World Bank gets into carbon swapping game

Carbon is the new Panini stickers – it looks like everyone’s up for trading these days (Greenbang has the shiny foil ones – they’re worth more). The latest to jump on the “got, got, need, got, swap,” bandwagon is the World Bank’s lender, International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The IFC has come up with a carbon trading scheme for Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia giving “companies selling carbon credits the chance to access a wider range of potential buyers by mitigating country and project risk”.

Under the new carbon delivery guarantee, IFC facilitates delivery of carbon credits from companies in developing countries to buyers in developed countries. IFC acts as an intermediary, selling companies’ credits in the market and passing an attractive price back to the projects. Clients profit from IFC’s AAA credit rating by gaining access to markets and benefit from full price transparency. For buyers in developed countries, IFC also eliminates the risk of not receiving the promised carbon credits.

Some of the first folk to step up with their deck of spares held together with an elastic band is Omnia, a South African fertiliser company which has 900,000 credits to sell, and Indian coke-seller Rain CII Carbon with 850,000. And here’s how they’ve got them:

IFC is actively pursing carbon delivery guarantee deals throughout the developing world. In Rain’s case, the Indian company used IFC financing to install waste heat recovery facilities that help eliminate its dependence on fossil fuels for power generation and generate carbon credits as a result.

Omnia’s emission reductions will come from a nitrous oxide destruction facility that will significantly reduce emissions. Nitrous dioxide and other greenhouse gases are considered the leading cause of global climate change.