"Our emission reductions are real, measured, permanent and
independently verified," Fages said Oct. 15 by phone. "They
are not phantom." comments my way
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Mathew Carr, emissions markets, energy reporter. London Bloomberg News ph +44 207 073 3531 yahoo ID carr_mathew
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Rhodia Says Its Nitrous Oxide Gas Credits Are 'Not Phantom'
2010-10-17 22:01:00.0 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Rhodia SA, the chemical maker, said
emission credits it receives for destroying nitrous oxide are
legitimate, refuting criticism from a lobby group that claimed
the offsets were "phantom."
CDM Watch, the Bonn environmental group, said the credits
being produced by such projects "represent phantom emission
reductions" because production has been shifted to factories
that are eligible to attract the offsets from other plants,
according to an e-mailed report. There are four adipic-acid
factory projects, producing nitrous oxide as a byproduct, in the
Clean Development Mechanism that have received about 20 percent
of credits issued so far under the program, the report said.
Rhodia, based in Paris, has projects in Paulinia, Brazil,
and Onsan, South Korea, that produce the credits. They have
created 64.9 million credits so far, Bloomberg data show. They
would be valued at 886 million euros ($1.2 billion) at the Oct.
15 spot price for Certified Emission Reduction credits of 13.65
euros a ton on the BlueNext exchange in Paris.
The Onsan plant was producing above a cap set under the so-
called CDM because of demand in emerging markets, especially
Asia, said Cecile Fages, a spokeswoman for Rhodia Energy
Services in Paris. There was no incentive from the CDM to
produce above the cap, she said.
"Our emission reductions are real, measured, permanent and
independently verified," Fages said Oct. 15 by phone. "They
are not phantom."
The Paulinia plant was producing below its cap, she said.
Demand for adipic acid, used to make many things from paints to
tissues, has been falling in Europe since 2008, she said.
A CDM Watch report earlier this year helped prompt an
investigation by the CDM executive board, the program's
regulator, into credits from projects that curb
hydrofluorocarbon gases.
For Related News and Information:
Top Power Stories: PTOP <GO>
Emissions-trading stories: NI ENVMARKET BN <GO>
Today's top energy news: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
--Editor: Mike Anderson.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or
sev@bloomberg.net
