The West African Alliance on Carbon Market and Climate Finance has adopted an ambitious approach to compensate for the ecological and social impact of its travel emissions. In order to attend workshops, conferences and UNFCCC negotiations, members, country representatives and mandated experts of the Alliance took more than 170 regional and international flights. Climate Focus is advising the Alliance on how to offset the real costs of the resulting travel emissions.

Under the new carbon neutrality strategy, all flights taken on behalf of the Alliance are quantified using the Atmosfair flight emission calculator. The calculation factors in multiple pollutants and uses a conservative estimate. The real cost of the emissions is then determined by applying the World Bank’s Shadow Price of Carbon (SPC). For the years 2017 to 2020, the average price was USD 78 / EUR 69 per ton of CO2 – significantly higher than the cost of carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market.

Taking this calculation into account, the Alliance purchased 950 Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) linked to the CDM- and Gold Standard-certified PoA 5067 project that promotes the dissemination of efficient wood stoves to Nigerian households.

As a technical partner member of the Steering Committee of the West African Alliance, Climate Focus supported the Alliance in formulating its carbon neutrality strategy (which was inspired by Climate Focus’ company travel policy) throughout the whole process, from calculating the compensation budget to identifying suitable carbon projects in the West African region. Climate Focus continues to work with the Alliance to increase the participation of West African countries in international carbon markets.