Offsetting
We purchased €64,647 of carbon credits to offset 11,754 tonnes of emissions. This will help to fund a project that uses waste heat from the production of iron and steel to generate electricity.
This enabled us to offset our remaining Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, where we could not achieve carbon reductions.
The project is based near Raigarh, in the Chhattisgarh state of India. Without the revenue created through selling emission reduction credits the project would not have occurred and the plant would have drawn electricity from the regional grid, which is mainly generated using coal. The project is fully operational, registered and verified under the Voluntary Carbon Standard. It is compliant with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change requirements for Clean Development Mechanism projects.
Benefits
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by diversifying electricity generation away from coal
- Use waste heat which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere
- Reduce particulate matter related to power generation from coal-based thermal power stations
- Help to meet regional energy demands
- Facilitate clean technology transfer to a developing economy
- Bring investment and skilled employment opportunities to a developing economy.
Offsetting, and the investment in clean technologies by developed nations in the developing world, is one of the key mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol for reducing global carbon emissions. Because climate change is a global issue, it does not matter where the reduction in emissions occurs, as long as these are independently verified as meeting acceptable minimum carbon reduction criteria. UK carbon reduction projects are generally counted towards Government targets and so are not additional.
