Carbon Market in West African Economic and Monetary (WAEMU) Countries

Abstract

Carbon trading mechanisms was introduced into the Kyoto protocol as a means to achieve emissions reductions in an efficient and cost-effective way. One of its principles that engaged developing countries in the formal carbon market is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). However, Africa has hosted a very few numbers of CDM projects especially in WAEMU countries where the participation is very low. In this thesis, we assess the factors responsible for the participation of these countries in the carbon market as well as analysing the contribution of CDM projects to sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) in West African countries and studying how carbon market interfere with the priorities of WAEMU countries’ government. The panel regression demonstrates that Population size, human capital, infrastructure quality as well as GDP per capita are the variables which pull forward the CDM projects implementation in WAEMU countries. The multi-Attributive Assessment tool show that existing CDM project have a positive and slight impact on sustainable development in WAEMU countries. Compared with the benchmark scenario which give a utility of 0.995 (which should be the ideal score of a CDM project contribution on sustainable development), forestry CDM projects (with a utility of 0.407) still more profitable than solar projects (with a utility of 0.252) in these countries. Accompanying by international support, WAEMU countries will undertake more climate actions into their national programmes and policies.