Belize Looking for Top Price for Carbon Credits
Speaking about carbon credits, there are several interested parties who want to engage in Belize’s carbon market, even as the mechanism is being finalized. And today, following sessions this morning, Minister Orlando Habet and C.E.O. Doctor Kenrick Williams met casually with representatives of an interested party to look at the potential opportunity for business. In an interview with Minister Habet, following that meeting, he said that Belize is looking for maximum returns on the investments it has made in the environment.
Orlando Habet
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management
“We have interested parties – two, three, four maybe – and we are trying to see how we can get the credible ones and the ones who can give us the best buck for our credits.”
Duane Moody
“Nationally, how much do we have available for sale?”
Orlando Habet
“What has been verified and has been posted now on the UNFCCC site is five point six million kilotons of carbon. That’s for 2016 to 2018. We have done the preliminary assessment which we also have to get verified and that’s estimated at about eleven million. So totally we have somewhere around sixteen point seven million kilotons of carbon dioxide equivalent. It all depends on who you are speaking to, but those on the market are talking about rating of that carbon. So, we have rating agencies. We will rate ours high cause ours have a high biodiversity value. We have sixty percent of our country in forest, we have large biodiversity. Not only because of the carbon, but because of the water that flows through in these areas. And so, when we start making our brochure, we protect the macaw, we protect all parrots, we have the largest jaguar reserve and so all of these will come into our marketing strategy for us to be able to get the highest quality put out there so that we can also get the highest value possible. We are willing to hear out the buyers, but as I mentioned, we have to get them registered, they have to be on that platform. And then look at the potential buyers. But also, when we go back, we are getting this information, we go back, we discuss it with the Ministry of Finance, we take it to cabinet to make a final decision. So, cabinet will ultimately decide what to do. But the suggestion right now, and what I can say is that we are looking at exploring maybe taking a portion of it and trying it with a certain market to see how that plays out and then we can decide because you can sell all or just a portion.”
Minister Habet says that the responsibility, as a country, is to put back some of the monies from the sale of carbon credits into conservation to assist with national development. This may be done via the sharing of proceeds for the stewards of these forests.
