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VOL. 12, ISSUE 3 (2026)
Pricing the atmosphere: Carbon financing, market architecture, and the case for a differentiated global carbon price — A Nigerian and African perspective
Authors
Collins Chukwuonye
Abstract
Carbon financing has migrated, within little
more than a decade, from the periphery of climate policy to a central
instrument of sovereign fiscal strategy in the developing world. This article
argues that the emerging architecture of carbon pricing comprising emissions
trading systems, carbon taxes and crediting mechanisms operating under Article
6 of the Paris Agreement, cannot deliver its promised transfer of capital from
the Global North to the Global South unless three structural defects are
corrected: the absence of a coherent, differentiated global carbon price floor;
the persistence of legal ambiguity over the ownership and taxation of carbon
credits in producer states such as Nigeria; and the asymmetric extraterritorial
reach of instruments such as the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment
Mechanism ("CBAM"), which imports the price discipline of the Global
North without importing its fiscal dividend. Using Nigeria's nascent carbon
market as a case study, the article contends that the jurisdictions best placed
to benefit from carbon financing will be those that legislate (rather than
merely regulate) carbon credit ownership, taxation and bankability criteria in
advance of market maturity.
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Pages:127-132
How to cite this article:
Collins Chukwuonye "Pricing the atmosphere: Carbon financing, market architecture, and the case for a differentiated global carbon price — A Nigerian and African perspective". International Journal of Law, Vol 12, Issue 3, 2026, Pages 127-132
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