[ACCRA, SciDev.Net] Ghana has become the first African country officially to trade carbon credits under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, marking a major milestone in international climate cooperation.
The country transferred 11,733 tonnes of verified emission reductions to Switzerland on Tuesday (8 July), generated through a clean cookstove initiative, Daniel Tutu Benefor, lead at the Ghana Carbon Market Office (CMO), told SciDev.Net.
He said the credits had undergone strict technical assessments by both Swiss and Ghanaian experts.
“This milestone makes Ghana the first African country, and only the second in the world, to complete such a transaction under Article 6.2,” said Benefor.
“It is the largest in the world,” he added.
Under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, countries can use their emissions cuts to generate carbon credits, or Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs), which they can sell to another country. In exchange, the buyer country typically provides investments, capacity building support, or technology and uses the carbon credits to help meet its own climate goals.
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Several other African countries, including Senegal, Malawi, Tunisia and Kenya, have signed bilateral carbon trading agreements, but Ghana is the first to transfer credits.
To avoid double counting, Ghana will adjust its national greenhouse gas inventory by the volume of ITMOs transferred.
The emissions-reducing initiative, named Transformative Cookstove Activity in Rural Ghana, supplies clean cooking stoves to households in rural and so-called “peri-urban” areas, on the fringes of cities.
Improved cookstove ready for cooking. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah / SciDev.Net
It is implemented by Envirofit, a social enterprise specialising in clean energy innovations, and the ACT Group, an environmental services company based in the Netherlands. with financial support from the KliK Foundation, a Swiss foundation for climate protection and carbon offset.
The project is one of just two bilateral mitigation activities approved under the Ghana-Switzerland climate cooperation agreement, signed in 2020.
Healthy households
The cookstove programme has already reached more than 180,000 smallholder farmers and households, offering fuel efficiency, health improvements, and economic relief, said Emmanuel Osae-Nyarko, director at Envirofit Ghana, a sustainable energy organisation and implementing partner of the project.
Aminatu Hakim, a mother-of-six based in Pullima near Tumu in Ghana’s Upper West Region, says the stove has halved her charcoal spending over the past two years.
“I have invested the savings in my onion business,” she told SciDev.Net.
“The proceeds are now supporting my family’s daily needs.”
She says the new stove is fast and uses very little charcoal.
“Previously, I would start cooking dinner at 4pm and finish around 6.30pm. Now, I save nearly two hours,” she added. “That gives me time to bathe the children and rest after the day’s hard work.”
Rahinatu Dawudi, a smallholder farmer who also works a cook in a local school in Tumu, says using the stove is easier and less hazardous than cooking over a fire.
Ainatu Hakim prepares dinner for her family with the improved cookstove. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah / SciDev.Net
“Breathing in particles of ash and smoke is a thing of the past with the improved cookstove,” she said.
“The constant eye irritation and headaches I used to get while cooking have disappeared.”
According to Osae-Nyarko, the stoves are cutting fuel costs by more than 50 per cent, reducing indoor air pollution, and lowering carbon emissions, while improving household well-being.
The project has created nearly 300 jobs and helped stimulate stove sales through village savings and loan associations — community-led financing groups which give villagers access to loans when they need them.
E-bikes and buses
Ghana launched its International Carbon Market Framework in 2020 and secured Cabinet approval in 2022.
According to a government report, by December 2024, 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent had been earmarked for trading out of a possible 64 million. The CMO — the national secretariat mandated to facilitate the implementation of Article Six of the Paris Agreement — says it has received 70 project submissions so far.
Many of these centre around improved cookstoves, with 26 proposals aiming to distribute 9.1 million stoves by 2030. Other proposals include e-mobility — promising to deliver more than 120,000 electric vehicles and bikes — reforestation, biochar, and solar projects.
The KliK Foundation, which is buying the credits, says this is part of a wider strategy to fulfil Switzerland’s international climate targets.
Michael Abrokwaa, general manager of KliK Foundation Ghana, says it goes towards the foundation’s target of offsetting 20 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
He says other projects in the pipeline include e-buses, green cooling, and an e-bike project for the gig economy.
Power imbalance?
As carbon markets grow, there are concerns that African countries are missing out on higher-value roles in verification, auditing, and project design. African experts say the continent risks being limited to low-level roles in the value chain.
With this in mind, Ghana’s CMO has introduced a youth training initiative to build local skills and ensure long-term participation in the carbon market ecosystem.
Ernest Ofori, Mitigation Programme Manager at the Green Africa Youth Organization, said: “African governments must be intentional about building youth capacity in this growing market.”
Ghana’s carbon market is projected to attract US$1.1 billion in investment by 2030 and create thousands of jobs as the country accelerates its shift to clean energy.
