Can Legislative Reform Reshape Climate Governance? Evaluating Tanzania’s Environmental Management (Amendment) Act, 2025, as a Legal Foundation for Carbon Market Regulation

Abstract

The intensifying urgency of climate change demands that national legal systems move beyond discretionary policy frameworks toward enforceable regulatory architectures that integrate mitigation, adaptation, and market-based mechanisms. This article addresses a central question facing developing countries: how can domestic law effectively translate global climate governance norms into binding institutional and compliance structures? Using Tanzania as a critical case study following its recent legislative reforms, the article examines the extent to which the Environmental Management (Amendment) Act, 2025, establishes a legally grounded framework for climate governance and carbon market regulation. Employing a doctrinal and qualitative analytical methodology, the study systematically analyzes primary legal sources; including the amended Act, subsidiary regulations, and institutional mandates; situating these within broader global and regional climate governance frameworks under the Paris Agreement and African Union climate strategies. The analysis reveals that the 2025 amendments effectuate a fundamental normative transformation by embedding climate change within statutory definitions, creating the National Carbon Monitoring Centre as a dedicated oversight institution, mandating climate-sensitive environmental assessments, and establishing legally binding systems for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions. These reforms collectively construct an institutional architecture that aligns domestic law with the integrity and transparency requirements of Article 6 carbon markets. However, inferential analysis of the framework's practical implications suggests that the legal provisions alone are insufficient to guarantee effective implementation. The study identifies critical dependencies: institutional capacity constraints at sub-national levels, unresolved customary land tenure disputes that threaten carbon project viability, gaps in technical expertise for robust MRV systems, and the absence of clearly defined, legally enforceable benefit-sharing mechanisms. These factors collectively mediate the gap between legal formality and governance effectiveness. The article contributes empirically by providing a systematic analysis of a recent legislative reform within an underexplored African context, and theoretically by demonstrating how polycentric governance principles can be operationalized through domestic legal design. It concludes that while the 2025 Act provides a necessary and credible legal foundation, its transformative potential will be realized only through sustained institutional strengthening, targeted capacity-building, and complementary regulatory measures that address land rights and benefit distribution. The study recommends prioritizing investments in sub-national institutional capacity, finalizing regulations that reconcile customary and statutory land tenure for carbon projects, and embedding participatory governance mechanisms to ensure that carbon market participation delivers both environmental integrity and equitable socio-economic outcomes.