The South African Green Building Council is preparing to develop a home-grown rating system along the lines of Australia's Green Star rating system, which will help raise awareness and increase pressure for more sustainable building designs. That in turn should increase momentum for projects seeking funding through international carbon trading. There have been very few to date in South Africa: less than two percent of global certificates of emission reduction have come from the whole of Africa. By September 2007, just 21 CDM projects registered with the UN Climate Change Secretariat were in Africa.
But South Africa would do well to beef up its support of carbon reduction efforts, beyond just trying to facilitate trading through organisations like the Central Energy Fund or conferences like the annual Clean Development Mechanism and Carbon Trading Africa. A report from India points out that "despite Indian industry responding positively to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the carbon market in the country is up against institutional, financial and technical impediments". The country needs a more supportive legal and regulatory framework. Capacity building and information dissemination are key challenges, along with delays and costs in getting Carbon Emission Reduction certification, and uncertainties in the carbon market.
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