A deal struck recently puts Sierra Leone firmly on the global carbon compliance map. But the terms of that deal raise questions our government needs to answer – before the market moves on without us.
Three weeks ago, Gunvor Group – one of the world’s largest commodity trading companies – announced that carbon credits from a Sierra Leone cookstove project have been approved as CORSIA-eligible. The project, run by DelAgua, has put 250,000 fuel-efficient stoves into homes across seven of our districts. Over 1,600 young Sierra Leoneans work as community ambassadors for it. These are real gains, and they matter.
So why does the announcement leave an uneasy question on the table?
Because buried inside Gunvor’s own press release is a quiet admission: the project secured its CORSIA eligibility tag “through insurance.” Not through Sierra Leone’s own national registry. Not through a government-authorised transfer. Through a private insurance mechanism, controlled by the developer and the registry – not by us.
Our government issued a Letter of Authorisation. It did what the Paris Agreement asked of it. And it still was not enough to sit at the table where the transaction was concluded.
Zimbabwe walked this road before us
Earlier this year, Zimbabwe’s government found itself in a public confrontation with Gold Standard Foundation – a Swiss-based private registry – over 1.6 million tonnes of carbon credits. Zimbabwe had done everything the international framework requires: issued a Letter of Authorisation, applied a Corresponding Adjustment through its national registry, and transferred the credits back through the proper channels.
Those credits were still ruled ineligible for CORSIA – the international aviation offset scheme that is now the most important compliance market for carbon credits of this type. Credits that went through the sovereign pathway now trade at around $3 per tonne. Credits backed by private insurance, without government transfer, trade at around $17.
Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister did not mince words. She called it an “open affront” to the goals of CORSIA and said it risked “causing significant financial harm to innocent Zimbabwean communities.” She described it as legally questionable for a foreign organisation to override a multilateral process that African governments had negotiated in good faith.
This week, reporting from Quantum Commodity Intelligence – the specialist service that first broke the Zimbabwe story – confirmed that articles in Nigerian and Ghanaian newspapers are now raising the same questions, and that ICAO’s current Aviation Climate Week in Montreal has become the pressure point for African governments pushing to have the rules changed. The pattern is becoming clear.
What this means for Sierra Leone right now
Our country is earlier in this process than Zimbabwe was. That is an advantage, but only if we use it.
The Gunvor project is already in the market. The credits are already being sold to airlines. Our communities are already receiving a share of revenues. What we do not yet know – what our government should be asking to see – is the full picture of how those transactions work, on whose terms, and what leverage Sierra Leone retains going forward.
Market data puts the current price of CORSIA Phase 1 credits at around $10.55 per tonne. That $14-per-tonne gap between the sovereign pathway and the insurance pathway is not a technicality. Across hundreds of thousands of tonnes of credits, it is the difference between a carbon market that transforms community livelihoods and one that merely supplements them.
The window is open – but it will not stay open
The current CORSIA rules do not explicitly say that national registries cannot participate in the compliance market. That matters. It means there is space – right now – for Sierra Leone to engage with Gold Standard and Verra directly and ask the question Ghana and Nigeria are already asking: if the rules do not prohibit it, why are you not recognising sovereign registry transfers?
It also means Sierra Leone can contribute to the coalition of African governments currently pressing ICAO to codify a formal pathway for national registries, subject to clear technical conditions. We have a government that issued a valid Letter of Authorisation. We have a live project generating CORSIA credits. We have standing.
What Zimbabwe learned is that trying to establish that standing after the market has already moved past you is a costly fight. Sierra Leone still has the chance to establish it first. The Gunvor announcement tells us the market has arrived. The question for our government is whether it has arrived with us – or around us.
