verify project results and provide reliable information for national and international reporting.
Independent experts will also verify emission reductions before carbon credits can be issued or traded. The verification requirement is intended to ensure that credits placed on the market represent genuine and measurable reductions or removals of greenhouse gases.
Communities Retain Ownership Rights
The policy recognizes the rights of communities, customary landowners and private landowners. Carbon ownership will generally follow the legal ownership of the land, forest or other resource through which the carbon credit is produced.
Projects affecting community land or resources must obtain the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of affected communities before proceeding. Projects must also undergo the required environmental and social-impact assessment.
The policy establishes benefit-sharing arrangements for carbon credits generated from government-owned resources. After applicable taxes and verified project costs, 40 percent of the proceeds will support national social, educational and health programs; 20 percent will support the Carbon Markets Authority, EPA and the relevant sector agency; 30 percent will go to the project developer; and 10 percent will directly support affected communities.
Where the carbon-generating resource is owned by a community or private party, 50 percent of the net proceeds will go to that community or private owner, 30 percent will go to the project developer and 20 percent will be allocated to the responsible government institutions. Community funds will be protected through accountable financial arrangements and used in accordance with approved community-governance rules.
Carbon Revenues Fund Development
All government carbon revenues will be managed through the Liberia Carbon Investment Fund, separate from the government’s General Revenue Account. The arrangement will allow carbon income to be tracked and reinvested in national development, climate action and the sustainable management of Liberia’s natural resources.
The policy could open opportunities for new investment, employment, renewable energy, improved farming, better waste management and stronger protection of forests and coastal ecosystems. It could also provide communities with income to support schools, clinics, clean water, livelihood programs and climate-resilient development.
The presentation to President Boakai represents a major step toward turning Liberia’s environmental assets into responsibly managed national wealth. The policy stipulates that carbon trading must protect the environment, respect community rights, maintain transparency and ensure that the benefits reach the Liberian people.