Who We Are

We are a South African voluntary organisation, registered as a Not-for-Profit-Organisation (055-238-NPO), and funded mainly by grants from national and international governments.

There are great opportunties for Southern Africa to host carbon-saving projects that bring sustainable development benefits, but these just aren't getting to see the light of day. That's where PACE steps in. We are a group of committed individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds (including legal, financial and environmental) that are working to unlock the full potential of the carbon market in Southern Africa.

We share a common understanding that global warming, if left unchecked, will negatively effect the lives of every person on this planet. We share a common vision of passing on the planet to the next generation in a better state than we found it. We believe that effective carbon-saving projects can make this vision happen as well as provide income and access to basic servics for those most in need.

We aim to help create an enabling environment for carbon projects in Southern Africa. That means reducing the cost of making the carbon market work in the region. We are independent, non-profit and facilitatory.

We focus on small scale renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) projects (RE <15MW, EE <60GWh/year, other <60kt CO2/year) .

We adapt to get results.

The three founding members of The PACE Centre and the Credible Carbon™ programme are Dean Cooper, Anton Cartwright and Derek Morgan.

Anton Cartwright

Anton is an Oxford University trained economist. His formal qualifications involve an undergraduate degree in agriculture and post-graduate degrees in economics and environmental change and management.

His career to date has focused on the causal interactions between human poverty and environmental degradation. He has worked for the World Bank, the European Union, the Stockholm Environment Institute and local governments and local NGOs in South Africa on issues ranging from sustainable trade, land reform, integrated water resource management, local economic development and climate change.

As a founding member of PACE Anton is responsible for the conceptual development of marketing and project opportunities. He has experience in writing project idea notes, project design documents and in conducting due diligence on the viability of carbon trading projects.

Dean Cooper

Dean has an undergraduate degree in maths & physics, an MBA and has worked in the energy & environmental sectors for almost 20 years, with a particular focus on developing countries.

He has been based in the UK, Belgium, South Africa and Botswana for the European Commission, where he managed a range of international development projects. He directed the operations of an NPO in Tanzania before becoming Managing Director of Parallax-Sustainable Development Solutions in 2002 and helping to establish The PACE Centre in 2004.

With Parallax, Dean has worked in Southern Africa and in the UK on many sustainable energy initiatives, providing basic services to poor communities. From PACE activities, he now has extensive international experience of carbon markets and the carbon offsetting options that are available for energy development activities in Sub Saharan Africa.