Our very own Mariel Vilella addressing the CDM Executive Board during its 58th EB Meeting in Cancun
Mariel Vilella: My name is Mariel Vilella and I represent the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a worldwide network of more than 600 organizations in 89 countries working for a just, toxics-free world without incineration. Some of our member groups are wastepicker organizations; you may remember meeting a few of them in Copenhagen, where they raised questions about the CDM’s waste sector projects. As you may remember, wastepickers are concerned about the CDM’s support for incinerators and landfill gas systems, which have had the effect of displacing wastepickers from their livelihoods. It has also create a perverse incentive to increase waste disposal and therefore, increasing as well adverse effects on climate emissions.
Regarding support from the CDM to waste incineration and landfill gas systems, we'd like to bring your attention to one of the most problematic sides of the methodologies supporting waste-to-energy technologies. PDDs for incinerators and landfill gas projects routinely state that biogenic CO2 emissions do not need to be reported, following a blanket assumptions that biogenic CO2 emissions are climate-neutral. However, this assumption is not being supported by science; actually, this miscalculation has been addressed by the IPCC, which explicitly states that if incineration of waste is used for energy purposes, both fossil and biogenic CO2 emissions should be estimated.
The fact that biogenic Co2 emissions are not taken into account may be a source of non-additional CERS and a loophole in international emissions accounting, which should be a great concern for the CDM EB.
In facing this situation, we would like to know what steps the CDM Executive Board is taking to refine accounting for biogenic emissions.
Response from CDM Secretariat:
- Environmental integrity is a responsibility of national entities (host countries for CDM projects).
- About biogenic emissions, landfill gas systems recover methane so they don't do direct incineration of waste.
Mariel Vilella: Yes, but under the AM25, there are projects that do directly incinerate waste.
Response again from the Secretariat:
- Yes, under the AM25 there is incineration, but the man methodology dealing with waste is ACM1 for landfills.
ENDS
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