By Abbas Nazil
Equitable Earth, a digital-first carbon certification and verification firm, has raised EUR 12.6 million, equivalent to USD 13.8 million, to scale its nature-based carbon programs globally, bringing its total funding above EUR 25 million.
The firm provides methodologies recognized under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles and plans to expand its technology, monitoring, and verification systems while extending methodologies into new ecosystems.
While the development has global relevance, it carries significant implications for Africa, home to some of the world’s most extensive forests, wetlands, and biodiversity-rich landscapes.
Carbon markets are increasingly promoted as mechanisms to finance climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, yet the African continent has struggled to fully capitalize on these opportunities.
Voluntary carbon credits allow corporations and institutions to offset emissions outside of regulated compliance schemes, but uneven buyer confidence has historically limited investment in African projects.
Concerns over permanence, additionality, governance, and measurable benefits for local communities have often prevented African projects from attracting substantial financing.
Equitable Earth’s approach, which embeds robust measurement, reporting, and verification systems, aims to address these challenges and make projects more bankable for investors.
Africa hosts critical ecosystems, including the Congo Basin, coastal mangroves, and the Eastern Arc Mountains, which play key roles in carbon sequestration, water regulation, and biodiversity conservation.
These regions also support millions of rural livelihoods, yet they face ongoing threats from deforestation, land degradation, and climate pressures.
By standardizing carbon accounting and deploying digital verification tools, Equitable Earth seeks to provide both project developers and buyers with confidence that credits reflect real and lasting environmental impact.
Some African governments and conservation organizations are already piloting voluntary carbon solutions, with initiatives in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo focusing on REDD+ programs, while Kenya links carbon projects to reforestation, improved cookstoves, and water management efforts.
Despite small-scale successes, expansion has been hindered by inconsistent policy frameworks, limited technical capacity, and low investor confidence.
Equitable Earth’s insistence on community participation and equitable benefit-sharing aligns with African realities, as many project sites are located on customary or community-managed lands.
Ensuring tangible social, economic, and environmental benefits for local stakeholders is critical to maintaining legitimacy and supporting climate adaptation goals.
Policy clarity will also be essential, with African nations needing to define legal frameworks for carbon ownership, integrate voluntary carbon finance into national climate strategies, and develop regulations that reduce uncertainty for investors.
The timing of this funding is significant, as ongoing COP negotiations under Article 6 are shaping rules for market-based mechanisms and voluntary offsets, which will influence both investor confidence and the scalability of African projects.
Properly executed nature-based carbon programs can create jobs, increase rural incomes, improve ecosystem services, and enhance resilience to climate shocks while supporting sustainable development.
The expansion of rigorous certification platforms like Equitable Earth’s could unlock substantial private-sector investment in Africa, provided governments and institutions strengthen governance, technical capacity, and monitoring frameworks to meet global standards.
