Nepal’s 40,000 biogas plants have been registered with the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCC) for carbon trading.
According to the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) under the Ministry of Environment, the executive board of UNFCCC has approved 40,602 biogas plants so far.
“Now, biogas use helps us reduce carbon dioxide emissions and earn foreign exchange,” said Sandip Joshi, officer, Carbon Mitigation Programme, AEPC.
Nepal received $2.1 million for about 20,000 biogas plants in 2006 where the World Bank bought carbon dioxide at $7 per tonne reduced due to the use of biogas. The UNFCCC had established a mechanism to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide under which developed countries can buy carbon from the least developed and developing countries to reduce the global emission of carbon dioxide, a major agent for global warming and climate change.
The biogas plants installed in between April 2005 and July 2007 have been included for the CDM. “We have not yet negotiated with the buyers, so we cannot say how much money we will get. It may be more than $7 per tonne or more than that. It depends on the negotiation between Nepal and the buyer,” added Joshi.
Nepal has claimed that it has reduced 56,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year since 2006 and will sell carbon to the interested party.
For carbon trading, the country should submit details of the biogas plants with calculation of emissions reduced which needs to be approved by the CDM executive board.
“We have been registered now, so we can engage in carbon trade,” said Joshi. AEPC said the money received would be used for constructing new biogas plants. According to AEPC, 260,000 biogas plants have been installed in the country till date.
