Staff Reporter
Harare –Climate Action Network Zimbabwe (CAN Zimbabwe), in partnership with the ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, will host an inaugural human-centred and rights-based post-COP30 symposium on 16 and 17 December 2025 at Cresta Lodge Masasa, Harare.
The symposium is being organised under the Climate Action Council of Zimbabwe Initiative, a coordinated platform bringing together civil society, government and development partners to address climate change through national policy and international commitments.
The meeting follows the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held from 10 to 21 November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, which drew 193 countries and more than 56,000 delegates, despite the absence of the United States. One of COP30’s major outcomes was a pledge to triple global climate adaptation finance from US$26 billion to US$120 billion by 2035 to protect vulnerable nations from worsening floods, droughts and heat waves.
The Harare symposium is expected to interrogate governance gaps in the Climate Change Management Bill and Zimbabwe’s emerging carbon market framework. The Bill seeks to regulate climate action, mobilise resources, promote mitigation and adaptation, and govern carbon market operations, including the approval, monitoring and administration of carbon offset projects. Its principles were approved by Cabinet in late 2023 and it is currently before Parliament.
CAN Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Anglistone Sibanda, said the symposium aims to ensure that climate legislation empowers communities rather than merely regulating them.
“Our aim is to ensure that the bill does not just become a tool for regulatory control, but that it becomes rights-based, people-centric, unlocking climate finance and investment as well as stimulating inclusive active participation of everyone, especially local communities who are the direct victims of the disproportionate effects of climate change,” he said.
Environment minister, Evelyn Ndlovu, is among the keynote speakers, alongside legislators, civil society actors, and stakeholders from the climate finance, carbon credits, industry and commerce sectors.
Chairpersons of the parliamentary and senate portfolio committees on environment, climate and wildlife are also expected to receive submissions from market players.
Government in 2023 introduced a formal legal framework for carbon-credit trading.
Carbon credits are tradable certificates, each representing one tonne of carbon dioxide either prevented from being emitted or removed from the atmosphere, typically through forestry conservation, planting trees and renewable energy projects.
The framework has been welcomed by the Zimbabwe Carbon Association (ZCA), which says it has the potential to unlock climate-mitigation investment.
However, ZCA chairperson, Nicholas de Swardt, in 2024 raised concerns over the 30 percent government levy on carbon-credit revenue, arguing that it could deter investors and complicate the smooth transaction of funds through local banks.
Carbon trading is currently governed by the Carbon Credits Trading (General) Regulations, 2023, and succeeding updates that define the registration, monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of projects nationwide.
In May 2025, Zimbabwe became the first country to launch a national block chain-based carbon registry, developed by Dubai-based A6 Labs, to enhance transparency and integrity in carbon-credit transactions.
As part of the regulatory overhaul, government established the Zimbabwe Carbon Markets Authority (ZiCMA) under the Environment ministry to oversee the sector.
ZiCMA serves as the Designated National Authority under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, managing carbon-credit registration, sales and transfers.
In October 2025, Zimbabwe issued its first carbon credits under Article 6 with a corresponding adjustments regime, aligning the country with international carbon-trading standards.
Government says the framework is designed to attract investment, prevent “green-washing” and channel benefits to national climate action and local communities.
However, ibanda raised governance concerns about ZiCMA’s placement within the ministry.
“The bill currently creates a conflation, locating ZiCMA in the ministry as a department, running a registry, thus playing the role of referee, coach and player,” he said, calling for an independent regulatory authority.
He warned that poor governance could undermine investment and climate finance inflows.
“If Parliament does not act on the bill in its current state, it will disenfranchise local players, reducing them to bystanders while the elite benefit more.
“Once the current SI 48 regulations are transferred into the Climate Change Management Bill in the current form, Zimbabwe will fluff a golden chance to tap into private-sector climate finance mechanisms,” he said.
Sibanda also criticised the high cost of project registration under Schedule 7 of SI 48 of 2025, which he said excludes local developers.
“Ensuring participation is the key objective. We will be appealing to parliament to consider their own members in their constituencies, who stand to benefit not just by being recipients, but to become project developers… with the ministry facilitating inclusive participation of CSOs and the private sector to build capacities of local communities,” he said.
CAN Zimbabwe further argues that sustainable climate resilience must go beyond regulation to include innovation, local participation and Afro-centric approaches tailored to Zimbabwean realities.