Egypt launches first market for voluntary carbon emissions reduction certificates

Egypt launches first market for voluntary carbon emissions reduction certificates
11 / 08 / 2024
By Marwa Nassar - -

 Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) announced launching the first market for voluntary carbon emissions reduction certificates in Egypt and Africa.

In a statement on Sunday, FRA said the new market enables the executors and financiers of carbon reduction projects to issue carbon reduction certificates for projects registered in the authority and sell them in trading systems equipped by the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) to attract local and foreign investors to trade in these certificates.

This will contribute to boosting investment and sustainable economic growth rates.

FRA Chairman Mohamed Farid said the new market will support state efforts in negotiations related to the requirements of cutting carbon footprint of commodities which are exported.

As a first step toward establishing the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in Egypt, Prime Minister issued Decree No. 4664/2022 amending some provisions of the Executive Regulations of the Capital Market Law issued by Law No. 95/1992 to consider carbon credits as a financial instrument.

Then, FRA Chairman issued Decrees No. 57/2023 and 58/2023 promulgating the formation of the Supervisory and Control Committee on Carbon Emissions Reduction Units and its terms of reference.

The committee is responsible for laying down rules and regulations of issuing carbon credits, namely the disclosure of carbon reduction projects and programs.

The committee also shall set the criteria for selecting the verification and validation bodies (VVBs) for carbon emission reduction projects and prepare special guiding rules with the standards of integrity and credibility of carbon emission reduction certificates.

To accelerate the activation of the VCM, FRA issued Decree No. 163/2023 promulgating the Standards of Registering Verification and Validation Bodies (VVBs) for Carbon Emission Reduction Projects with FRA.

According to the decree, a registry shall be established by FRA to register the VVBs issuing carbon credits for carbon emission reduction projects.

The committee began receiving applications from entities wishing to be registered as VVBs. The committee interviewed the applicants to verify their capabilities and qualifications and approved the listing of three VVBs including a foreign entity.

FRA issued the rules of listing and delisting carbon credits on the EGX. The new rules stipulate all requirements to register carbon offset projects for the first time in Egypt in an effort to fast track the operationalization of the VCM.

As per the new rules, applications for registering carbon offset projects, to which carbon credits were or will be issued, shall be submitted on the form prepared for this purpose to FRA via the Carbon Offset Projects Database.

Then FRA shall issue a certificate indicating registration of the project in the database after presenting all of the required documents.

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