The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which operates Africa\u2019s biggest stock and bond exchanges, has made its play to corner the continent\u2019s nascent carbon market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Johannesburg-based company has started a market for carbon credits and renewable-energy certificates with Xpansiv, which provides the infrastructure to trade what it terms environmental commodities, it said on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are putting the plumbing in place\u201d to trade these securities, Valdene Reddy, the JSE\u2019s director of capital markets, said in an interview. \u201cWe are looking to position this as a solution across the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While South Africa is not the continent\u2019s biggest producer of carbon credits, it is the region\u2019s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. With the country rolling out a carbon tax, the market for offsets is set to surge. The nation is also Africa\u2019s biggest producer of solar and wind power, boosting its potential to have projects issue renewable-energy certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A single carbon credit represents a ton of climate-warming carbon dioxide or its equivalent either removed from the atmosphere or prevented from entering it in the first place. Renewable energy certificates each represent a unit of power generated from renewable sources, which can be traded to offset emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the continent, governments have been putting in place regulations as they try to boost income from the carbon-credit trade, generated mainly from carbon-absorbing forestry projects across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The global carbon credit market is currently worth $2 billion and is projected to grow to as much as $1 trillion per year in 15 years, according to an estimate by BloombergNEF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The JSE may compete with CYNK, a Kenya-based African offsets platform, and a carbon-markets exchange planned in Mauritius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The carbon market \u201ccould be very meaningful for us as a country and continent north of five years,\u201d she said, referring to its long-term potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n