Carbon emission deal between Chinese chemical plant, World Bank approved
10/8/2006 17:08
The United Nations has approved a Chinese chemical plant's sale of
greenhouse gas emission credits to the World Bank in the largest-ever emission
reductions deal.
The Changshu 3F Zhonghao New Chemicals Material Co Ltd, in
Jiangsu Province, will receive 438 million euros for cutting HFC-23
(trifluoromethane) emissions by the equivalent of 10.43 million tons of carbon
dioxide annually for the next seven years.
The World Bank will buy the
company's emission reductions on behalf of a partnership of overseas public and
private sector buyers, the Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News reported on
Thursday.
HFC-23 has a global warming potential 11,700 times greater than
carbon dioxide. It is generated in the manufacture of HCFC-22, a gas used as a
refrigerant and feedstock, and a raw material for other products.
HFCs, or
hydrofluorocarbons, are among the six heat-trapping gases covered in the Kyoto
Protocol.
The deal will ensure the factory's HFC-23 is captured and safely
disposed of.
The Umbrella Carbon Facility of the World Bank will buy the
emission reductions for six euros per equivalent ton of carbon dioxide.
The
Kyoto Protocol, which took effect in February last year, sets targets for
industrialized countries on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that would
lower the risk of global climate change.
The United Nations pact obligates
industrialized signatory nations to cut their collective emissions of six key
gases by an average 5.2 percent from 1990 levels during the 2008 to 2012
period.
Purchase deals on gas emission reduction can be negotiated under the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.
The CDM is a
market-based mechanism that allows industrialized countries to invest in
developing country projects and acquire emission reduction credits, or carbon
credits, that they can then use to fulfill their commitments under the
protocol.
Under Chinese regulations on CDM cooperation, the chemical firm
will take 35 percent of the project's profit, while the government takes the
other 65 percent to support future sustainable development programs.
Xinhua
|
