Zambia has launched a fully operational national carbon registry, establishing a central system for recording and monitoring carbon-market activities as the country moves from regulatory preparation towards participation in international carbon trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The registry, launched by the Government of Zambia on August 11, 2026, is intended to strengthen transparency, emissions accounting and public oversight while creating a more credible institutional foundation for mobilising climate finance.
The Zambia Carbon Registry has been developed with support from the Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPAR6C) programme and forms part of a broader architecture of laws, regulations and monitoring systems established by Lusaka to govern the carbon market. Zambia enacted the Green Economy and Climate Change Act in 2024 and published its Carbon Market Framework in 2025, while the Green Economy and Climate Change (Carbon Market) Regulations came into force in January 2026. According to the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, these reforms are intended to establish clearer rules for carbon-project development, trading, monitoring and reporting while supporting the country’s nationally determined contribution.
The registry is significant because carbon markets depend on credible accounting systems to establish who owns an emissions reduction, whether a project has delivered what it claims and whether the same reduction has been counted more than once. Under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, countries can cooperate through internationally transferred mitigation outcomes, or ITMOs, but such transfers require robust accounting and reporting arrangements. The UNFCCC says Article 6.2 provides guidance for accounting and reporting on internationally transferred mitigation outcomes used towards national climate commitments.
For Zambia, integrating the registry with its national monitoring, reporting and verification system is therefore central to the credibility of its carbon market. Zambia’s Carbon Market Framework had already envisaged making the registry part of the country’s integrated MRV system, with the registry intended to support Article 6 operationalisation and national oversight of mitigation activities. The practical importance is also financial. Carbon markets are increasingly being considered as one mechanism through which developing countries can attract additional resources for renewable energy, forestry, agriculture, waste management and other emissions-reduction activities. But international buyers are likely to place greater value on credits backed by transparent national systems that can demonstrate the origin, status and accounting treatment of mitigation outcomes.
Zambia has already begun moving in that direction through bilateral cooperation. In January 2026, Zambia and Norway signed a Mitigation Outcome Purchase Agreement under Article 6 for the Carbon Feed-in Premium programme, which is designed to support new renewable-energy generation through performance-based payments for verified emissions reductions. According to the Zambian Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, the programme could support up to 300 megawatts of renewable energy and reduce as much as 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over 10 years.
The agreement illustrates why a functioning registry matters beyond administrative compliance. If mitigation outcomes generated through such programmes are transferred internationally, Zambia must be able to track the units, maintain an accurate national emissions balance and apply the accounting procedures required under Article 6. The registry can therefore become part of the infrastructure through which carbon finance is connected to actual investment in the economy.
The SPAR6C programme has supported Zambia’s transition towards this stage. Led globally by the Global Green Growth Institute, SPAR6C has worked with Zambia and other participating countries to develop Article 6 governance frameworks, build institutional capacity and prepare potential mitigation activities for international transactions. GGGI says Zambia’s Carbon Market Framework and technical work on emissions factors were among the outputs of the country’s readiness process.
Zambia’s carbon-market development has also been accompanied by a broader effort to improve climate-finance institutions. In March 2026, the government launched a Climate Finance Unit under the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, with responsibility for coordinating the mobilisation, allocation and tracking of climate investments. The unit is intended to connect policy priorities with project development and financing, adding another layer to Zambia’s emerging climate-finance architecture.
The carbon registry will serve project developers, government authorities, Designated Operational Entities and members of the public. Public access to information is particularly relevant because carbon markets can involve complex financial arrangements, long-term claims over emissions reductions and projects affecting land, forests, energy systems and local communities. Making project information and transactions more traceable can improve oversight and provide investors with greater visibility into the market.
Zambia has been working on this transparency issue for several years. In 2024, Permanent Secretary Dr Douty Chibamba said the national registry would function as a clearing house and repository for carbon transactions and that information on projects and agreements should be accessible to stakeholders once the system was operational. At the time, the registry was one of the remaining components needed to complete Zambia’s carbon-market infrastructure.
The launch also comes at a time when African governments are attempting to capture a greater share of the economic value associated with carbon markets. The continent has significant mitigation potential in forests, agriculture, renewable energy, waste management and land restoration, but governments face the challenge of ensuring that carbon finance supports domestic development rather than creating isolated projects with limited economic spillovers. For Zambia, this question is particularly important because the country is seeking to use climate finance to support broader economic transformation. Its national green-growth agenda includes renewable energy, sustainable land management, climate-resilient infrastructure and low-carbon investment. The country’s latest reporting to the UNFCCC says Zambia is pursuing reforms and innovative financing mechanisms intended to mobilise climate finance, expand clean energy and support sustainable agriculture, forests and resilient infrastructure.
The registry could also strengthen the country’s position as carbon markets become increasingly integrated with international climate policy. Carbon markets have historically faced concerns over additionality, credit quality, permanence, verification and double counting. International negotiations have consequently focused on establishing accounting and governance rules that can improve confidence in internationally traded mitigation outcomes. Reuters reported that COP29 in 2024 delivered important standards for operationalising a global carbon market, although concerns over credit integrity and implementation remain.
For Zambia, avoiding double counting will be particularly important where carbon projects generate mitigation outcomes that could potentially be used both towards Zambia’s NDC and by an international buyer. Article 6 accounting mechanisms, including corresponding adjustments where applicable, are designed to prevent the same reduction from being claimed by more than one party. Zambia’s own Article 6 framework recognises that international transfers require additional national decision-making and accounting arrangements.
The country has also been expanding its network of Article 6 partnerships. Zambia signed an Article 6 bilateral agreement with Switzerland at COP30 in 2025, while its cooperation with Norway has already moved into a transaction-oriented phase. The government has also engaged in discussions with other potential buyer countries, reflecting the wider effort to establish demand for Zambian mitigation outcomes.
The registry’s effectiveness will therefore depend on what happens after its launch. A digital platform alone cannot guarantee the environmental integrity of carbon credits. The government will need to ensure that projects are properly monitored, reported and independently verified, that regulations are enforced and that information remains accurate and accessible. Institutional capacity will also be important as the number and complexity of carbon-market projects increase.
There are wider implications for African climate finance. Countries seeking to participate in Article 6 markets will need systems capable of linking individual mitigation projects with national emissions inventories and NDC implementation. This requires investment not only in registries but also in data systems, technical expertise, verification capacity, regulatory institutions and mechanisms for distributing economic benefits.
Zambia’s experience could therefore provide a useful reference for other African countries developing their own carbon-market infrastructure. Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania and other markets are also strengthening regulatory and institutional frameworks as demand for high-integrity carbon credits evolves. The common challenge is to establish systems that can attract investment while protecting national climate accounting and ensuring that environmental and social safeguards are applied.
For investors, a functioning registry may reduce information and regulatory uncertainty, but it does not eliminate project-level risks. The quality of individual credits will continue to depend on methodology, additionality, monitoring, verification, permanence where relevant and the credibility of underlying mitigation activities. The registry’s value will ultimately be determined by how effectively it supports these processes.
For Zambia’s public finances, carbon-market revenue should likewise be viewed as complementary rather than a substitute for broader climate and development finance. The country’s experience demonstrates that carbon markets can support investment in sectors such as renewable energy, but transactions require strong institutions and credible accounting before they can generate sustained financial value.
The launch of the Zambia Carbon Registry thus marks a transition in the country’s carbon-market development. Zambia has moved from establishing the rules and institutional architecture towards operating a system designed to track and govern real market activity. Its next test will be whether that infrastructure can support credible transactions, attract climate investment and ensure that emissions reductions counted internationally remain consistent with Zambia’s own climate objectives.
For Africa, the broader issue is not simply how many carbon credits the continent can generate, but whether carbon-market systems can become credible financial infrastructure for low-carbon development. Zambia’s registry provides one example of the institutional foundations required to make that transition possible, linking carbon accounting, climate governance and investment more closely to national development priorities.
