Chakwera made the disclosure when launching the Malawi Carbon Market Initiative (MCMI) on Friday in Lilongwe, under the theme “Making Carbon Markets Work for Malawi.”

The Malawi leader said the MCMI launch positions the country for prosperity as a green economy, while emphasizing on the need for collaboration with relevant stakeholders to boost the country’s economy through the initiative.

“As a nation we have every reason to prefer the green economy over an economy that degrades and destroys the environment. We know firsthand the devastating effects of degrading the environment, because we’ve just come out of the state of the national disaster from Cyclone Freddy in the southern region and a crop destroying drought in the northern region,” said Chakwera.

He said that building a green economy is consistent with the aspirations of the Malawi 2063 blueprint which calls for serious commitment to environmental sustainability, ecosystem conservation and environmental management, waste management and green economy, climate change management, environment and climate change financing, natural disasters and climate adversities preparedness.

He added “In our pursuit of development we must learn from the terrible mistakes of those nations that are already developed, and one of the lessons we learn from the prosperity of the developed world is that their developmental path is not sustainable. It is a developmental path that is marred by violations of human rights through slavery and other crimes, destruction of the ozone layer and the pollution of oceans and rivers of the world.”

On his part country lead for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet Dr Collen Zalengera said African Carbon Initiative is ready to support Malawi develop sound policies that will attract potential investments from Carbon trading for the country's social and economic development.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of the parliamentary committee on natural resources and climate change Werani Chilenga has hailed the initiative but says the country does not have a legal framework to support the carbon Market.

“This is a good initiative, but I think we have jumped the gun by going further to launch the MCMI without first putting in place a guiding legal framework to attract investors,” said Chilenga.

The Africa Carbon Market Initiative, was launched during last year's United Nations Climate Change Conference, and aims to rapidly increase the production of African carbon credits while ensuring that revenues are transparent, equitable, and create jobs.