Panel discussion

Low Carbon Generation

Technology

Björn Zapfel Carbon Forum America 2008

UNFCCC Secretariat
JI Sub-Programme San Francisco, USA – 26 February 2008
http://ji.unfccc.int
bzapfel@unfccc.int
 Panel discussion: LCGT Project-based mechanisms

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

Credits (CERs) for emissions avoided through sustainable development projects
in developing countries

Joint Implementation (JI)

Credits (ERUs) for emissions avoided through projects in Annex I countries

Basic principles
• Market mechanisms
• Lowest marginal cost of abatement
• Additionality to any ERs that would occur in the absence of the project
• Bottom-up approach, re-use and broad application principles for
standards
• International supervisory and standard setting bodies (CDM EB, JISC)
 Panel discussion: LCGT CDM – General status

CDM – General status

• 948 projects registered to date

• 49 host countries
• 121,122,134 CERs issued
• > 3000 projects in pipeline
• 2.7 billion CERs expected to end of 2012
 Panel discussion: LCGT CDM – General status II

CDM – Registered projects by sectoral scope

• Majority of registered
projects (> 50%)
in scope 01
(energy industries –
renewable/
non-renewable sources)

(JI PDD pipeline:

similar picture)
 Panel discussion: LCGT CDM – Methodologies

CDM – Methodologies

• Energy industries
- renewable/non-renewable sources
(37/34%; > 50% of registered projects):
Electricity production from renewable energy
Use of waste heat/gases to generate electricity
Cogeneration
Electricity generation from captured methane from industrial,
municipal and agricultural waste
Industrial fuel switching from coal or petroleum fuels to natural gas
Improvement in heat generation efficiency or switch to renewable biomass for heating
Expanding grid to isolated grids or less efficient self generating consumers
Introduction of centralized and efficient district heating systems
Better/more efficient technologies for generating power from fossil fuels
Management systems to optimize power generation from hydro resources

• Manufacturing industries
(19/17%; ca. 6% of registered projects):
Mitigation of CH4 emissions in the wood carbonization for charcoal production
Use of feed stock in pulp and paper production or in bio-oil production to avoid emissions from biomass wastes
Replacement of SF6 with alternate cover gas in the magnesium industry
Partial substitution of fossil fuels with alternative fuels or less carbon intensive fuels in cement manufacture
Increasing the blend in cement production or the use of alternative raw materials that do not contain carbonates for clinker manufacturing in
cement kilns
 Panel discussion: LCGT CDM – Methodologies II

• Waste handling and disposal

(12/11%; ca. 21% of registered projects):
Covering project activities that introduce technologies for better management of industrial, municipal, agricultural waste and capture of methane
from waste, use of waste handling measures that avoid methane generation (composting, incineration to generate power, making fuel out of
waste, using agriculture waste as raw material in production of pulp, use of aerobic treatment systems, gasification of waste, etc), methane
capture from waste water, animal manure management and methane capture, use of captured methane for household/transportation use, etc.

• Chemical industries
(13/12%; ca. 2% of registered projects):
Covering project activities such as secondary catalytic N2O destruction in nitric acid plants, substitution of CO2 from fossil or mineral origin by
CO2 from renewable sources in the production of inorganic compounds or the catalytic N2O destruction in the tail gas of nitric acid or
caprolactam production plants

• Energy efficiency of equipment and industry

• Demand side efficiency
• Transportation
• Capture of CO2
• Flared/vented gas
• Mine methane
• Biofuels
 Panel discussion: LCGT ACM0013

ACM0013: Methodology for new grid connected fossil fuel fired

power plants using a less GHG intensive technology
• Supports the transformation from (e.g. overcome R&D barriers) low efficiency technologies to
more efficient fossil fuel based electricity generation technologies
• Eligible for:
– Construction & operation of a new fossil fuel fired grid-connected generation plant
– All possible fossil fuel efficiency improvement measures
• Limited too:
– New electricity generation plants - no retrofit or co-generation
– Most plausible baseline scenario is the construction of (a) new power plant(s) using the
same fossil fuel type
– Baseline fuel must be used in more than 50% of total generation by utilities in the
geographical area
• Benchmark emission factor determined based on the performance of the top 15% power plants
that use the same fuel as the project plant and any technology available in the geographical
area
• Baseline needs to be reassessed for each crediting period
• Incentive to improve efficiency of fossil fuel based electricity generation technologies, but
decreasing with overall increased efficiency
 Panel discussion: LCGT Technology transfer - trends

CDM – Technology transfer (trends)

Trends of UNFCCC study to be published soon

• Technology transfer (TT): import of technology or knowledge or both

• Basis: Statements of project participants in PDDs of projects in pipeline
• Roughly 40% of all analyzed projects (covering 64% of annual emission
reductions) claim TT
• Likelihood of TT increases with project size and involvement of foreign project
participant
• Pattern heterogeneous by project type, but figures relevant for LCGT in many
cases above average
Panel discussion: LCGT Conclusion

Conclusion

CDM (and JI),

as market based mechanisms using a bottom-up approach,
have proven as a means to
enable low carbon generation technologies,
as well as corresponding technology transfer