It is already evening, and the skies above Monrovia are surprisingly clear. The front view of Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, Jeanine Cooper’s, yard on Mamba Point is eye-catching: a scene of bushy green flowers and trees standing still as the breeze from the rolling Atlantic Ocean nearby flows through, gently waving.
The country’s first Chief Executive Officer of the newly established Carbon Market Authority (CMA), Cooper sees the sheer, untamed regeneration in her front yard as a metaphor for Liberia’s unique national asset. “How fast things regenerate in Liberia, that’s not the same everywhere in the world,” she says. “You eat a plum, throw the seed, you come back, it grows.” Cooper, a former Agriculture minister, believes this abundant, regenerative greenery, coupled with the Upper Guinean Rainforest, mangroves, and coastline places Liberia in a prime position to attract meaningful investment through global carbon trading schemes.
As head of the CMA, Cooper is tasked with a transformative agenda: establishing the framework that allows Liberia to monetize its immense capacity for natural carbon sequestration. The gentle sounds of the Atlantic, punctuated by the rumble of vehicles and motorcycles passing by, provided a backdrop as Cooper discussed her new role. “I’m excited because the opportunity for Liberia is truly a stimulating one,” she began. “I am far more excited about the possibilities, the potential, and the fact that we now have the means to start unlocking that potential.”
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She emphasized that the CMA is the necessary instrument for the nation’s new economic focus. “The Carbon Market Authority is the instrument we will be using to achieve this. We absolutely need one entity that can be a one-stop shop for these kinds of things,” she stressed. “Currently, the mandates are fragmented… but we need to bring them all under one roof so we can look at them together. This is a ‘whole of government, a whole of community’ effort.”
The immediate focus is on a rapid establishment phase. Cooper says everything is a kickoff. Under the President’s Executive Order 155 that established the CMA, Cooper and her team have 12 months to establish the country’s National Carbon Registry and develop legislation on climate finance for the country.
Cooper, who is departing this week to attend the Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Brazil, says her core mission abroad is to redefine Liberia’s global financial dialogue. “My role is to amplify Liberia’s message to say to the world: Liberia is open for investment, not for charity or for aid or just for projects.”
She argues that Liberia’s approach must be different from heavily industrialized nations. While Liberia has a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), its focus shouldn’t be on reducing the emissions it barely generates, but on monetizing the enormous reduction it already provides.
“We are already contributing so much to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions just by virtue of the forests and the waterways that we have,” she pointed out. “Our NDC should focus more on our natural assets and natural resources. Every one of these trees, each one of these leaves, is sequestering carbon. Shouldn’t we have something for that, like other countries have?”
The goal is to attract investors, meaning the process must involve rewards and returns that benefit Liberians.
Liberia’s value in the carbon market is rooted in its status as a global biodiversity hotspot, containing the largest remaining portion of the Upper Guinea Rainforest in West Africa. This natural wealth extends from its terrestrial forests to its rich coastal and marine environments.
The forests are a sanctuary for a remarkable array of endemic and threatened animals. Key wildlife includes the critically endangered and elusive Pygmy Hippopotamus, African forest elephants, the endangered Western Chimpanzee, the Liberian Mongoose, and various duiker species. To safeguard this wealth, protected areas like Sapo National Park (SNP), Liberia’s largest protected area, provide an essential haven.
The pivot to a green economy is also evident in Liberia’s infrastructure. While the Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant remains the primary source of grid electricity, the country is mitigating its vulnerability to seasonal rainfall. As of 2025, Liberia is on track to inaugurate its first large-scale solar power plant–a 20MW solar farm–a key step in diversifying its renewable energy mix.
Liberia will host a national pavilion at COP30, which will serve as a venue to showcase the nation’s “rich biodiversity, resilient ecosystem and investment opportunities in the green and blue economy,” said Dr. Emmanuel Urey Yarkpawolo, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “Through this pavilion, we will promote Liberia as a global climate solution country and a destination for green investment and sustainable partnerships,” Dr. Urey said. A major highlight will be the official presentation of the country’s validated carbon market policy, emphasizing that Liberia is ready to move beyond just promises and secure its share of the climate finance. As part of this bold move to attract investment, the country has also launched its first-ever mangrove inventory report, established the national tourism authority, and the formation of the CMA, which Cooper now heads.
Additionally, with support from UNDP, the country has also launched a lengthy document named “The Natural Capital Atlas of Liberia“, showcasing the country’s abundant natural resources. The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is taking place in Belém, Brazil, from November 10 to 21, 2025. The location–the Brazilian Amazon–marks the first time a COP has been held in a rainforest city, putting an undeniable focus on forest protection, biodiversity, and the conservation of the world’s most critical natural carbon sinks.
The most significant achievement relating to climate finance heading into COP30 occurred at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2024: the agreement on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG). The NCQG replaces the prior, unfulfilled goal of developed countries mobilizing US$100 billion per year with two main quantitative elements:
- US$300 Billion Annual Mobilization Goal: Developed countries committed to taking the lead in mobilizing at least $300 billion annually by 2035 for climate action in developing countries.
- US$1.3 Trillion Scale-Up Call: An ambitious call for all actors (public and private) to work together to scale up total international climate finance to at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035.
While the financial goals are set, the focus at COP30 is on the mechanism and tracking. A vital breakthrough at COP29 was the agreement on standards for a centralized carbon market under the UN (Article 6.4 mechanism). This breakthrough is what countries, like Liberia, desperately need to access new flows of finance for their forest protection efforts.
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However, the Adaptation finance gap remains severe. UN reports warn that developing countries are currently receiving only a fraction of the more than US$300 billion needed annually by 2035 for adaptation alone.
At the preliminary Belém Climate Summit just before COP30, Brazil formally unveiled the Tropical Forests Forever Facility. Responding to the announcement, Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s Global Lead on Climate Justice, said, “This fund is a gamble in the casino of financial markets. Public finance is scarce and needs to go directly to forest communities rather than to complex financial instruments that aren’t guaranteed to raise money or benefit people on the ground.
Anderson added, “There are no shortcuts to tackling the runaway climate crisis. The needs and rights of frontline communities must be centered in all decision-making.
The capstone of Liberia’s new strategic focus will be COP30. Cooper acknowledges that the biggest challenge at home is educating the public about the carbon market, helping to shift the perception of Liberians from “destroyers” to “protectors” and, by demonstrating that Liberia is investment-ready with the CMA, the country hopes to ensure that this new frontier for economic boost delivers tangible, equitable results for all its citizens.
The question for Belém is whether the world’s new commitment to climate finance — the NCQG — will translate into the technical and financial support needed for Liberia to monetize its natural wealth, ultimately providing the billions required to save Africa’s last great rainforest.
