This weekend, Gabon’s Minister of the Environment and Forestry, Lee White, revealed Gabon’s target price for the 90 million carbon credits (out of 187 in total) that it plans to sell on the offset market by COP 27.
Responding to an Internet user who deplored the fact that Gabon would only be offered a price of $10 per tonne of carbon, the Minister of the Environment replied: « My opinion is that the range should be $25 to $35 for pre-Glasgow REDD+.
Given that Gabon plans to create 187 million carbon credits, if we consider the high range ($35), this makes a total amount of more than $6.5 billion (4,375 billion CFA francs).
In an interview with Jeune Afrique last June, the Minister of the Environment indicated that Gabon was planning to sell half of this amount ($90 million to be precise) on the offset market, i.e. $3.25 billion at the high end (CFA francs), « around COP27 » scheduled for next November in Cairo, Egypt.
At the moment, « we have an offer at $30, » Lee White said on Twitter. This means that the country could receive $2.8 billion in the next few weeks, which is $800,000 million more than the target set last June by the Minister ($2 billion).
We have an offer at $30. My view is the range should be $25-35 for pre-Glasgow REDD+ https://t.co/Pl9liJGnI2
— Prof. Lee White CBE (@LeeWhiteCBE) October 9, 2022
Knowing that the dollar, the currency used on the carbon credit market, has risen in recent months by 20% against the euro, which serves as a fixed parity for the CFA franc (the rate today is 673 CFA francs to the dollar, compared to 655 CFA francs to the dollar at the beginning of the year), the total amount to be received by Gabon in the coming weeks could amount to 1,885 billion CFA francs.
For Gabon, this would be a major turning point. This figure greatly exceeds the gross budgetary revenue expected in 2022 (of the order of 1885 FCFA). More importantly, it represents three times the country’s expected oil revenues this year (estimated at CFAF 693.8 billion). In Gabon, the post-oil era is already a reality.
