By Kenicia Francis
The Prime Minister unveiled ambitious plans to establish a financial institution specifically geared to helping small islands earn carbon credits, among other things.
PM Gaston Browne outlined his idea during a side event at the SIDS conference yesterday afternoon.
“One of the initiatives that we are pursuing is the establishment of a development bank for SIDS. Now, this concept of a development bank, I think, is a novel idea in that the assets of the bank will comprise primarily of our, let’s say, terrestrial and marine conservation assets. I mean, within SIDS, we have a significant amount of marine assets under our control. We control up to one-third of the global seascape. And we know that the oceans, they represent a significant amount of, I would say, their carbon sink for a significant amount of carbon. In addition to that, the mangroves and certainly the seagrass, they sequester a significant amount of carbon,” said Browne.
The bank’s main assets would be land and sea conservation resources. Small islands have a lot of marine resources under their control, covering a large part of the world’s oceans. These oceans act as a huge carbon sink, absorbing a lot of carbon dioxide.
Also, the mangroves and seagrass play a big role in trapping carbon, helping to reduce the impact of climate change.
Browne said the government planned to undertake work to restore coral reefs and mangroves along with reforestation endeavours.
He also explained, “What we’ll be doing, in essence, is that these assets that we have reserved for conservation, we intend to invest in this development bank. And the whole idea is to monetise those assets. So, for example, we expect to develop a carbon credit scheme so that we will measure and monetise the carbon that is sequestered. And hopefully, that will be a good source of revenue for SIDS as we seek to resolve our financial problems. Because one of the major issues affecting SIDS is the issue of access to financing to adapt and to mitigate against the effects of climate change. And rather than relying exclusively on our international partners for assistance, you know, we have to help ourselves.”
So, what Browne is planning to do is take these conservation assets and put them into this development bank to make money from them.
The idea is to make these assets profitable by creating a carbon credit program to measure and make money from the carbon stored in these areas.
Carbon credits are like a way to balance out the carbon emissions produced.
They serve as a mechanism to offset emissions by encouraging emission reduction and investment in environmental projects.
Companies benefit from purchasing carbon credits to balance their carbon footprint by supporting initiatives that reduce or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
This not only showcases environmental responsibility but also aids in meeting regulatory requirements and advancing sustainability goals, contributing to global efforts against climate change.
This could become a significant source of income for small islands and developing states to address their financial challenges, especially when it comes to dealing with climate change impacts.
Instead of solely relying on outside help, the aim is to be more self-sufficient.
The idea is that pioneering a new development bank, whose assets are composed entirely of natural resources rather than money will help small islands like Antigua and Barbuda see success in the fight against climate change.
The proposed carbon credit scheme will measure and monetise the sequestered carbon, providing a sustainable revenue stream.
