Carbon tracking solutions company Seed10X will establish a carbon registry business in Botswana, where the Southern African Development Community's head office is, and will provide each Southern African country with its own secure carbon register, so that each country’s small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) can register their businesses and their green projects.

“For the first time, Southern Africa will have a green toolbox to offer small firms extra rewards for cutting pollution. We plan to launch and open the carbon register by mid-2022 for the entire region, on the back of a $10-million initial private capital raise,” says Seed10X senior VP Marc Tison.

Governments will be able to trade carbon credits globally and with one another.

The initiative, which forms part of a move to establish the region’s first carbon register, is being showcased to delegates at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

“We are on the cusp of opening access to a regional solution for carbon markets, which will allow all Southern African SMMEs access to extra rewards for cutting their carbon footprint,” Tison says.

Seed10X is tapping into an already established global carbon market solution through a global partnership to enable the Southern African Carbon Register to operate seamlessly across the region without any need for additional regulatory approvals.

“This new carbon register will enable SMMEs in Southern Africa and its neighbours to trade voluntary carbon credits - both within their own territory, between territories and globally, in compliance with all sections of the Paris Agreement,” says Tison.

“The aim is to create a new source of carbon credits from the Southern Africa region as global demand for these shoots up. Without access to a carbon register, SMMEs cannot participate in the global carbon market. This will unlock a new, exciting, and alternative form of funding for SMMEs to assist them to build and scale their businesses.”

With offices already established in the US, Seed10X is launching a carbon register for Southern Africa with a unique offering.

“Our global location is key as it provides us with easier access to global capital markets and new trading markets for our clients who have products developed in the region that have global export potential,” explains Tison.

“Small firms cannot, at present, easily benefit financially from their carbon-slashing initiatives. We offer the chance of aggregating the achievements of a cluster of SMMEs to give them the combined critical mass to enter - and to directly financially benefit - from the carbon trading environment.”

A carbon register is a mechanism that rewards businesses and organisations for creating carbon credits – these have a value and, through the register, are tradeable around the world.

The credits are awarded for green projects and initiatives which reduce emissions and can be sold to willing buyers to offset their own carbon footprint.

The buyers of carbon credits are large emitters of carbon like State-owned power utility Eskom and other large corporates, and worldwide demand is expected to spiral.

Attempts to establish a voluntary carbon register in South Africa have failed to take off previously, but the new initiative will reduce red tape.

“We have secured an exclusive licence to operate this carbon register in Southern Africa to register and issue carbon credits, based on global issuance standards, to a global carbon exchange,” says Tison.

“By fast-tracking this benefit, we can avoid all the regulatory hurdles which will delay anyone who is starting from scratch.

“We believe we are launching a unique offering to SMMEs. We will be providing financial incentives to SMMEs who register their green projects through a link-up with venture capital firm Global Impact Holdings (GIH), an established and credible venture-capital provider,” Tison says.

“A cluster of small firms, or a larger operator, in Southern Africa could undertake a carbon-cutting programme and sell the benefits of cutting emissions – represented by these carbon credits - to another player anywhere in the world that is unable, or finds it too costly, to reduce their own pollution,” explains GIH executive chairperson Chris Hart.

“It sounds complicated, but this ground-breaking carbon register is an exciting and innovative way for Southern Africa to develop cleaner and greener firms and factories and to be rewarded handsomely for doing so.

"If we can bring together, and mobilise on a significant scale, groups of SMMEs that are undertaking carbon-cutting initiatives, they could become significant suppliers of carbon credits to the local and global market, and help to achieve the global warming reduction target of 2 °C set by the Paris Agreement at COP25.”