By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Attorney General yesterday hailed the Carbon Credit Trading Bill as “trailblazing”, asserting that The Bahamas is further ahead of the entire world in having a “specific framework” to regulate this multi-million dollar activity.

Senator Ryan Pinder QC, speaking in the Senate, said Carbon Management Ltd, the entity that will be created to manage The Bahamas’ carbon credits and their trading, will operate just like any other corporate vehicle licensed and registered with the Securities Commission.

He added that the Bill “creates a framework for investigation and co-operation needed for international obligations, and imposes anti-money laundering obligations on the licensees. This piece of legislation, frankly, is trailblazing internationally, one of the first to prescribe a specific framework for the trading in carbon credits all over the world.”

The Bahamas was also asked to sit on the steering committee for the International Organisation of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) financial technology (FinTech) task force, Mr Pinder added, saying this resulted partially from how “advanced” this nation is in developing a legal and regulatory platform to govern its carbon credits.

“We are pioneering the blue carbon space, contributing to the design and the framework of international legislation many will copy,” he said. “Many will try to do what we do, and that’s the importance of having the management company that has the experience, and that the Government is a shareholder in.

“Because when they try to copy us, they’re going to want the management company who put it in place to do it for them, and when they do it for them, The Bahamas shares in that. That’s the nature of the structure which we have established.

“We will take this frontier to the world and we will participate across the globe. We are going into the global marketplace that we create. We are at the front of the frontier, making it happen and bringing the benefits back to the greatest little country and all over the world.”

Mr Pinder said the objective is establish a carbon credit marketplace in The Bahamas so that the country can exploit any long-term benefits from this industry. “The economic value for the trade in carbon credits is significant. One tonne of carbon credits in the voluntary marketplace is valued at $55 a ton, and in Europe we’ve seen pricing up to $99 a ton,” he added.

“This value will only further increase as the Article Six marketplace is advanced and continues, as we move towards the 2030 and 2050 deadlines where companies and countries have to be net zero from a carbon emissions point of view. As you get closer to that time period, carbon credits become more valuable and the price goes up.”

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on greenhouse gasses enables signatories to cooperate in implementing their nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) towards emission reduction. This means that emission reductions can be transferred between countries and counted towards NDCs.

Mr Pinder said: “We need a framework and an exchange to be able to sell our carbon credits in the marketplace. Why not have this marketplace be in The Bahamas? Why not own a piece of this marketplace as the Bahamian government?

“That is what we’re doing. That is why the Carbon Credit Trading Bill 2022 is here today to create the framework to do just this. It provides for a comprehensive legislative regulatory framework for the operation of a carbon market exchange and related businesses.”