UK cos look for CDM partners in India

To encourage and promote greater participation of UK companies in the clean development mechanism (CDM) in India, the United Kingdom Climate Change Projects Office (CCPO) and a 20-member British trade delegation organised a one-day seminar on 'Project development, technology and finance for clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in India' here today.

"India being one of the largest sources of carbon emission reductions (CERs) in the world offers many opportunities to develop CDM projects that will result in significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," said Jed Jones, CCPO, in his introductory address on the CCPO and CDM.

The CERs so generated can be used by UK companies to meet their emission reduction commitments under the European trading scheme (ETS) and the Kyoto Protocol. The CCPO is funded by the UK department of industry and the Department for Food Environment Rural Affairs (Defra).

CER units are generated by the employment of cleaner technologies that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and can be used by governments and companies of developed countries to meet their reduction commitments.

One CER unit implies one tonne of GHG reduction that has been achieved through the employment of CDM, which in turn has to be approved by a CDM executive board. A tonne currently trades at about 22 euros.

"An estimated 50 million tonnes of carbon credits are required in the first phase of the ETS by UK," said Jones. This figure is in addition to the yearly emission allowances allocated to each member state in the EU under the national allocation plan (NAP).

In preparation for the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union established its own emissions trading system (ETS) to help its member states meet their emission reduction targets.

The first phase will run from the system's inception in January 2005 until the end of 2007 while the second phase will coincide with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 2008-2012.

In the first phase, the CCPO will look for CDM projects in the sectors of mineral oil refineries, iron and steel, cement, ceramics, glass, pulp and paper and combustion plants over 20 mv. Till now a total of 7 projects in India have been registered with the CCPO, six in the biomass sector and one in hydroflurocarbon (HFC) decomposition.

One of the participants in the trade delegation, Agrienergy Limited, last month tied up with DSCL Energy Services Company Ltd (DSCL ES) of the Shriram group for providing consultancy to CDM projects in India.

The trade delegation comprises companies involved in project development, low carbon technologies, project finance, carbon fund managers and carbon brokers.

Martin Collins, leader of the British delegation and managing director of Natsource Europe Ltd said, "We have made commitments worth $550 million to provide carbon credits to 26 companies in the world."