Transactions on Forest Carbon - Ghana Briefing

About this briefing:

• Forest carbon is monetised through transactions: results-based payment 
agreements, credit sales and country-to-country transfers, in two broad market 
families: compliance markets created by law, and voluntary markets driven by 
corporate climate commitments. 

• Ghana already transacts in both. It has earned over USD 21 million in results-based REDD+ payments under its agreement with the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, secured Green Climate Fund finance for the Shea Landscape project, and is among the first African countries to operationalise Article 6 of the Paris Agreement through bilateral agreements, beginning with Switzerland. 

• Every transaction follows a regulated pathway: Forestry Commission buy-in, EPA engagement, a validated design document, a Letter of Authorisation, and registration in the Ghana Carbon Registry before credits can be issued or transferred. 

• The main legal risks are transactional: double counting where projects overlap with Ghana’s jurisdictional REDD+ programme, unclear rules for “nesting” projects, communities’ weak bargaining position, and the absence (pending the Carbon Markets Regulations) of detailed binding rules. 

• This briefing complements Briefing 1 (Ownership and Attribution of Forest Carbon Rights), which addresses who owns forest carbon. Here the focus is on how it is traded, and what Ghana should do to make those trades credible, equitable and safe for its national climate accounts.