The United Republic of Tanzania is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992; Kyoto Protocol of 1997; and Paris Agreement of 2015. These treaties among other things provide mechanisms for parties to meet their emission reduction commitments but also benefit from carbon credits trading. The first National Carbon Trading Guide was prepared in 2016 to provide guidance on carbon trading projects to all sectors based on Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto protocol. However, the Paris Agreement of 2015 introduces new carbon trading mechanisms which encourage parties to take action to address climate change both mitigation and adaptation. These actions include reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks as well as voluntary cooperation, cooperate approaches and Non market approaches.
Furthermore, the Paris Agreement commits each party to prepare, communicate and implement successive Nationally Determined Contributions that should be pursued using domestic mitigation measures that promote sustainable development and environmental integrity. In this context, Tanzania prepared and submitted the first Nationally Determined Contributions in 2021.
In order to align with the existing and new international carbon credit frameworks, the United Republic of Tanzania revised and developed its National Environmental Policies, climate change strategies and plans including National Environmental Master Plan for Strategics Intervention (2022-2032). These policy instruments support the implementation of carbon trading and emerging credit mechanisms under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto protocol and Paris Agreement legal frameworks. Therefore, these National Carbon Trading Guidelines (2022) are developed to incorporate key issues regarding carbon trading and other emerging carbon credit mechanisms.
The National Carbon Trading Guidelines have been prepared to address the demands of carbon trading in the United Republic of Tanzania. These guidelines cover sectors of energy, transport, waste management, forestry, agriculture, industrial processes and product use and other land uses. These Guidelines focus on tapping opportunities associated with carbon trading in line with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and voluntary carbon crediting mechanisms.
The preparation of these Guidelines have been made possible by the cooperation and commitment of stakeholders including experts from public and private sector, academic institutions as well as civil society organizations through their technical support. I take this opportunity to acknowledge their valuable contributions towards the preparation of these Guidelines.
