December 2009: The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has published a report in French on its role in the future climate change regime. The report, titled “New Treaty on Climate: Copenhagen 2009, role and place of the BOAD,” discusses the enhancement of the Bank’s environmental policy and proposed Carbon Initiative. The report also highlights the Bank’s plan to become a catalyst of the carbon market in West Africa, by promoting and financing Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, in collaboration with the West-African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), as well as with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank.

Within the proposed Carbon Initiative, the Bank aims to: support the creation or strengthening of institutional, legal and regulatory capacities of the UEMOA States; consolidate technical capacities of development stakeholders in the region; mobilize financing for the development of CDM projects and the carbon market in the UEMOA; and develop a portfolio of national and regional projects eligible to the CDM.

Among the recommendations contained in the report, the BOAD signals its intention to obtain observer status before the UNFCCC, become an executive agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as well as of other existing or future financing mechanisms under the UNFCCC, and elicit attention for the creation of a Regional Carbon Fund within the BOAD to manage financing for CDM projects.[The Report]