News | Energy Efficiency

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2271731/un-da-pioneering-russian-carbon

Russia has been given the green light for its first emissions reductions scheme to be verified under a new UN-backed carbon offset certification procedure.

The Kyoto Protocol's Joint Implementation (JI) Track 2 procedure allows greenhouse gas emission reduction projects approved by the UNFCCC's Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC) to earn saleable emission offsets.
The new procedure improves on the approval mechanism used during Track 1 of the JI, where verification of emission reductions was left up to the host country.
The 400MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plant at Shaturskaya power plant near Moscow was submitted to the UNFCCC in August, kicking off a 45-day vetting process that concluded on Friday.
Developer E.ON said the power produced would replace electricity generated by less efficient technology, reducing emissions by more than one million tonnes of CO2 equivalent of up to the end of 2012.
The resulting carbon credits from the project, which have now been approved by the UN, can be used for compliance by governments under the Kyoto Protocol or by industrial companies within the EU ETS.
According to JISC, the majority of JI projects are being developed in Russia, Ukraine and other countries in central and eastern Europe.
The committee says that it has more than 200 Track 2 projects in the JI pipeline, as well as 190 Track 1 projects registered, which combined could deliver up to 400 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emission reductions by the end of 2012.
JISC chair Benoît Leguet said that the latest project confirmed that the market was beginning to mature.
"Market-based mechanisms are not about going fast, they’re about generating real, measurable, additional emission reductions in a cost-efficient way, and providing confidence to market players – project developers, certifiers, buyers and other stakeholders – that they engage in a transparent and predictable process," he said.
Hervé Touati, managing director of E.ON's Carbon Sourcing business, said the scheme had given the company the confidence to register two more projects as JI projects under the Kyoto Protocol at the Surgutskaya and Yajvinskaya power plants.
"This is a major step forward for carbon markets," he said. "The approval of Russian JI projects will add liquidity to the market and gives companies like E.ON the confidence to invest further in carbon reduction projects in the region."