enet mag carbon

7/30/2019 Enet Mag Carbon

1/20


2/202

The theme for this 11th issue of the

e-net magazine is Carbon Markets.Carbon markets came about with the

adoption of the Kyoto Protocol by the

majority of parties to UNFCCC. It is a

market based mechanism to promote

emission reduction in the world. This

issue comes at a crucial juncture in

the global initiative to reduce carbon emissions and work for

climate change adaptation. It is well known that the poorest inthe South Asian region are most vulnerable to the adversities

associated with climate change. This issue looks at the role

that carbon markets can play to help these disadvantaged

communities deal with adverse climate change impacts.

The Hiniduma Bio-link Reforestation Project in Sri Lanka

featured in this issue shows how farmers use their indigenous

knowledge and benet from protecting the local environment. It

is an example of how communities can be integrated into Clean

Development Mechanism (CDM) initiatives.

Articles from India and Nepal provide insights into the CDM

process for cookstoves. The very candid article from the Centrefor Rural Technology Nepal elaborates on what potential

entrants into CDM should consider and some of the issues

to be overcome in CDM project nancing and sustainability.

Experiences from the Indian project elaborate the possible

challenges and solutions linked to designing, developing,

implementing and monetising community oriented CDM

projects. These experiences are further consolidated in an article

on Understanding Carbon Markets which provides readers with

information on the carbon markets (CDM and voluntary markets)

and the registration processes.

Future issues of e-net could explore the impacts of carbon

markets on the lives of the poor. It is important to understandif and how carbon markets have provided opportunities for

communities to engage in the development process and ensure

sustainability of their environment. What has been the role of

community led initiatives in the climate change scenario?

This issue also reports on a unique initiative in Sri Lanka where

awareness on sustainable energy has been created through a

rst day cover/stamp art competition among school children.

e-net has been bringing to you summaries of the discussions onthe South Asia Electronic Energy Forum. This is a networking

initiative that shares information on community based energy

initiatives and community perspectives on energy issues. We arepleased to announce that the network itself will be expanded in

the coming year. It will now reach out to South East Asia (in

addition to South Asia) by linking with other related networks

such as hydro network. Space will be provided for more member

participation (such as the posting energy related events) and

the sharing of research papers and news. We are also happy

to announce that the e-net magazine will be revamped in2013. While each issue will continue to have a theme, the

magazine will also include articles on other areas highlighting

community based renewable energy initiatives, include a

technical paper, and news in the energy sector.

We hope that you would continue to read e-net in 2013 asyou have done in the past years.

IMPRINTe-net is a magazine for the dissemination of informationon decentralised and renewable energy technologies,

implemented using a community based approach.

Editor-in-Chief : Svati Bhogle

Managing Editor : Tushani Kalugalagedera

Project Manager : Damitha Samarakoon

Country Editors

Prof. Zalmai Zaheb, Kabul University, Afghanistan

Iqbal Karim, Bangladesh

Nar Bahadur Khatiwora, SNV Netherland

Development Organisation, Bhutan

Dipti Vaghela, India

Jun Hada, Swiss Agency for Development and

Cooperation SDC, Embassy of Switzerland, Nepal

Habib Gul, PCRET, Pakistan

Namiz Musafer, Practical Action Consulting, Sri Lanka

Graphics, Layout and Production:

Amali Feroz, Dinesh Pradeep, Minidu Abeysekera

ISSN 1800 - 3680

Practical Action

5, Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha, Colombo 5, Sri LankaT | +94 (11) 2829412F | +94 (11) 2856188E | [email protected]

e-net website | www.sa-energy.net

The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent theviews of Practical Action or the editorial team. Whilst all due care is taken

regarding the accuracy of information, no responsibility can be accepted

for errors or omissions.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons

Attributed Non-commercial 3.0 Unported License


3/2032012July

POWER HOUSE

Designing, Developing, Implementing andMonetising Community Oriented CDM Projects

Community oriented Clean

Develpment Mechanism (CDM)

projects while wide in variety are

still too small in number. Thisarticle provides insights into the

challenges and possible solutions

linked to designing, developing,

implementing and monetising

community oriented CDM

projects. It draws on experience

from an energy efcient cookstove

project in India to help illustrate

these points.

One of the CDM primary objectives

has been to promote sustainabledevelopment and achieve the

Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) through inclusive and far

reaching project types. A wide variety

of inclusive, i.e. community linked,

projects have been undertaken by

various stakeholders. However the

numbers still reect poorly on the

envisaged targets. For instance,

in India, out of the 875 registered

CDM projects a total of 27 serve

rural communities1. While industrial

projects have achieved a good level

of standardisation, community

based projects such as those which

enhance access to energy or create

other infrastructural facilities, are yet

to see easily scalable models. This is

despite the fact that some of these

community based projects offer the

lowest cost per tonne reduction of

greenhouse gas emissions, a clear

win - win in cost benet terms. Theseprojects range from subsidising

household level assets such as

biogas plants, efcient cookstoves,

and renewable power devices to

other energy efciency interventions

such as novel water purication

techniques or even micro-grids and

community owned assets.

Establishing additionality2 and

ground level support for such projects

has been relatively easy even at a

small scale thanks to the United

Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change (UNFCCC) evolving

support sub-mechanisms. Examples

of such support are automatic

additionality for smaller projects and

the emergence of a discerning buyer

segment that values greenhouse gas

(GHG) reductions for its overall social

impact and the network externalities

created therein. However, there are

some unique problems that mar

the growth and success of such

enterprises. The following sections of

this article share certain experiences

and issues faced while designing,

developing, implementing and

monetising community oriented

CDM projects.

Designing

Common design issues in community

based CDM projects include baseline

data collection which often hinges

on household surveys. Obtaining

accurate data is difcult and the

collection of data is a tedious task,

especially for surveys pertaining to

biomass use assessments (such as

for cooking and water purication

energy for which often rewood,

agro-waste, and animal dung are

A cookstove from one of the CDM ICS projects being used

(PhoocoesyoGeenwyG

meenIn)

1 Source: UNFCCC website - www.cdm.

unfccc.int

2 Additionality implies proving with valid

arguments and proposed proof that the project

is unlikely to happen without the aid of carbon

revenues, given the complexities of nancial

sustainability, risk of a new deployment model

etc.

used). This is mainly due to the fact

that it is difcult to get communities

to make usage estimates (and metric

estimates). Even where output

linked metrics are available (such as

the amount of kerosene estimated

to be consumed per unit lumen

output for solar lighting projects

etc.), clearly estimating the number

of households using lanterns and the

number of lanterns per household is

a tedious task.

A commonly voiced problem is

ascertaining what is known as the

fraction of non-renewable biomass

in other words what percentage of the

used biomass in a community comes

from non-sustainable sources. While

the UNFCCC has prescribed surveyguidelines (wherein a scientically

selected subset of the community

is asked questions) they are often

difcult to follow given costs and

execution difculties. In addition,

establishing even the validity of

post data collection is tricky as a

technical question is being sought

to be answered by essentially an

opinion based survey.

In some successful projects the

validity of baseline data has been

established by endorsements

from government bodies and

Geographic Information System

By: Neha Juneja


4/204

POWER HOUSE

(GIS) based surveys. However, this

is not possible for all geographies

and communities. The Food and

Agriculture Organizations awaited

national baseline data on biomass

usage, though conservative, could

provide a much needed boost and

relief to practitioners in terms

of overcoming this basic hurdle

of accurately estimating and

establishing the GHG mitigation

impact of intended initiatives. Other

than baselines, project structuring

(especially in terms of contributions

from the community) and contractual

paperwork with beneciaries etc.also calls for a good understanding

of CDM dynamics and the beneciary

communitys expectations. Various

carbon subsidised pricing models

have been implemented across the

globe ranging from the provision of

items such as providing cookstoves

for free to charging a near market

price for them, depending on the

project resources and off-take/

paying capacity of beneciaries.

It is interesting to note that the

initial product pricing has had very

little overall effect on the success

of projects. It is urged that more

technical experts come together and

develop baselines collaboratively and

openly, to enable eld practitioners

and implementation partners to

identify the most vulnerable and

high impact areas and build upon

this data to quickly and effectively

execute projects.

Developing

Project developers often face

problems in selecting the correct

project structure (such as choosing

the programmatic approach3 vs.

registering multiple individual

projects), choice of methodologies,

what options and choices to

provide to the beneciary pool etc.

This requires not only the help of

technical experts for developing

the project documentation but also

adequate understanding from the

implementation partner. It is thus

recommended that capacity building

initiatives form part of the project

activities - specically for NGOs and

other community sponsored bodies.

Another issue is that of nancing low

carbon assets initially; though carbon

funds provide support to community

sponsored bodies for such assets,

it is often difcult to make use of

these nancing opportunities. Forinstance, recently banks and other

nancial institutions have stopped

considering carbon revenues as

a valued asset. As per Indian

accounting rules, carbon assets do

not even form a balance sheet item.

A new trend has been to introduce

micro energy credits wherein these

assets are micro-nanced and

subsidised through carbon revenues

thus making access to them more

organic/demand driven, i.e. without

funder intervention.

Implementing

Apart from commissioning related

issues one of the most critical

problems faced once a project

commences is that of monitoring.

Given that CDM projects mandate

a minimum scale to justify initial

and ongoing costs (for example say

5,000 households for a cookstoves

programme) even sampled monitoring

becomes a challenging and resource

intensive task, especially as

beneciaries are spread out and at

times irritated with monitoring visits/

checks. Existing examples show

that many practitioners have simply

given up on potential CDM revenues

post successful registration and

implementation due to the cost and

hassle of monitoring the project. Theadvent of remote monitoring devices

can greatly alleviate both the cost and

inconvenience issue. However, due

to the initial costs of these devices

and largely untried nature of these

technologies for such applications,

they are still uncommon.

Today, many high social impact

CDM projects come with a buyer

tie-in prior to implementation. This

helps ensure that implementing

partners are able to build capacity

via the buyer and are able to

monetise generated credits in a

timely and reliable manner (off-take

and pricing). Although there are

still a good number of unilateral

projects (with no identied buyer)

this approach poses more risk anduncertainty since the sale process

and payment cycles are often not

very well understood by practitioners

which can prove detrimental to the

nancial model behind the project.

Despite these problems, the high

social impact of CDM projects is

taking on new and larger forms

especially in Africa and in project

categories such as improved stoves

(with 19 programmatic CDM

projects out of 28 being undertaken

in Sub-Saharan Africa). The ease

of programmatic CDM rules by the

UNFCCC and its ready acceptance by

practitioners is a positive sign since

this enables incremental additions

and quick scaling up in a more

cost effective manner with newer

methodologies coming to the fore

and hopefully a renewed vibrancy

in carbon prices, such project typeswould lead the next generation of

carbon reductions.

e n e r g y n e t w o r k

Neha Juneja is the co-founder

of Greenway Grameen Infra, a

social enterprise that designs

and disseminates household

energy products to the main

base of consumers. She has

worked on a number of CDM

project designs involving energyand water related products in

India and Africa.

E-mail: [email protected]

3 Programmatic approach implies registering

a mother project type to which multiple

individual projects of the same nature can be

added without the need of registering every

time. This approach results in higher upfront

costs and lesser recurring costs.


5/2052012July

A cookstove from one of the CDM ICS projects being used

POWER HOUSE

Issues and Risks of a Cookstoves CDM Project in Nepal

Nepal has a huge potential

for energy related Clean

Development Mechanism (CDM)

projects. The country currentlyhas six CDM projects one of

which is the improved cookstove

project by the Centre for Rural

Technology, Nepal (CRT/N). This

article provides an insight on

what potential entrants into CDM

should consider, characteristics

their organisation and project

should have and some of the

issues they may face in project

nancing and sustainability. Thisis mainly based on the experiences

of the CRT/N improved cookstove

project.

CDM Projects in Nepal

All six of the CDM registered

projects in Nepal are based on

renewable energy technology (RET).

The rst two projects on biogas

were registered in 2005. Five years

lapsed before another project on

micro hydro was registered in 2010.

In 2011, one project on improved

cookstove (ICS) and two projects

on biogas were registered. Five of

the registered CDM projects have

been developed by the Alternative

Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC),

a government agency overseeing

the promotion of renewable energy

in the country. The project on ICS

was developed by the CRT/N, a

non-government organisation, and

is the second registered project on

ICS in the world. These efcient

biomass mud stoves are constructed

on site and the project provides

subsidy support for purchasing its

ceramic and iron components. User

households are expected to transfer,

to the project, rights to the Certied

Emission Reductions (CERs) under

the Clean Development Mechanism

(CDM), which is generated from their

regular use of the stoves.

Nepal has a few more RET projects

being developed as CDM projects.

The AEPCs proposed CDM project

on improved water mills and itstwo programmes of activities (PoA)

projects on ICS and biogas are

currently undergoing validation.

CRT/N is also looking at the possibility

of developing at least one more CDM

project on ICS in the near future,

while the Sustainable Development

Centre has three proposed CDM

projects which are under validation

currently. The voluntary market

carbon projects have also attracted

the interest of NGOs. While the WorldWildlife Fund Nepal is implementing

a Gold Standard biogas project,

Swasth Chulo Nepal has initiated

a voluntary carbon project on ICS.

Some private business houses

have also come forward developing

CDM projects integrated with their

business ventures.

CRT/Ns CDM Project on Improved

Cookstoves

CRT/Ns CDM project Efcient

Fuel Wood Cooking Stoves Project in

Foothills and Plains of Central Region

of Nepal - was registered by the

CDM Executive Board on 15 March

2011 (registration no. 4530). Egluro

Limited based in the UK has been

providing pre-nance support to the

project in lieu of future CERs to be

generated by the project. The project

aims to promote about 23,000

household cooking stoves acrosssix districts in the southern plain

of the country. The stoves are xed

type mud brick stoves with chimney

outlets which are constructed on site

by trained local masons.

CRT/N has two decades of experiencein implementing ICS projects

with grant support from various

donors, support organisations and

the government. CRT/N initiated

the fully carbon nanced CDM

project following the successful

implementation of a pilot voluntary

carbon project on ICS during

2007-09. To be fully prepared to

undertake the rst CDM project,

the organisations enhanced its

knowledge on CDM through trainingof its staff members at the University

of Twente, Netherlands, and at some

international training events.

In addition, a trustworthy link with

the buyer, Egluro Limited, was

crucial in initiating the CDM project.

This relationship was developed

through the pilot project mentioned

above.

CRT/N capitalised on the followingstrengths in developing this project:

i) condence in the technology which

an organisation gains through years

of implementation experience, ii)

expertise on community mobilisation,

and iii) enhanced knowledge on the

working of the CDM mechanism.

Dling wih h I

Developing and implementing a CDM

project is a new experience for CRT/N.

To a large extent, it is different from

implementing a grant supported

project. The project proponent has

to change its conventional mind-set

of community development. Along

(phoocoesyoCrt/N)

By: Subarna Prasad Kapali


6/206

with achieving the conventional

goals like livelihood improvement,

empowerment, etc. the project

proponent has the additional goalto generate a specied amount of

CERs which is tied up with the total

fund that would be available for

the project. In addition, the project

proponent has to deal with a number

of new issues some of which have

been discussed below.

In Nepal, establishing coordination

among various programmes and

projects on the given RET is a practical

need. It was the case for CRT/N aswell. It had a series of coordination

dialogues with the national agency

on RET, i.e. AEPC, before it could

nalise the geographical boundary of

the CDM project. Such coordination

was necessary to avoid duplication of

the efforts in the same area. In fact,

it was necessary to show absence of

similar activities in the area to prove

additionality of the CDM project.

One of the critical parts of preparingthe project design document was

establishing the fraction of non-

renewable biomass (NRB) being

consumed by the project beneciary

households. The lack of reliable data

generated by authentic agencies

was a big problem. In order to be

conservative as is suggested by

the applied methodologies, the

validators tried to employ the smaller

value of NRB leading to a lower

volume of CER generation from thesame number of ICS.

The validation process itself was

almost 16 months long. Maintaining

patience and commitment to do

the project was extremely difcult

during this period. However, CRT/N

was prepared to successfully defend

all the queries of the validation

team thanks to timely capacity

building of its staff members. An

important lesson learnt was that a

correct understanding of the project,

including the technology by the

validation team was crucial. Due to

validators differing understanding

of the technology in terms of its

efciency value at the beginning and

at the end stages of the validationprocess, CRT/N was compelled to

make a substantial change in the

project design. Initially the validator

accepted our proposition of 25% as

the conservative value of efciency.

However, later the validatory insisted

we use an efciency value of around

29% as shown by the actual water

boiling test. This change affected

the total number of stoves to be

disseminated, signicantly affecting

the overall planning of the projectincluding human resource, timeline

and budget.

Having no grant assistance at all,

the project was fully dependent

upon revenue from the sale of CERs.

Upfront investment by the buyer,

Egluro Limited, was indispensable to

start the project activities. However,

this actually ended up placing CRT/N

in a weaker nancial position during

the emission reduction purchaseagreement (ERPA) negotiations with

the buyer. This was because waiting

for a favourable market situation to

reap a higher price was not feasible

as CRT/N was under pressure toinitiate the project activities as soon

as possible from the communities as

well as the coordinating government

agencies. By accepting a pre-

nancing solution at the very early

stage of the project, CRT/N perhaps

got a lower price for its CERs.

CRT/N also lost leverage as all CERs

were sold at once to the buyer at

the same rate. Further, it lost the

opportunity of being the focal point

for communication with the CDMExecutive Board.

However, it is also equally true that

with the acquired pre-nancing

support CRT/N enabled the timely

commencement of the project

for the benet of the people. As a

result, funding has been secured for

implementation of the entire project,

any risk related to delays in cash

inow is minimised, the risk of the

price going down is mitigated andthere is also no post-2012 risk to the

project.

There was also the issue of sharing

the carbon revenue with the ICS users

as they are the ones contributing

to actual emission reductions.

CRT/N has addressed this by

providing incentives to the users

on the purchase of the stove and to

construct the stoves as their share

of carbon revenue. A communitydevelopment fund will also be

established from the CER revenue

for implementing new community

development projects.

Project risks

The CDM project has several risks

at various levels. The main risks are

described below.

At national level, the project has

risks relating to coordination. If other

grant supported projects are initiated

in the same geographical boundary,

the CDM project might nd it difcult

to prove emission reductions.Creating community awareness on ICS

(phoocoesyoCrt/N)

POWER HOUSE



7/2072012July

There is a perceived social risk to

the project. This is mainly because

of the short 3 year life period of the

stoves. The project is designed to

support the users up to a maximum

of two replacements of the 3-year

completed stoves. The perceived risk

is that the users might opt for using

other options instead of replacingthe stoves. Organisations like CRT/N

should support people if they go

for even better stoves but the CDM

project will suffer due to the loss of

active users of the stoves leading to

the generation of a lower volume of

CERs and even delivery failure.

There is also the risk of non-use or

non-maintenance of the stoves by

the users leading to a decreased

volume of emission reductions.

Intensive user education and quality

assurance of stove construction is

needed.

A very positive part of the CDM is that

it encourages the project proponent

to develop and promote highlyefcient stoves. In fact, CRT/N made

substantial improvement in the

existing design of the improved xed

type mud stove which ultimately

proved to be much more efcient

compared to existing ICS. The higher

the efciency level the smaller the

CDM project in terms of the total

number of stoves required in a

bundle. This reduces project cost

but increases total yield of emission

reductions, thus increasing total

CDM revenue. CDM, however, can

also stop the further development of

the technology. Once the technology

is dened in the approved project

design document introducing other

stoves, even if they are better, is not

allowed under the same CDM project.

This leads to the potential failure

of the project perhaps during the

second half of the ten years crediting

period as peoples aspirations for new

innovations would not be addressed.

finl mk

In Nepal, there are several NGOs who

could potentially develop RET based

CDM projects. Having prepared

itself in terms of condence in the

technology, social mobilisation

and CDM knowledge, NGOs can

move ahead with the development

of the CDM project. They need

to understand the project risks

beforehand as far as possible. If pre-

nancing is needed the search for a

trustworthy buyer should be started

from the early stages of the project.CDM can be a low hanging fruit for

a prepared proponent otherwise it is

only a mirage better not pursued.

Demonstrating the Rocket Stove to the community

(phoocoe

syoCrt/N)

POWER HOUSE


Subarna Prasad Kapali is

the Director at the Centre for

Rural Technology in Nepal

(website: www.crtnepal.org)


vents

Programme on Sustainable Energy promotion in South Asia by SWAN

South Asian Womens Network (SWAN) focuses on sustainable development in the region, and as such one of SWANs

priorities is sustainable energy for South Asia (SA). Thus, a programme on sustainable energy promotion in SA will

be initiated towards the next SWAN annual conference in August 2013 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The purpose of the

programme is to mobilise SWAN membership to: become aware of, engage with and help to shape policy and practice,

inuence creating conducive policy and practice environment to reduce energy poverty in SA; to ensure that poor

people have adequate access to sustainable energy to meet their basic needs. The programme will focus on specically

beneting poor women in SA (who are totally dependent on biomass for their daily energy needs and burdened with

collecting and using it in an inefcient manner) by both raising their prole and their needs in the international arenaand by designing programmatic approaches where they are prioritized when meeting domestic energy needs.

More information on this programme will be posted in the next issue of the e-net magazine and on the South Asia

Electronic Forum on Energy (www.sa-energy.net)


8/208

POWER HOUSE

Community Assisted Carbon Credit GeneratingReforestation Efforts in Sri LankaContributed by the Conservation Carbon Company

The Hiniduma Bio-link Project

in Sri Lanka is a reforestation

project working in partnership

with the local community towardsestablishing a biodiversity corridor

between two large remnant

rainforest patches in the country,

Singharaja and Kanneliya. It is

one of the rst initiatives of its

kind in Sri Lanka and although

a relatively young pilot project,

it provides lessons on how to

work with communities on

such initiatives which could be

replicated elsewhere. This articleexplains how the project benets

from the farmers efforts and

indigenous knowledge to protect

the local environment, while

in turn helping to improve the

farmers nancial status, skills

and knowledge on how to deal with

the effects of climate change.

The Hiniduma Bio-link Project in Sri

Lanka is the countrys rst Forestry-

based carbon credits initiative.

Developed by Conservation Carbon

Company (CCC)1 and the local

non-prot organisation Rainforest

Rescue International (RRI), this

project works in partnership with

the forest-edge communities along

the Kanneliya Reserve buffer zone

of what is one of the islands last

remaining rainforest ecosystems.

The project involves reforestation of

the land in the wet zone of Sri Lankain an effort to establish a biodiversity

corridor between two large remnant

rainforest patches and to conserve

buffer zones around the forest

edges. Its success is dependent

on the cooperation and efforts of

15 local farmers. The uniqueness

of the project is that it addresses

the three pillars of sustainability -

people, planet and prot - as farmers

gain nancially and have a nancialincentive to protect the surrounding

forests.

The Hiniduma Bio-link Project started

in 2009 and operates in the low land

wet zone region that currently have

land use practices of traditional tea

planting, small rubber plantations,and coffee and paddy cultivation.

The World Heritage Forests of

Singharaja and Kanneliya, along with

numerous related forest fragments,

all lie within 10 km of Hiniduma

village. Together, these forests

account for more than 60% of the

countrys surviving primary rainforest

cover and are under extreme threat

from further fragmentation. The

areas of land used for reforestation

under the project are as follows:

small deforested patches, extents

of land within cash crop of small

rubber plantations, coffee and tea

lands, etc., forest patches along

the river, barren lands2, grasslands

and home gardens. The project also

works towards conserving the buffer

zones around the forest edges which

are often 1 km deep and are areas

of land on which the government

has allowed certain human activity,such as cultivation and rewood

(Phoocoesyo

CCCndrrI)

Farmers helping with project activities

Analog Forestry Concept

Analog Forestry is a system

of silviculture, which aims to

restore the local biodiversity

while providing economic

opportunities to small-scale

farmers. Inspired by Sri

Lankas tradition of homegardens, it encourages the

use of economically viable

crops such as tea, spices, fruit

and vegetables, as well as

ecologically important species.

Where Analog Forestry differs

from other systems is in the

planting design, which mimics

both the structure of a natural

forest (i.e. different canopy

layers) and the ecological

functions of a natural forest(i.e. watershed management).

(Source: www.

rainforestrescueinternational.org)

1 Information on the Conservation Carbon

Company is available at www.conservecarbon.

org.

2 Barren land is land which is often not

suitable for cultivation, has poor soil quality

and has small shrubs growing on it.

collection. Parts of this land are

often owned by farmers and are used

as home gardens. The total land area

of this proposed biodiversity corridor

(beyond its current pilot stage) isapproximately 20,000 ha.


9/2092012July

(Phoocoesyo

CCCndrrI)

(PhoocoesyCCCnd

rrI)

Community involvement

Local farmers are involved in

almost all the stages of the project,

especially on the ground - from

the choice of what trees need to

be planted, tending to the trees,

and harvesting of non-timber forest

products (NTFPs) for personal/

commercial use. The project has

three main eld implementation

stages. The rst stage involved the

introduction of concepts such as

climate change and carbon creditsto the community, and ascertaining

what native ora and fauna to plant

in the demarcated areas. The CCC

and RRI teams met with the farmers

and informed them about climate

change impacts and the carbon credit

system and their potential role in the

Hiniduma Bio-link Project. Once

the farmers had agreed to join the

project it was important to determine

which species of plants needed to

be reforested. This decision was

made by experienced biologists and

ecologists in consultation with the

traditional communities in the area.

Plants were then handed over to the

farmers to tend in their home gardens

and to replant under the supervision

of CCC and RRI project coordinators.

Farmers are remunerated for the time

and effort they spend on tending the

plants and participating in other

project activities. The third andnal stage of the project involved

obtaining professional expertise

to ascertain the amount of carbon

credits generated from the project.

The revenue received from selling

these credits are used to improve thefarmers livelihood and to provide

nancial sustainability to the project.

The trees and other plants selected

for reforestation play specic roles

within the ecosystem. More than 90

tree species have been introduced

to improve the ecosystem services.

These plants are native and endemic

rainforest species, as well as fruit and

medicinal trees. Thus, based on the

Analog Forestry concept the bio-link

will mimic the neighbouring forests

while enhancing the livelihood of the

farmers.

In general, most of the challenges

faced were in the rst year. The

project team was small, and there

were many xed one-time tasks for

the certication and many ground

level activities and tasks which

needed to be completed on time.One such task was the planting

of trees by farmers which was

sometimes delayed as they only

did this in their spare time after

engaging in their other livelihood

activities. In addition, some of the

farmers were reluctant to plant

forest species (non utility) in their

lands as they were only interested in

having commercially valuable timber

trees. However project coordinators,

through well planned awareness

programs, were able to create

awareness on the ecological value of

those species resulting in a change

in these farmers attitudes.

Benefts to the community

Valuing the farming communitys

involvement to improve the ecosystem

services through sequestrated carbonquantities is one of the projects main

objectives. The 15 farmers and their

families involved with the project

are the direct beneciaries of the

project and will reap various benets

during the 20 year project period.

Their income is enhanced as they

are being paid to tend to the trees

payment is made per tree per month.

Increased income diversication

through NTFPs is also likely. These

would include the use of these

plants as a source of medicines,

fruits, shading materials, livestock

feeding, provision of potential bee

keeping habitat (as beehives could

be hung on the trees), shading for

humans and livestock and pruning

material which could be used as

rewood. Even at this early stage of

the project, fruits and some NTFPs

are being harvested. At present

farmers incomes have increasedon average by approximately 10%

per year. This is expected to reach

25% due to value added crops and

multiple cropping cycles. In addition,

improving woodlots will provide

a local and sustainable source of

rewood and poles, reducing the

pressure on the forest to provide

these resources.

POWER HOUSE


Farmers and project coordinators

Edge of the forest - the buffer zonewhere project reforestation activities

are taking place


10/2010

The project is currently in the process

of helping the farmers to form a

community based organisation

(CBO) to hand over the management

and revenue distribution activities to

the farmers. Once the project starts

to scale up its activities the CBO

will be expected to take on more

responsibilities in keeping account

of revenue received and distributed,

etc. In order to perform their dutieseffectively CBO members have

been provided with training in

leadership, management and book

keeping skills and the project team

has also encouraged the CBO to

conduct livelihood training courses

for its members and community,

such as skills training in sewing and

composting for women.

The project also enhances the

skills and knowledge of thefarmers. They are provided with

knowledge and training on eco-

friendly livelihood options such as

organic farming, efcient farming

techniques and Analog Forestry,

which are introduced without

disturbing the farmers existing

livelihood practices. In addition, the

participatory approach adopted by

the project has increased awareness

among the village community

on the benets from and their

responsibilities to the forest, as well

as on the impacts of climate change

and carbon trading opportunities.

The resulting increased community

ownership and value recognition

of the reforestation efforts and the

ecosystem help to minimise the

threat from communities adjacent to

these forest buffers and surrounding

forest.

Carbon credits and Asias frst Plan

Vivo registered project

The CO2

sequestered through this

project (through the newly planted

trees) generate carbon credits. The

project team along with external

experts used growth models to

predict the CO2

sequestered by

each species of plant for the next

20 years. It is predicted that a

total of 1,700 tonnes of CO2

will be

sequestered by the end of the 20

years. The generated carbon credits

can be sold as Voluntary Carbon

Standard (VCS) credits in the local

and international carbon markets. As

such, this project will be nanced

through the money generated from

the sale of these carbon credits.

The economic benet of the project

is a win-win situation for both land

owners and the project developers.

The Hiniduma Bio-Link Project

was established following globally

accepted standards and was

registered under the VCS Scheme

called Plan Vivo Standard. The

Hiniduma Bio-Link Project is the

rst project in Asia to complete a

Plan Vivo. Plan Vivo is a standard for

designing and certifying community

based payments for ecosystem

services (PES) programmes. The

project team has also taken steps

to register the carbon credits under

a well-known registry called Markit

Registry (www.markitenvironmental.

com).

Sequestrated CO2

from newly

planted trees are eligible for sale

as VCS credits after going through

the project development, validation

and verication processes. Under

the VCS Scheme the carbon credits

generated can be sold prior to the

20 years and this pilot project has

sold most of its credits in advance

so as to ensure meeting farmer

payments and meeting running costs

until project completion. One of the

noteworthy successes of the project

has been the sale of carbon credits

from the Hiniduma Bio-link Project

to Marks & Spencer, UK. Seventy-

three percent of the revenue from

the carbon credits is given to the

farmers while the remaining 27%

goes towards meeting project costs.

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Figure 1: Plan Vivo project registration process

Source: Plan Vivo

(PhoocoesyC

CCndrrI)

Farmers planting trees in the buffer zone


11/20112012July

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The success of these types of

projects is closely linked to viable

land use practices over the long term

and the provision of sustainable

socio-economic benets to

communities beyond that of carbon

payments. While attractive nancial

benets will help ensure the future

conservation of the planted trees

the real long term benets for such

communities are that they and

future generations will live in a clean

unpolluted environment, maintaining

a controlled, replenishable use of

forest resources. As this is a pilot

project the CCC does not expect to

Subramaniam Eassuwaren, is a

Director of Carbon Conservation

Company and Deputy Chairman

of Eswaran Brothers Exports

(Pvt.) Ltd.


vents

INDIA 2012 EXPO

Date: 7th 9th November 2012

Venue: India Expo Center, Greater

Noida National Capital, Region of

Delhi, India

Renewable Energy India is

an annual exposition held in

New Delhi to serve the Indian

renewable energy market in

leading sustainable development

globally. It focuses on upscaling

and mainstreaming environment-

friendly renewable energy

resources such as solar, wind,

biomass, bio-fuel, small hydro,

geothermal and energy efciency

through an international exhibition

and conference platform.

Supported by the Government

of India - Ministry of New &

Renewable Energy and Ministry of

Power, the event is Asias largest

congregation of renewables. There

will be 550+ exhibitors; 175+

speakers; 1000+ delegates; 35+

knowledge packed conference

sessions / parallel events;CEO |CTO and CFO Conclave;

Business Matching and Investor

Lounge services; Theme Display

Awards; Youth Entrepreneurial

Green Awards; Lucky Draw and

several networking opportunities.

For further information please

go to the event website www.

renewableenergyindiaexpo.com

RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLDCONFERENCE EXPO ASIA

Date: 3rd 5th October 2012

Venue: Impact Exhibition & Convention

Centre, Bangkok, Thailand

For companies involved from

the manufacture of equipment

to the supply of products orservices to the renewable energy

industry, Renewable Energy World

Asia provides the platform and

showcase opportunity to reach,

meet and demonstrate to industry

professionals and key industry

buyers and inuencers of South

East Asia. Inclusive of a conference

and exhibition there will also be a

technical tour.

For further information please

go to the event website www.

renewableenergyworld-asia.com or

e-mail: [email protected].

SOUTHEAST ASIA RENEWABLEENERGY PEOPLES ASSEMBLY(SEAREPA) PEOPLEPOWERING ENERGY

Date: 29th October 2nd November2012

Venue: Rainforest Discovery Centre

(RDC), Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia

This inaugural SEAREPA event is

held to showcase community based

renewable energy solutions and

their role in building a sustainable

energy-secure future. Aimed at

attracting 150 200 participants

from Borneo and all of Southeast

Asia, this event will provide anopportunity for participants to share

and receive technical advice to

help strengthen on-going projects

and initiatives. Renewable resource

engineers, energy policy experts

and investors from all over the world

will be attending the conference to

provide their inputs on the projects

and initiatives discussed by South

Asian representatives.

For more information on the eventplease e-mail [email protected]

*All event details have been extracted

from the respective event websites.

make a monetary prot from this

particular phase of the reforestation

initiative. However, the successes of

this pilot initiative is being used to

scale up the projects reforestation

activities in partnership with other

institutions and investors, which is

expected to generate a prot for the

company in the future.

The Hiniduma Bio-link Project has

helped show how carbon sequestering

initiatives can prove economically

viable not only for the project

developers but for the community as

well. By involving the community in

the project processes it has ensured

that increased community respect,

ownership and responsibility towards

their surrounding environment is

inbuilt into the system, promoting

sustainability in the long run. In this

way, traditional communities become

essential partners in the effort to

make a cleaner, greener, fairer world.


12/2012

POWER HOUSE

Understanding Carbon MarketsBy: Damitha Samarakoon

As the Kyoto Protocols ve-

year rst commitment period

(20082012) draws to a close, it

is time to assess the overall useand effectiveness of the Clean

Development Mechanism (CDM).

This article explains the CDM

and voluntary carbon emission

reduction concepts, the trends in

the market and future potential.

It also goes on to explain the

registration process of CDM

projects in the compliance market

under the UNFCCC (United

Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change) and in the

voluntary market (with reference

to the Gold Standard). Where

community based smaller projects

are concerned the evolution of the

voluntary market carbon nancing

is important and the article places

a special focus on this aspect of

registration.

The concept of carbon emission

reduction projects (later developedin to greenhouse gas emission

reduction) Clean Development

Mechanisms (CDM) came into the

fore at international forums where

global climate change discussions

and concerns were taken up, as a

method of reducing the emission of

greenhouse gases (GHG) in traditional

development mechanisms. The use of

carbon emission reduction projects

and related funding methods wereconnected to carbon trading (off

setting) during the Kyoto Protocol

discussions in 1997 and came

into effect from 2005. By the end

of 2011, the protocol was ratied

by over 190 countries. This treaty

set up clear commitments from 41

annex 1 countries (categorised as

developed or transition economies1,)

to reduce their GHG emissions by

5.2% (reduced to 4.2% as the

United Stated did not ratify the

protocol) against the baseline (1990)

values. The time period for the rst

commitment was 2008 - 2012.

Flexible mechanisms to reduce

emissions

Under the treaty the obliged

countries were given several options

(exible mechanisms) to reducetheir emissions:

1. Emission trading (credit trading)

2. Joint implementation projects

3. Clean development mechanisms

Emissions trading

Refers to where the countries were

given a cap for GHG emissions

(Kyoto Protocol, EU emission trading

scheme etc). Most of the countries

then transferred and adapted them

to different industries, decided on by

a central authority in each country.

The governments and companies

would purchase the credit permits

for their limits and would trade

them in an open market. Industries

and companies which do not need

their overall quota trade the excess

credits with a company that requires

additional carbon credits for their

operations. Often this trading

mechanism is facilitated through the

national authority of the respective

countries.

Joint Implementation Projects (JI)

These are projects implemented in

annex 1 countries itself where one

country (state 1) would implement

a project that will reduce emissions

in another country (state 2) and

purchase the emissions reductions

(they would do so as it would becheaper for the state 1 to invest in

a carbon reduction scheme in state

2 than to do so in their own country)

and then claim for the emission

reductions. These projects would

usually include replacing a coal red

power plant with a more efcient

combine heat and power plant

thereby reducing net CO2

emissions.

Clean Development Mechanisms

(CDM)

The CDM was designed to meet a

dual objective: to help developed

countries meet a part of their

emission reduction targets under

the Kyoto Protocol and to assist

developing countries in achieving

sustainable development. An annex

1 country or a company from such

a country would nance a project in

a non annex 1 country. The project

should support a development

activity in the non annex 1 country

and should also be supporting GHG

emission reductions so that if not for

the carbon credit funding the project

(PhoocoesyouNfCCC,phoogph

e:XiodiCi)

A way to a better life - local farmers taking crop residues to a bio power plant

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_

Framework_Convent ion_on_Cl imate_

Change#Annex_I_countries


13/20132012July

would either not take place or will

be implemented in such a way it will

emit more GHGs.

Carbon emission reduction trading

happens in two major markets. One

is the CDM market - the obligation

of carbon (or harmful emission)

reductions under the Kyoto Protocol

or EU ETS traded off to a value of

USD 176.5 billion in 2011 (World

Bank). The second market is a

voluntary market where companiesand individuals voluntarily purchase

carbon credits to offset their GHG

emissions. The voluntary market

is mostly supported by small scale

emission reduction projects and

in 2011 the value of the voluntary

emission reduction (VER) market

was above USD 570 million.

Overall, in both the compliance

market and the voluntary market thevalue of emission reduction projects

rose from USD 47 million in 2001 to

USD 130 billion in 2012.

CDM investments for the future

The UNFCCC report - Benets of

the Clean Development Mechanism

2011: United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change -

stated that by 30th July 2011, a total

of 3,276 project design documents(PDDs) had been registered with the

CDM executive board. The investment

in CDM projects, which was only USD

41 million in 2004 had increased

in value to over USD 140 billion by

mid-2011. These projects have very

clearly contributed over and above

the prime objective of reducing

GHG emissions by supporting

the sustainable development and

investment funding for the host

countries.

Table 1 shows the number of PDDsregistered and issued, and the

related investment by country in the

South and South East Asian region

(details of China are also included

for comparison).

The voluntary carbon market (VCM)

It has been reported that 2011

recorded the transacting of the

second largest market-wide volumes

(95 MtCO2e 2) and the largest valueever (USD 576 million) tracked in

voluntary carbon markets.

Country

Number of projects Total Investment

(USD millions) Country

Number of Projects Total Investment

(USD millions)

Registered Issued Registered Issued Registered Issued Registered IssuedIndia 694 419 21,144 7,531 Indonesia 70 30 1,512 856

Pakistan 12 4 370 167 Malaysia 93 36 544 359

Sri Lanka 7 7 79 79 Vietnam 64 10 1,559 229

Bangladesh 2 1 10 5 Laos 1 1 1 1

Nepal 4 2 27 6 Philippines 54 18 715 199

Bhutan 2 1 184 - Thailand 53 31 461 336

China 1468 830 96311 65,156

Volume (MtCO2e) Value (USD millions)

Markets 2010 2011 2010 2011

Voluntary OTC-traded 128 93 422 572

CCX (exchange-tradedand OTC-cleared)

2 - 2 -

Other Exchanges 2 2 11 4

tol Volny Mk 133 95 433 576

tol rgld Mk 8,072 10,094 158,777 175,451

tol Globl Mk 8,835 10,189 159,210 176,027

POWER HOUSE

Table 1: Project Investment

Source: Benets of the Clean Development Mechanism 2011:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, 2011

Source: Ecosystem Marketplace and the World Banks State and Trends of the Carbon

Markets 2012. Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding

According to the Eco system

Marketplace report by Bloomberg,

the average price for voluntary

emission reductions (VER)s

increased slightly in 2011, from

USD 6/tCO2e in 2010 to USD 6.2/

tCO2e in 2011. While the volume of

credits traded in the USD 1-2/tCO2e

range doubled, so did the volume

of credits in the USD 5-10/tCO2e

range. Above average prices were

attributed to newly issued credits

from highly charismatic projects;emerging domestic programmes; and

credits eligible for future compliance

market use. 2011s average price

is calculated by the aggregation of

hundreds of reported prices that vary

greatly by project standard, location,

and technology ranging from less

than USD 1/tCO2e to over USD 100/

tCO2e.

The verication of the projectsthrough a recognised standard

system is a must for these carbon

Table 2: Transaction Volumes and Values, Global Carbon Market, 2010 and 2011

2 MtCO2e stands for Metric Tonne (ton) Carbon

Dioxide Equivalent. It is the amount of CO2

emissions that are reduced or secluded from

the environment.


14/2014

offsets to be accepted. The following

standards prevailed during 2011

in terms of units of carbon offsets.

Veried Carbon Standard (VCS) saw

41 MtCO2e of credits transacted

utilising its standard. Behind

VCS, the Climate Action Reserve

guided another 9 MtCO2e of credits

transacted in 2011, and Gold

Standard with 8.5 MtCO2e. A number

of standards that apply exclusively to

domestic projects remained active,

while numerous local and national

governments initiated voluntary

offset projects. Country-specic

standards backed 6 MtCO2e or 7%

of all credits transacted in the VCM

in 2011.

The ultimate buyers were mainly

companies seeking to offset their

carbon emissions. There are

brokers and intermediaries who

purchase carbon credits from project

developers and resell the credits to

the nal buyers. From the supply

side the variation based on the type

of organisation varied, is shown in

Figure 1 during 2011.

Non-prot market share grew again

in 2011 (to 20% of all transacted

credits), when the private sector

looked to non-prot suppliers

POWER HOUSE

to source a growing volume of

their credits, or pursued a more

philanthropic model for meeting

their GHG targets. Hence, non-prot

suppliers portfolios were more varied

last year shifting from a dominant

focus on forestry (85% of non-prot

credits sold in 2010) to transacting

several project types and at a price

more competitive with for-prots

suppliers.

From the shift to more non-

prot market share it is clear that

demand has been affected due to

the economic conditions in the

European market. However, the VCM

concept is showing good resiliencein terms of addressing both the

objectives of emission reduction and

sustainable development. A study by

Thompson Reuters indicates that by

2020 the VCM will reach a value of

USD 3.6 billion. But the certication

requirements are expected to become

more stringent.

How can an organisation obtainfunding through a CDM Project?

Projects can apply to be registered

as a CDM project in the compliance

market under UNFCCC or can apply

to be a part of the voluntary market.

The process for applying for

registration of CDM under UNFCCC

guidelines (as stated on the UNFCCC

website) is as follows :

1. Project Design: Projectparticipant prepares project

design document, making use

of approved emissions baseline

and monitoring methodology

2. National Approval: Project

participant secures letter

of approval from Party (the

project participant or any other

partner in the project of the

host country), The Designated

National Authority (DNA) of a

Party involved in a proposed

CDM project activity shall submit

a letter indicating the following:

That the country has ratied the

Kyoto Protocol.

That participation is voluntary.

And, from host parties, a

statement that the proposed

CDM project activity contributes

to sustainable development (EB

16, Annex 6, paragraph 13

).3. Validation: Project design

document is validated

by accredited designated

operational entity, private third-

party certier.

4. Registration: Valid project

submitted by (designated

operational entity) DOE to CDM

Executive Board with request for

registration. DOEs are private

certiers who validate projectsand verify emission reductions.

Registration is the formal

acceptance by the Executive

Board of a validated project

as a CDM project activity.

Registration is the prerequisite

for the verication, certication

and issuance of CERs related to

that project activity.

5. Monitoring: Project participant

responsible for monitoring actual

emissions according to approved

methodology.

3 Source: http://cdm.unfccc.int/EB/016/

eb16repan6.pdf

Figure 1: Response Count by Proft Status, All Years

Source: Ecosystem Marketplace. Note: Based on 310 organizations from

previous four years


15/20152012July

POWER HOUSE

6. Verication: Designated

operational entity veries that

emission reductions took place,

in the amount claimed, according

to approved monitoring plan.

7. CER issuance.

DOE submits a verication report

with request for issuance to the CDM

Executive Board. Steps in the CER

issuance in detail:

Completeness check by

secretariat

Vetting by secretariat

Vetting by Executive Board

If a Party or three members of the

Executive Board request review,

issuance request undergoes

review, otherwise proceeds to

issuance

The Gold Standard

Registration in the voluntary market

is also similar to the process, (given

below), advised by the Gold Standard(GS).

Planning stage check eligibility

The project should be checked

for cl - it could be large,

small or micro as dened by the

GS tool kit.

The project should be clearly

cgoid in to one of the

following; renewable energy

supply, end use energy efciencyimprovement or waste handling

and disposal.

Only 3 out of the 6 GHG emission

reduction categories under UNFCCC

are eligible under the GS VER

scheme - i.e: Carbon Dioxide(CO2),

Methane(CH4) and Nitrous

Oxide(N2O).

If the project receives ofcial

development assistance (ODA) and

the credits are transferred directly

or indirectly to the donor country the

project will not be eligible for VER.

If the project was announced to go

ahead previously without assistance

from carbon credit then it will not

be eligible to claim funding from

carbon trading, but projects can

claim carbon funding if the funds

are critical for the sustainability of

the project. If projects have been

initiated before being registered

under GS VER it can claim for carbon

emission reduction up to a maximum

of 2 years before the registering date

under the GS VER scheme.

Taking into account additionality

and sustainability, the premium

status certication from GS isgiven for projects of high quality.

The additionality criterion refers to

the fact that the carbon emission

reduction would not have taken

place if the project did not happen

and the project is dependent on the

carbon credit income generated.

Sustainability criterion refers to

the fact that the actions under the

project contributes to sustainabledevelopment of the host country. The

GS advices to refer to development

assistance sites of GTZ, UNDP,

FAO, SNV, DFID, OXFAM, DANIDA,

ODI, South-South North, etc. to

nd tools to optimise insight and

potential impact. Once the eligibility

criteria is studied and it is clear that

the project is eligible the project

participant should start writing the

GS passport which gives all the

information regarding the project.

The project passport will include the

following information:

Project title

Project description

Proof of project eligibility -

based on: category, region,

project type, project gases, ODA,

other certication schemes and

project timeframe.

Unique project identication

Outcome of the Local Stakeholder

Consultation process - The

details of how to conduct the

stakeholder consultation process

and the details required are

given in the GS tool kit.

Outcome of the Sustainability

Assessment - presentation of

the outcome of the do no harm

assessment and consolidated

sustainable development matrix

Sustainability Monitoring

Plan - Additionality and

conservativeness deviations

Filling up the passport can be done

while the project design document

is being prepared, however to

Figure 2: Project cycle for a CDM project

Source: www.clearbluetrading.com


16/2016

POWER HOUSE

complete the passport you need a

completed PDD. The following steps

and assessment will help to write the

PDD and complete the GS passport:

Select Baseline and Monitoring

Methodology

Additionality Assessment using

tools given in the GS tool kit.

Sustainability Assessment

(Do No Harm Assessment,

Detailed Impact Assessment-

Sustainable Development Matrix,

Sustainability Monitoring Plan,

Environmental & Social Impact

Assessment (ESIA)).

After creating a registry, details and

necessary documents are uploaded

onto the GS web site, and after

completing the stakeholder report

the GS secretariat will inform the

project participant whether the

project has received the applicant

status and listed. The project should

then be validated by a DOE, or a

AIE (accredited independent entity),one can also opt for a GS internal

validation by paying a fee (this

applies for micro scale projects only).

After the validation and reviewing of

the validation by the GS a successful

project will receive the registered

status.

There are many micro scale projects

that would have signicant impact

The Gold Standard Foundation,

available on http://www.

cdmgoldstandard.org/ [17 October

2012]

UNFCC website, Project Design,

available on http://cdm.unfccc.int/

Projects/diagram.html [16 October

2012]

Point Carbon, 23rd November

2010, CDM will grow beyond 2012

with 3.6bn CERs issued by 2020,

available on http://www.pointcarbon.

c o m / a b o u t u s / p r e s s r o o m / pressreleases/1.1487593 [16

October 2012]

State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets

2012: Eco System Market place

forest trend initiative, Bloomberg.

UNFCCC, Benets of the Clean

Development Mechanism 2011:

United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change,2011

on GHG reduction and sustainable

development in host countries if

carbon funding is received and

this will make the carbon emission

reduction targets more realistic

globally. The issue that still remains

is the lack of knowledge among small

entities on how to apply for carbon

credits and related funding. Effective

sharing of information among these

entities should be promoted for

them to benet from carbon funding

schemes and thus promote GHG

emission reduction and contribute to

sustainable development.

References

Wikipedia, Carbon offset, available

on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Carbon_offset [17 October 2012]

Environmental Leader, 2011,

Voluntary Carbon Market

Surges, Global Carbon Trading

Stalls, available from http://

w w w . e n v i r o n m e n t a l l e a d e r .

com/2011/06/03/voluntary-carbon-market -surges-g lobal -carbon-

trading-contracts/ [17 October

2012]

UNFCCC website, Approved Baseline

and Monitoring Methodologies for

Large Scale CDM Project Activities,

available on http://cdm.unfccc.int/

methodologies/PAmethodologies/

approved [16 October 2012]

Damitha Samarakoon, Project

Manager, Practical Action.

E-mail: damitha.samarakoon@

practicalaction.org.lk

Changing to serve you better

With the coming New Year e-net plans to re-strategise itself in the renewable energy arena. We will continue to

place emphasis on community planned, managed and sustained energy initiatives. Further, the forums regional

reach will expand to include South East Asia as well. In order to serve our members better changes will be made to

the South Asia Renewable Energy Forum. The revamped forum website will facilitate increased interaction between

members. Discussions will continue to be held on energy issues faced by the poor and issues and opportunities

in the energy development sector. Increased space for members to post details on energy related events (such as

workshops, conferences) on the forum website and links with other networks in the energy sector are just some

of the changes our members can look forward to. The e-net magazine will continue to be a bi-annual publication.It will not only contain articles related to a specic theme but it will also cover a technical paper on a chosen

renewable energy technology while containing articles covering community based energy initiatives and news in

the energy sector.


17/20172012July

POWER HOUSE

Creating awareness on Sustainable Energy andEnergy Options through art in Sri LankaContributed by Practical Action

using renewable energy sources

to generate energy, due to the

fast depletion of fossil fuels.

In the process of designing their

entries children had to learn about

energy issues and the sustainable

energy options available. Various

aspects of the energy crises, the

sustainable energy requirement and

renewable energy solutions were

portrayed in the childrens artwork.

As such, the entire event was a great

awareness building initiative for the

younger generation on how to deal

with the upcoming energy crisis.

Awareness was created on how

dominant sectors in a countrys

economy, such as industry, education

and health, are greatly inuenced by

the supply of energy. Awareness on

alternative renewable technologies

such as energy efcient cookstoves,

tidal power generation, wave power,

solar power, wind energy, small and

large scale hydro power plants andbiogas facilities was also created.

Aspects of energy saving appliances

and techniques were also depicted

in their pieces of art for instance

how to use electricity efciently and

using energy saving bulbs in the

home.

The fact that the energy issues,

and the energy saving technologies

and applications were depicted in

the childrens entries are a signof how effective the competition

was in creating awareness on the

energy issues and sustainable energy

options. Practical Action along with

the Ministry of Postal Services and

Sustainable Energy Authority were

successful in making this stamp

issue an opportunity to offer insights

into strengthening the methods and

initiatives on Sustainable Energy for

all and it served as an opportunityto build awareness among the

younger generation on the need for

sustainable energy and the use of

alternative energy options.

Energy has become the foundation

of all economic related activity and

improving access to energy has a

direct positive impact on economic

growth, living standards and poverty

alleviation. The year 2012 was

declared the International Year ofSustainable Energy for All by the

UN. Practical Action joined hands

with the Ministry of Postal Services

and Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy

Authority to organise an island-wide

art competition for school children to

design the rst-day stamp cover for

the launch of a stamp symbolising

this theme. The competition was

launched on 10th January 2012 and

the stamp and winning rst day coverdesign entry were released on 20th

March 2012 at an event attended

by the participating school children,

their parents and representatives of

the organisations involved.

The competition was held to create

awareness and interest among

school children on sustainable

energy and the sustainable energy

options available in Sri Lanka. It also

provided a platform for the younger

generation to express their views

on energy related issues using art.

Press advertisements and posters in

the national languages (Sinhala and

Tamil) were used to publicise the

competition and the related theme.

The competition was a great success

and received over 200 pieces of

artwork from school children from

around the country, proof of the

great enthusiasm generated over thisevent. Awareness was created not

only among the children but their

parents and teachers as well.

Two rounds of selection by 2

independent panels led to the

selection of winners. Cash prizes

and awards were distributed at the

stamp launch to the rst, second,

third place winners of the rst day

cover. Grade 12 student, MissD.H.A. Sachini Ruwanika Nimanthi

Perera won rst prize in the art

competition. She is a student at

Holy Family Balika Maha Vidyalaya,

in Wennapuwa, in the North

Western Province of the country. Ten

consolation prizes were also awarded.

Twenty other places under the merit

category were also given prizes

and certicates by the Honorable

Minister of Power and Energy Mr.

Patali Champika Ranawaka in front

of the distinguished gathering.

The Honorable Minister thanked

the children for their participation

and highlighted the importance of

(PhoocoesyoP

ciclacion)

Winners of the rst day stamp cover art competition


18/2018

Formation of the South / South East Asia Micro/Pico Hydro Network

Micro Hydro power generation units

have been used for almost a century

to electrify remote villages in South /

South East Asia. However, the hydro

potential in the region has not yet

been fully harnessed. So there is a

lot more scope for a positive impact

on the lives of those who need

electricity the most. The formation

of the South/South East Asia Micro/

Pico Hydro Network is an initiative

to help countries collaboratively

accomplish this.

The rst micro hydro systems were

used in plantations in countries

like India and Sri Lanka and with

increased usage of electricity as

a public utility hydro power also

gained popularity. However, it was

only during the 1980s that the

concept of community managed

mini/micro hydro systems came into

prominence.

Several countries were very

successful in adapting different

technologies (such as hydro) and

social practices to suit their local

needs, using existing hydro power

for sustainable power generation

and electrifying remote villages.

However, some countries are yet to

take full advantage of this power

source available to them due to

several obstacles.

The potential

The countries in the region still have

a large technical potential for hydro

power, as shown in the table below.

Tapping into this technical potential

might not always be feasible as

economic and social conditions are

not always suitable. For example, in

Sri Lanka the economically feasible

generation capacity is 7,255 GWh/year against the technical feasibility

of 8,250 GWh/year resulting in

an unutilised amount of hydro

potential. In Nepal only 14,742

GWh is economically feasible

whereas in Cambodia and Indonesia

the economically feasible capacities

are 1,500 and 40,000 GWh/year

respectively.

It is clearly visible from Table 1 that

most of the countries are yet to takeadvantage of this natural resource

and improve the standard of living

of its people. The need to protect

and use these renewable sources

for power generation is becoming

increasingly important as the cost

of using fossil fuels, both nancially

Cony tchnicl Ponil(GWh/y)

Gnion om inlld(GWh/y)

Afghanistan 25,000 1,000

Bhutan 99,200 7,134

Bangladesh 1,500 1,200

Cambodia 34,400 55

Indonesia 401,646 10,700

Laos 18,000 3,777

Malaysia 12,300 4,950

Myanmar 39,720 7,830

Nepal 44,000 2,410

Pakistan 204,000 28,667

Philippines 20,334 6,432Sri Lanka 8,250 3,947

Thailand 16,292 5,314

Vietnam 123,000 24,000

Table 1: Technical potential vs. Current generation of hydro power

(Source: Hydro power and Dams, World Atlas 2009)

and environmentally, is already

having negative impacts on these

countries and on the world at large.

The individual capacities in these

countries at each site can be

categorised as large scale, mini/

micro and pico hydro technology,

based on the power generated.

The smaller versions (micro and

pico) get less attention as large

scale projects can attract large

donor agencies, governmental

support and the technical knowhow

required. However, it is the smaller

scale versions that are best suited

to provide energy to remote rural

villages in these countries.

The main obstacles for these smaller

technologies to take up and reach

maximum potential are:

1. Lack of nances and suitable

nancing models

2. Lack of technical knowledge and

skills

3. Lack of managerial techniquesat community level

4. Lack of appropriate policy

support

However, certain countries have

achieved success in certain areas.

Considering the region as a whole it

seems to have the capacity to take

micro/pico hydro technology usage

to the next level. For example there

are very good case studies found in

Sri Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia ofusing community managed hydro

schemes, connecting small scale

units to the national grid, and very

successful funding mechanisms to

support small hydro projects.

The hydro network

The Wuppertal Institute under its

WSIONS project supports small

scale renewable energy development

projects in the region. It recognisesthe necessity for a regional network

on micro/pico hydro. The network

would facilitate the sharing of

knowledge and build capacities

of smaller organisations to benet

www.sa-energy.netSouth Asia Renewable Energy Network


19/20192012July

from each other while also using the

synergy created through the network

to develop policy level support in each

country to enable rapid development

in the Hydro Power sector. With this

in mind, the WISIONS program team

held a meeting with its partners and

interested organisations from the

region (Sri Lanka, Philippines, Nepal,

Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and India) in

February 2012 in Sri Lanka. During

the meeting participants drafted a

framework to initiate a South/South

East Asia Micro/Pico Hydro network.

The main objectives of this network

are to build the technical capacities

of the network members to develop

the hydro sector in their respective

countries, address nancial issues,

tariff structures, and policy issues

through knowledge sharing.

The regional coordinator of the

network will be Janathakshan the

local partner of Practical Action

(formerly ITDG) in Sri Lanka. The

rst phase of the network will be

to create a member base with at

least one partner from each country

and to create an online platform to

share information and knowledge.

As the network is expected to

promote grass root level activities

and policy inuencing at later

stages, the membership will initially

be limited to the organisations

that were represented in the rst

meeting in Sri Lanka. As the network

activities increase the membership

Name Ogniion Cony WblinkNazario R.Cacayan

YAMOG Renewable EnergyDevelopment Group

Philippines www.yamog.org

Auke Idzenga AIDFI (AID Foundation Inc) Philippines www.aid.org

Victoria Lopez SIBAT (Sibol na Agham atTeknolohiya)

Philippines www.sibat.org

Shikha Srivastava Development consultant India

Dipti Vaghela Development practitioner India

SalineeTavaranan

BGET (Border Green EnergyTeam)

Thailand www.bget.org

VongkhamSenesathit

Ministry of Science andTechnology

Lao PDR [email protected]

PushkarManandhar

Practical Action Nepal www.practicalaction.org

Carmen Dienst/Julian Knig

Wuppertal Institute Germany www.wupperinst.org

Rohitha Ananda/Gihan Sajeew

Practical Action Sri Lanka www.practicalaction.org

will be opened to a wider group

of organisations and individuals

who are actively involved in micro/

pico hydro development in these

countries. The Wuppertal Institute

is willing to support initial level

knowledge sharing and technical

exchange requirements within

the membership, the success of

which will bring more supporting

and funding organisations into the

network .

Collaboration between South/SouthEast Asia Micro/Pico Hydro Network

and the South Asia ElectronicForum on Energy

Developments of the network will be

shared through the www.sa-energy.

net site on a separate page dedicated

to the South/South East Asia Micro/

Pico Hydro Network. The information

will be visible to all visitors of the

South Asia Electronic Forum on

Energy. However, uploading and

downloading of information will be

limited to registered members. The

page will provide a market place for

members to showcase their demand

and supply on specic needs

to develop the hydro sector, the

regional coordinator together with

the members will then try to match

the requests and prioritise the needs

that could be met within the available

resources of the network. Later ontechnical training and specic needs

matching is expected to take place.

The list of organisations and

individuals present at the rst

meeting and who will be the initial

members of the South/South Asia

Micro/Pico Hydro Network is given

below. Later on technical training

and specic needs matching is

expected to take place.

(PhoocoesyP

ciclacion)

South/ South East Asia Micro/Pico hydro network development workshoporganised by Wuppertal Institue and Practical Action, Kandy, Sri Lanka

For more information on the

South/South East Asia Micro/

Pico Hydro Network and its link

with the South Asia Electronic

Forum on Energy, contact Damitha

Samarakoon, Manager of the e-netproject, at damitha.samarakoon@

practicalaction.org.lk


20/20

www.sa-energy.net E-mail: [email protected]


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