A historic agreement reached at the UN climate meeting in Baku could open billions of dollars in carbon offsets for Africa, with women poised to take a significant portion of the market.
Yasmin Sizwe stood alone at the South African pavilion, headphones over her braids, and her attention concentrated on the panel in front of her.
“I’m here to listen and learn,” she said, expressing her eagerness to decipher the complexity of global carbon markets and plan a path forward for Africa.
“It’s a whole new way to look at reaching climate change goals.”
The idea behind a carbon credit market is to buy credits that allow organisations to offset their emissions by funding carbon-reduction projects elsewhere.
While there have been worries about the legitimacy of certain projects in Africa, as well as charges of “greenwashing,” the market promises an enormous opportunity.
<script src="https://bird.africanofilter.org/hits/counter.js" id="bird-counter" data-counter="https://bird.africanofilter.org/hits/story/?id=1911&slug=women-eye-africa-s-projected-carbon-credit-boom" type="text/javascript" async="async"></script>The African Carbon Markets Initiative seeks to increase Africa’s carbon credit market by 19 times by 2030, generating more than $6 billion and creating 30 million jobs.
This is projected to increase investment in sustainable energy and forest initiatives throughout Africa.
The continent’s abundant biodiversity and natural resources place it in a unique position to lead the drive.
Sizwe is a social scientist and analyst with Xpotential Mining Services, where he works as both an advocate and an analyst. Her work focuses on brokering carbon credits, a market that has the potential to transform Africa’s role in the global climate economy.
Sizwe’s work focuses on facilitating these ventures. As a project developer and broker, she connects initiatives that reduce carbon emissions with purchasers wishing to offset their own.
“You develop your project, and as it starts reducing emissions, those reductions can be sold as credits,” she told me. “It’s one of the most creative strategies we have for reaching climate change goals.”
“Create impactful projects,” Sizwe explained. “We’re rich in animals, plants, trees, and people—a landscape perfectly suited for innovative solutions that generate real value.”
However, for women like Sizwe, the carbon credit market represents more than simply financial potential; it is a platform for addressing systemic inequities and creating chances for areas that are frequently left behind.
Women are rapidly carving out a niche in the carbon credit market, which Sizwe finds both motivating and natural.
“Women should be everywhere.” It’s a simple yet strong statement.
Sizwe observed that, unlike areas such as mining, where gender discrepancies are apparent, the environmental domain appears to be more balanced.
“I’m relatively new to this space, but in my journey, I’ve encountered a lot of women,” she told me.
“At this COP, they even mentioned that women occupy most of the roles in the environmental sector, which I found fascinating.”
Sizwe feels that women’s contributions in this domain extend beyond mere representation.
Yasmin Sizwe, a social scientist and analyst at Xpotential Mining Services, posing for a picture, during the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, November 16, 2024. Photo: Seth Onyango, bird story agency
“I think women’s involvement can open up the space and make it more accessible,” she told reporters.
The tremendous discrepancy between men and women she has witnessed in the mining business does not exist in the environmental and sustainability spheres, she noted.
“Maybe this is just something that women are drawn to because it has a course, there’s a goal, and you’re making an impact with these kinds of careers,” she said, adding that the impact-driven element of carbon credit work appeals to women.
Whether it’s reforestation programs that create jobs or rehabilitating damaged land that improves food security, these activities are community-focused, she noted.
According to a report by Social Development Direct, including women in climate initiatives improves outcomes and maximises climate finance utilisation.
An ecosystem services program in Indonesia, Peru, and Tanzania discovered that forest user groups with a 50% gender quota preserved more trees and distributed payments more equally than those without quotas.
