A landfill that will take in about 40 percent of Metro Manila’s garbage has qualified to receive cash under the carbon finance program of rich countries.
The World Bank, a custodian of the carbon finance facility, will buy certified emission reductions or carbon credits from the Bulacan Engineered Sanitary Landfill that is being built in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan.
Under carbon finance, industrialized states and companies are allowed to fulfill their commitments to greenhouse gas reduction by purchasing emission reduction credits in new clean and energy projects of developing nations such as the Philippines.
The World Bank has set up its own facility to handle procurement on behalf of countries mostly in Europe.
Major buyers of carbon credits are the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan, Italy and Spain while the sellers are mostly energy companies and industries.
The VG Puyat Group of Companies is building the landfill rated for about 3,500 tons of solid waste or around 8,000 tons of garbage produced daily in the metropolis.
Besides the landfill and the gas collection facility, the site would be turned into an industrial eco-park and golf course, whose electricity would come from the landfill’s methane gas.
“The potential carbon finance revenue stream allows the landfill gas facility to be included in the solid waste management system from the beginning rather than being developed later, which is the practice in other facilities in the country,” said World Bank environmental specialist and project team leader John Morton.
The Land Bank of the Philippines has recently signed a memorandum of agreement with the VG Puyat Group to obtain certified emission reductions from its landfill gas facility.
Under the agreement, methane gas harvested on-site would be bought by LandBank on its Carbon Finance Support Facility and sold to the World Bank under its Methane Recovery from Waste Project.
The World Bank and the US Environmental Protection Agency will provide technical support as well.
The methane plant’s operations will be monitored and verified by a third party auditor as to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reduced.
Upon the receipt of the certified emission reductions, the World Bank will pay LandBank, which in turn pays the VGP Group.
“Today is a very significant milestone for the VGP Group. For internationally-respected institutions such as the World Bank and the Land Bank of the Philippines to recognize our sanitary landfill as a project worthy to receive financial incentives under the Clean Development Mechanism is a very welcome pat on the back,” said Puyat Group’s chief executive David Emmanuel Puyat.
According to World Bank country director Bert Hofman, the landfill gas capture and utilization is a “win-win project” where local waste problems and global warming issues are tackled together.
“We hope for this to be a model for others, not only in the Philippines but also throughout the region,” he said.
“The bank’s programmatic approach used in the Methane Recovery from Waste Management Project allows projects such as this to access carbon finance at a lower transaction cost and on a larger scale than previously possible. It is part of the World Bank’s efforts to scale up the mitigation of climate change through new financial instruments and opportunities,” Hofman said.
“This is an excellent example of the Methane to Markets Partnership program which facilitates project development in a coordinated approach with the World Bank to assist the Philippines in implementing their Greenhouse Gas Reduction Initiative. We are thrilled that this project may become a replicable model for future landfill designs to protect the global environment and improve the sanitary condition of the Filipino people,” said Kurt Roos of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The Philippines accounts for only 0.27 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. –Roderick T. dela Cruz with Rio N. Araja, Manila Standard Today
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