‘Land grabs’ in Africa replaced by ‘carbon grabs’, says Akinwumi Adesina

The head of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, says big foreign companies are not paying Africa fairly for its role in fighting climate change. He calls this unfair practice “carbon grabs.”

Adesina explained that when companies buy carbon credits from Africa, they pay much less than in other places like Europe. In Europe, one ton of carbon credits can cost €200. But in Africa, companies sometimes pay just $3 for the same thing. This is not fair to African countries working hard to protect forests and reduce pollution.

Many of these carbon credit deals involve projects to stop deforestation or provide clean cookstoves. But some of these projects don’t actually reduce pollution as much as claimed. This makes the credits from Africa worth even less.

Adesina also said the world doesn’t count Africa’s natural wealth properly. Africa has huge amounts of oil, gas, minerals, and forests, but these aren’t included when measuring how rich African countries are. If they were counted fairly, Africa could get better loans and grow faster.

On energy, Adesina said Africa should use its oil and gas to get electricity to millions who still don’t have it. He’s angry that rich countries tell Africa to use only solar and wind energy while they still use oil and gas themselves.

Adesina finishes his time as AfDB president in September. Before he leaves, he wants to change how Africa deals with money problems. Many African countries owe too much, and he says the system for rating their credit is unfair. He thinks Africa needs its own rating agency to fix this.

The search for a new AfDB president will start soon. Whoever takes over will need to keep fighting for Africa to get fair prices for its resources and fair treatment in global finance.