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World Bank Trying to 'Subvert' UN Fix for Offsets, Lobby Says
2010-08-26 12:36:08.57 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Two environmental groups called on
the World Bank to stop obstructing the overhaul of the United
Nations program for awarding emission credits tied to
hydrofluorocarbons.
The World Bank included factual and analytical errors in a
report dismissing concerns that the UN Clean Development
Mechanism has generated "fake carbon credits" for HFC-23
projects, the Environmental Investigation Agency and CDM Watch
said today in an e-mailed statement.
Regulators of the CDM, the world's second-largest carbon
market, are boosting scrutiny after allegations that some
developers are seeking excessive credits related to the
industrial gases, whose warming potential is 11,700 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide. They are assessing whether the
methodology for awarding those offsets should be changed.
"The World Bank's position is both scientifically and
morally indefensible," Clare Perry, a senior campaigner for
Environmental Investigation, said in the statement. "It should
stop trying to subvert the CDM investigation and allow the UN to
do a job they are far better qualified for than the World
Bank."
The World Bank said earlier this month that the UN program
hasn't inflated production of chlorodifluoromethane, known as
HCFC-22 and used in the air-conditioning and refrigeration
industries. The availability of UN credits is "clearly not"
driving demand at chemical plants, the report said.
Officials at the Washington-based bank couldn't immediately
be reached to comment on the environmental groups' statement.
Incineration Projects
The World Bank's Umbrella Carbon Facility invests in two of
the biggest HFC-23 incineration projects, the lobby groups said.
The facility pools funds for the purchase of greenhouse-gas
emission reductions from CDM and other UN-offset projects. UN
offsets can be used for compliance in the European Union's
carbon cap-and-trade program, the world's largest.
Regulators of the CDM announced reviews of seven issuances
related to HFC-23 projects this month, including one today.
Credits from HFC-23 projects make up about half the supply of
offsets issued in the CDM. HFC gases are a byproduct in the
making of chlorodifluoromethane.
The environmental groups said that manufacturers in China
and India earn "as much or more" for destroying HFC-23 gases
than for producing chlorodifluoromethane, which encourages
production and use of HCFC-22 only for the purpose of generating
offsets.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page EPWR <GO>
--With assistance from Mathew Carr in London. Editors: Mike
Anderson.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-474-620-243 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
