Africa's Carbon Project Developers Face A Trump-sized Problem

Organisations in Africa developing carbon projects - which are designed to remove carbon from the atmosphere or avoid emissions in the first place - are used to navigating stormy conditions. The latest challenge for global carbon markets is the return of Donald Trump, a notorious climate change sceptic, as US president

The Trump effect is not necessarily obvious at first. As a voluntary market, the sale and purchase of carbon credits is not directly dependent on the United States or any other government.

The United States has, however, played an important though relatively low-profile role in kickstarting carbon projects in Africa - a role it looks certain to abandon under Trump. Washington's hostile stance towards net zero also has the potential to affect demand for carbon credits, especially among US-based companies.

Progress in developing the carbon markets - which could be worth as much as 100bn a year for Africa by 2050, according to the African Carbon Markets Initiative - could now be in peril as Trump takes aim at previous US climate goals.

One of the little-noticed impacts of Trump's gutting of the US Agency for International Development is that many carbon projects are now having to look for alternative sources of funding.