Carbon credits where credits are due: How Rwanda can generate green investment from electric mobility offsets

Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure is working with the private sector to scale up electric mobility in Rwanda. Rwanda-based electric motorbike company Ampersand, is seeking to generate carbon offsets from the greenhouse gas reductions that its electric motorbikes will generate compared to combustion engine motorbikes, and received initial supported for this purpose from the Shell Foundation (funder) and South Pole (intermediary entity providing technical support) in 2020 and 2021. This potential opportunity to generate carbon offsets from electric mobility, leading to increased green investment in the sector, led the authors to ask how Rwanda can realise this opportunity, what policy and institutional structures are already in place and what further interventions would be necessary to make e-mobility carbon offsets a reality.

This paper seeks to address these questions, by: i) describing Rwanda’s commitment to green growth; ii) giving an overview of global carbon markets; iii) explaining the role of government in maximising the benefits from engaging in carbon markets; iv) describing how Rwanda is already engaging in carbon markets; v) making the case for electric mobility as an early candidate for real carbon credit transactions under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement; and vii) giving reflections on a well-designed carbon market regulation.