COP28: World Bank launches plan to support global carbon markets

The World Bank announced on the third day of the Conference of the Parties (COP28), held in Dubai, ambitious plans for the growth of high-integrity global carbon markets, with 15 countries set to generate income from the sale of carbon stocks generated by the conservation of their forests.

“By next year, these countries will have produced more than 24 million of these stocks, potentially as many as 126 million by 2028, and these stocks could generate up to $2.5 billion under appropriate market conditions, many of which will return to communities and countries,” according to a statement published by the UAE News Agency “WAM.”

The 15 countries—Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, and Vietnam—are part of the World Bank Forest Carbon Reduction Partnership Initiative.

What is the carbon market?

The carbon market is a common term for a trading system through which countries can buy or sell units of greenhouse emissions in an attempt to adhere to permissible national emission limits under the Kyoto Protocol or other agreements, such as those signed among EU States.

The adoption of this term is attributable to the fact that CO2 is the dominant greenhouse gas, and other gas emissions are measured in units called CO2 equivalents.

The countries and participants in COP28 are moving rapidly to contain the climate changes that world leaders have expressed further concern about, as evidenced by the rapid consensus on a preliminary version, published on Friday, of a draft agreement to be discussed by negotiators of some 200 countries during the conference that began its events in Dubai last Thursday.