The upcoming Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) program will feature the entire carbon market value chain on the African continent, with an attractive mix of successful carbon market early entrants, climate finance-ready projects, regulators, global institutional development organizations and investors. The event will be held in Johannesburg from 22nd to 23rd October, with a pre-conference session to be held on 21st October.
CMAS is dedicated to unlocking the potential of Africa’s carbon markets by incorporating integrity, investment and impact. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) are official supporters of the event.
Changing world situation
The opening session on day 1 will focus on the critical opportunities to define the continent’s own carbon trajectory, attract meaningful investment, and align carbon market growth with climate resilience, equity, and sustainable development priorities. Confirmed speakers are:
Ian Banner, South Africa Chair Fenella Auan, Global Green Growth Institute, Luxembourg Maxwell Gomera, UNDP Javier Manzanares, Allen Manza, Panama Caroline Tixier, South African EU Delegation Angela Thuri Kalhauge, Impact, Environmental Defense Fund, USA
Align your strategy to global challenges
A session on ‘The Road to COP30: Aligning Africa’s Carbon Strategy with the Global Agenda’ will compare Africa’s carbon strategy with global frameworks such as Article 6. High-level representatives from GMEX Group, AfDBm Verra and ACMI will participate in this panel discussion.
carbon market framework
As African countries move from climate ambition to action, regulatory clarity is becoming a cornerstone of carbon market development. The session entitled ‘Transforming policy into action’ will explore how national frameworks are evolving post-COP29, how Article 6 integration is shaping up on the ground, and how public-private cooperation can drive effective enforcement. Strong representation from across the continent and value chain, including UNDP, the Government of Nigeria, the South African Ministry of Fisheries, Forestry and Environment, the Zambian Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, and the Ugandan Ministry of Climate Change, will bode well for enlightening discussions.
The integrity challenges facing carbon markets will be addressed head-on during CMAS. Olivia Tuchten, Principal Climate Change Advisor at Promethium, will lead a panel discussion on standards, verification and market oversight with experts from Verra, Gold Standard and Anthesis.
Financing the African carbon pipeline
The second day of the content-packed CMAS program will feature an investor roundtable in a more intimate setting aimed at “bringing together climate capital and scalable carbon solutions.” This roundtable allows a select group of carbon market investors and financiers to present funding, strategies, and investment opportunities to both potential capital partners and carbon project developers.
Keynote speech on investment
Day two’s keynote session, ‘Financing Africa’s carbon pipeline: de-risking, scaling and innovation’, will discuss both sides of the investment equation with participants from Shell Nature Based Solutions, Standard Bank, MIGA, AfDB and South Pole.
Jonathan Furst, senior advisor at the Climate Policy Initiative, will work with several financial institutions – TransEnergy Global, FSD Africa, JSE and JP Morgan – to shed light on how to mobilize private capital into Africa’s carbon markets.
Pre-conference day
The CARBON 101 Masterclass provides investors, policymakers and developers with the insight they need into the fast-growing business of carbon markets. Specialist facilitators in this relatively new field cover everything from international frameworks, African policy perspectives, credit integrity and investment fundamentals.
“Trust plays an important role”
As part of CMAS 2025’s mission to foster reliable, African-led carbon markets, Dominik Wilhelm, Executive Director of the Global Trust Project, will also lead a high-impact dialogue working session.
“The current value of the carbon market in 2023 is about $950 billion, but within the next 10 years it will be worth $16 trillion,” Wilhelm said. “However, the entire carbon market value chain is highly fragmented and lacks transparency. Therefore, the entire value chain needs to quickly come together in high-level dialogue, where trust will play a key role in solving some of these challenges.”
VUKA Group
The Carbon Markets Africa Summit is hosted by VUKA Group, which has over 20 years of experience serving the business community across Africa.
Event date and location
October 21: Pre-Summit Day October 22-23: Summit Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
