Landfill emissions to be used as greenhouse gas credits

WasteServ Malta Ltd is in the process of registering the gas collection and utilisation project at Ta' Zwejra Landfill as a clean development mechanism (CDM) project.

The mechanism, being applied in Malta for the first time, is aimed primarily at contributing towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is an arrangement under article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change that could have devastating consequences on the planet.

The Kyoto Protocol actually distinguishes between Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 countries, the former being large industrialised countries and the latter referring to developing countries or small nations that contribute little to the percentage of emissions because of their size.

A very small country with insignificant emissions when compared to large industrialised countries, Malta does not have any obligations to cut emissions as such.

Yet, if it does cut them voluntarily, for example by collecting methane gas from the landfill that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, it would accumulate a number of credits that could then be sold to countries obliged by the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It is estimated that with the amount of methane collected from Ta' Zwejra in a single year, about 19,000 credits, presently worth E10 each, could be sold on a sort of stock market. This would enable WasteServ to recuperate part of the expenses incurred to cap the landfill and install pipes, WasteServ said during a public consultation.

The clean development mechanism allows industrialised countries with a reduction commitment to invest in emission-reducing projects in developing countries as an alternative to what could be very costly in their own countries.

In the case of Ta' Zwejra, once the project is completed it will be awarded certified emission reduction certificates (CERs) according to the amount of emissions reduced. The CDM enables Annex I countries (of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) meet their GHG (greenhouse gas) reduction targets at a lower cost through projects in non-Annex I.

The idea of CDM is that money invested by the Annex 1 country contributes towards the sustainable development of the non-Annex 1 country.

Environmentalist Marco Cremona, who introduced the CDM mechanism to Malta and promoted the idea to WasteServ, said the CDM could be applied to similar projects in the country in which greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced.

Mr Cremona has also put WasteServ in contact with a foreign consultant who will complete the project aimed at compiling the necessary documents.