Compensation for emissions

Offsetting to compensate for the emissions produced by Participants of the Commission on Climate Change and Development

The estimated greenhouse gas emissions arising from the delegates’ air travels to and from meetings of the Commission on Climate Change and Development will have a negative impact on our climate. The Commission through its secretariat has thus decided to purchasing Certified Emission Credits (CERs) from a CDM project in Brazil to compensate for the emissions produced by traveling to the commissions meetings. The Commission has asked the Swedish Energy Agency for advice and help to calculate the amount of the emissions and the amount of CER:s to purchase, a work that is currently ongoing. The reason for choosing CDM projects is that the Government Offices has an established contact with the Swedish Energy Agency for these issues and that CDM projects, although not perfect in their composition, are the best alternatives to emissions compensation under the international convention at the moment.

The CDM project activity selected, from which the CERs will be purchased, involves increasing efficiency at a bagasse (a renewable fuel source and biomass residue from sugarcane processing) cogeneration facility at Companhia Açucareira Vale do Rosário, a Brazilian sugar mill in the Sao Paolo region. The increased electricity surplus is sold to the local power utility to replace an equal amount of electricity that would have been dispatched from other sources, including fossil fuel based thermal plants. The project also contributes to enhancing the security of electricity production in the region. More information about the project can be found on the UNFCCC website .

Point Carbon organized a competition to determine the “Best CDM project” during the Carbon Market Insights conference in Amsterdam on 21 April 2004. The Vale do Rosário project won the award for “Best CDM Project 2004”, having received the majority of votes from both a panel of experts and the conference participants .

The greenhouse gas emissions arising from the air travel to Commission meetings and expert meetings are estimated to 202 tonnes of CO2 equivalents. The Commission will meet five times in various locations around the world, the expert group is calculated to have only one meeting all experts together. The emissions related to travels for the Secretariat and the Chair of the Commission (Ms Gunilla Carlsson) are already included in the general agreement between the Government Offices and the Swedish Energy Agency and are therefore excluded in these estimates.