Cameroon is poised to announce carbon emission cuts of 11% as its contributions to the global effort to combat climate change, in spite of being a net absorber of the gasses blamed for global warming.

The planned reductions represent about 60,000 tons of the projected emissions in 2035, the year the country plans to become an emerging economy.

Cameroon is considered a weak emitter generating only 40,000 tons in carbon dioxide equivalents annually in 2010. Based on projections in the country’s development vision, emissions will climb to about 100,000 tons annually by 2035.

According to a proposal under review by the government and its development and civil society partners in Yaounde, the government plans to cut another 21% of those future emissions if international partners are ready to do so.

The planned emission cuts fall under a global climate change governance instrument referred to as Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDC)is to reduce green gas emissions. Cameroon hopes to submit its pledge by 30 September, ahead of the 2015 climate change summit in Paris (COP21), during which countries are expected to agree on a new agreement to combat global warming.

A French group of experts preparing the reduction pledges for Cameroon submitted its draft report last week. It still has to go through several levels of validation.

The draft assumes 2010 as the year of reference and calculates potential emissions during the next decades based on huge projects outlined in Cameroon’s 2035 emergence vision.

Agriculture broadly defined to include fisheries, livestock production, forestry and produces the bulk of Cameroon’s emissions. Additional emissions come from the energy, land use and industrial development sectors.

French experts on the one side and the government and national civil society on the other hand are still divided over whether to consider the role of the forestry sector, which are currently omitted from the proposal under review.
With planned expansion in agriculture, mining, energy production and industrial development under the initiative, Cameroon is expected to boost its emissions in coming years.

According to sections of the draft document, INDC demonstrates the will of Cameroon to reduce the carbon footprint of its development, while building resilience against climate change, that we have seen.

However, government experts and civil-society organizations have insisted that Cameroon’s emission pledges should not weigh on its development.

“The priority for us is development,” said a senior official of the ministry of environment, nature protection and sustainable development.

“We cannot accept cuts that will undermine our development,” said the official, who did not want to be named because the plan was still in the works.