This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration to strengthen coverage of the climate story.
The U.S. government has unveiled a new voluntary carbon trading market scheme with the aim of boosting private investment in clean energy projects in developing countries.
John Kerry, the U.S.’s climate envoy, said the new initiative, the energy transition accelerator, will be created in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund to help deliver the trillions of dollars of investment needed to help poorer countries transition to renewables and stave off disastrous climate impacts.
Nigeria and Chile are already interested in the plan, Kerry said, which could be operational from next year and will involve the buying and selling of credits that represent carbon pollution. This market, which will not be open to fossil fuel companies, is designed to bolster investment in renewables and help slash emissions.
Annual investment in clean energy needs to triple to more than $4 trillion by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency, to avoid dangerous global heating, but Kerry said leaders of developing countries struggle to raise enough money, requiring new ways to grow private investment.
“We have to win the battle against the climate crisis, not give in to business as usual,” Kerry said. “I’ve been doing this [talking about climate change] since 1988 and I…
