Samia called for African carbon equity. A rules gap is making that harder

By Fatuma Mwangi

In February 2026, AUDA-NEPAD launched a set of African Principles for Equity and Integrity in Carbon Markets, endorsed by Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan among others – a continental commitment to participation in global carbon markets on terms that reflect sovereignty, protect communities, and align with the Paris Agreement.

Four months later, a ruling by ICAO has demonstrated that the international rules governing the world's largest compliance market do not yet reflect those principles.

The ruling – reported by Carbon Pulse and Quantum Commodity Intelligence - concerns Zimbabwe, which completed every step Article 6 requires: government authorisation, national registry transfer, corresponding adjustment against its own climate target.

ICAO's CORSIA scheme ruled those credits ineligible because they had moved through a sovereign national registry rather than an approved private standard.