What Happened
- Kenya has cracked down on several carbon credit projects, revoking or blocking approvals for credits that were generated with irregularities — including projects that used exploitative community land agreements and inflated carbon calculations.
- KOKO Networks, one of Africa's largest clean cooking companies, shut down its Kenyan operations on 31 January 2026 after the government declined to grant regulatory approval for international sale of its carbon credits, stranding $300 million in investment and cutting off 1.5 million low-income households from bioethanol cooking fuel.
- A Kenyan court ruled that two of the largest conservancies under the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) — the basis of a major carbon offsetting project used by Meta, Netflix, and British Airways — were established unconstitutionally, invalidating approximately 20% of that project's carbon credits.
- Residents of Kajiado County demanded a probe into the Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project, citing exploitative 40-year land lease agreements signed without proper Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from indigenous communities.
- Kenya's carbon market expanded 15% in 2025, but disputes over verification, land rights, and contract breaches increased 25% year-on-year, revealing systemic governance gaps in the voluntary carbon market.
Static Topic Bridges
Paris Agreement Article 6 and International Carbon Markets
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (adopted December 2015, entered into force November 2016) establishes the framework for international carbon markets under the UNFCCC. Article 6.2 enables bilateral Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) between countries; Article 6.4 establishes a UN-supervised centralised carbon crediting mechanism (successor to the CDM). The COP29 (Baku, 2024) finalised the Article 6.4 rulebook, operationalising the new carbon market framework. Article 5.2 specifically underpins REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) activities, which are a major source of African carbon credits.
- Paris Agreement: Adopted 12 December 2015; entered into force 4 November 2016; 196 parties
- Article 6.2: Bilateral ITMOs — Corresponding Adjustments to avoid double counting
- Article 6.4: Centralized UN mechanism, replacing CDM (Clean Development Mechanism under Kyoto Protocol)
- REDD+ under Article 5.2: Forest carbon credits — must follow Article 6.4 guidance for market eligibility
- India: Major supplier in CDM and Voluntary Carbon Markets; active in ITMOs under Article 6.2
Connection to this news: Kenya's carbon projects were primarily REDD+-style land-use/forest-conservation offsets sold through Voluntary Carbon Markets. The crackdown exposes the governance gap between voluntary standards (Verra, Gold Standard) and the emerging Article 6.4 framework that demands higher integrity, Corresponding Adjustments, and community consent.
Voluntary Carbon Market Standards and the Integrity Problem
The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) operates outside UNFCCC compliance mechanisms — companies buy credits to offset their emissions voluntarily. The main standard-setting bodies are Verra (which manages the Verified Carbon Standard/VCS) and Gold Standard. Credits are verified by third-party auditors. The VCM has been criticised for problems including: over-crediting (inflated baseline emissions leading to phantom reductions), additionality failures (projects that would have happened anyway), permanence risks (forests can burn), and most recently — Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) violations affecting indigenous communities.
- Verra VCS: Largest voluntary standard; NRT's Northern Kenya Rangelands project was VCS-verified
- Additionality: Credits are valid only if the emissions reduction would NOT have occurred without the carbon payment
- FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent): Indigenous rights standard under UNDRIP (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007)
- High-Level Expert Group on Net Zero Commitments (HLEGE, UN, 2022): Recommended phase-out of offset-based net zero claims
Connection to this news: The Kenya cases illustrate the VCM's core integrity failures — KOKO Networks' collapse on a technicality, NRT's constitutional breach, and Kajiado's FPIC violations are precisely the additionality, legality, and rights problems that critics of the VCM have long highlighted.
REDD+ and Forest Carbon in Africa
REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus conservation, sustainable management, and enhancement of carbon stocks) is a UN framework incentivising developing countries to protect forests. Kenya's carbon projects are predominantly REDD+ or REDD+-adjacent, covering rangelands and savanna ecosystems that sequester carbon. African nations — Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Gabon — have become major carbon credit suppliers under VCM because of their large forested/natural land areas and low deforestation baselines.
- REDD+ established under UNFCCC COP13 Bali Action Plan (2007); operationalised through Warsaw REDD+ Framework (COP19, 2013)
- Key safeguards: Cancun Safeguards (2010) — must respect rights of indigenous peoples and local communities
- Methodological framework: Requires reference emission levels, forest monitoring systems, safeguard information systems
- Kenya Carbon Markets Regulatory Authority: Established under Climate Change (Amendment) Act 2023 — first in Africa to create a dedicated carbon markets regulator
Connection to this news: Kenya's regulatory crackdown is enabled by the Carbon Markets Regulatory Authority created under its 2023 Climate Change Amendment Act — the first such body in Africa — now blocking credits from projects that fail REDD+ safeguard requirements.
India's Carbon Market — Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) 2023
India launched its domestic carbon market through the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) notified in June 2023 under the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022. The scheme mandates emissions targets for energy-intensive sectors and allows entities to trade Carbon Credit Certificates (CCCs). India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Ministry of Power is the designated regulatory body. India also participates in Article 6.2 bilateral deals.
- Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022: Inserted Section 14A empowering the Centre to establish a carbon market
- CCTS 2023: Mandatory for obligated entities (cement, steel, aluminium, petrochemicals, etc.); voluntary for others
- BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency): Administers the Indian Carbon Market (ICM)
- Grid Controller of India (GCI): Manages the trading platform
- India's NDC: Target to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030 (from 2005 levels)
Connection to this news: The Kenya experience is directly relevant to India's nascent carbon market design — particularly the risks of VCM-style integrity failures if additionality verification, community consent standards, and regulatory oversight are not built robustly into the CCTS framework from the outset.
Key Facts & Data
- KOKO Networks: Shut down Kenya operations 31 January 2026; $300 million investment stranded; 1.5 million households lost access to bioethanol fuel
- Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT): Court ruling invalidated ~20% of project's carbon credits
- Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project: Exploitative 40-year land lease agreements without FPIC
- Kenya's carbon market growth: 15% expansion in 2025; disputes up 25% year-on-year
- Paris Agreement: Article 6 operationalised at COP29 (Baku, 2024)
- REDD+ Cancun Safeguards (2010): Must respect indigenous and community rights
- India CCTS: Notified June 2023 under Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022