Hundreds of millions of dollars pledged for African carbon credits at climate summit

FILE PHOTO: People cross a flooded area in Muloza on the border with Mozambique after the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Freddy, around 100 km outside Blantyre, Malawi, March 18, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo

NAIROBI (Reuters) - An initiative to boost Africa's carbon credit production 19-fold by 2030 drew hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges on Monday, as Kenyan President William Ruto opened the continent's first climate summit.

In one of the most anticipated deals, investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) committed to buying $450 million of carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), which was launched at Egypt's COP27 summit last year.