LONDON (Reuters) - A consortium of European banks and French carbon trader orbeo have agreed to buy 2 million U.N.-backed carbon offsets up to 2018 from a Moroccan wind farm project, it said on Monday.
The consortium, including orbeo, Fonds Capital Carbone Maroc and the Post 2012 Carbon Credit Fund, signed an agreement to buy the pre-2012 and post-2012 credits generated through the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) from a 140 megawatt wind farm near Tangiers in Morocco.
The project was developed by Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricite (ONE) and UK-based clean energy project developer Camco.
The project should go through the CDM’s validation process at the end of this year and emissions reductions are expected to be around 370,000 tonnes per year, a press officer for orbeo told Reuters.
Uncertainty surrounds credits generated by the CDM after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 because U.N. climate talks have not yet agreed on future carbon mechanisms.
The companies would not disclose the price paid for the credits called certified emissions reductions (CERs).
The consortium will manage the project’s registration process under the CDM and purchase the pre-2012 and post-2012 CERs coming from the project, it said.
“This transaction is a flagship investment for the Post 2012 Carbon Credit Fund, whose mission is to help bridge the period of uncertainty until a successor regime to the Kyoto Protocol comes into place,” said Urs Brodmann, executive board member of First Climate, which acted as investment adviser to the Post 2012 Carbon Credit Fund.
“It underlines the growing importance of Africa as a place for carbon investments,” he added.
Members of the Post 2012 Carbon Fund include the European Investment Bank, Spanish state bank Instituto de Credito Oficial, German state bank KfW and the Nordic Investment Bank.
Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Keiron Henderson
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