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| Fertiliser company generates carbon credits |
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
KARACHI: A Pakistani fertiliser company has started generating saleable carbon-offset credits by reducing emissions of green house gas while five more projects are awaiting approval of a United Nations’ body, officials told The News.
Pakarab Fertiliser Limited, a subsidiary of Fatima Group, has qualified for certified emissions reduction (CER) trading after undertaking a multi-million-dollar project to cut emissions of nitrous oxide, a highly potent green house gas.
This reduction is equivalent to saving emissions of 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide per annum, says the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) cell in Pakistan.
But still the country has not been able to capture a sizable part of the carbon credit market, which is dominated by South Asian nations, creating highest number of CERs, each equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide.
“Actually, we have been late in signing the Kyoto protocol,” said Saadullah Ayaz, Head of CDM cell. “Nevertheless, six projects have been approved and 40 are in the pipeline.”
Pakistan signed the Kyoto protocol in 2005 and became eligible for availing benefits of CDM a year later. Under the protocol, developed countries were bound to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 5 per cent from the levels of 1990 in the next four years.
As the cost of decreasing emissions is often unfeasible in industrialised countries, they buy carbon credits or CERs from developing nations as part of their commitment to mitigate environmental hazards causing climate change.
Omar Malik, who is associated with a private consultancy firm which facilitates industrial units in implementing CDM projects, said the CER trade could be used to finance part of projects related to bringing energy efficiency like converting oil-fired power plants to gas.
He said cement, sugar and renewable energy industries have great potential to generate CERs. “The opportunities might not be as great as they are in India but nothing has been done here yet, so we have a lot of room to exploit.”
However, it is uncertain how many industrial units would be eligible for CER trading as the first period for receiving income from such projects expires in 2012. Negotiations are still under way for extending it by five years to 2017.
The CDM projects are approved by the executive board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) based in Bonn, Germany.
Experts believe the CDM can also address the energy crisis faced by the country. Ainul Abedin, an energy consultant, said thermal power plants waste excessive amount of fuel. “Through co-generation technology fuel consumption can be lowered along with carbon dioxide discharge.”
Pakistan’s National Energy Conservation Center (Enercon) has been campaigning for introducing energy-efficient techniques in the industrial, transport and agriculture sectors.
Enercon Chief K M Zubair says 70 per cent problems related to environmental degradation arise from excessive waste of energy in shape of carbon dioxide emissions. “CDM can definitely be an additional incentive for bringing energy efficiency.”
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ISSN 1563-9479 
