EQ presented a webinar on How to Generate Carbon Credits From RE & Other Types of Projects on May 20, 2021. The speakers discussed carbon credits, energy efficient cookstoves integrated waste management and nature based solutions.
Manish Dabkara, CMD & CEO – EnKing International (EKI Energy Services Ltd.) participated as moderator. The other speakers were also from EnKing Internation. Oguz Tosun, Country Head- Turkey, EnKing International, Sachhin Patra, Senior Manager- Sales, Vineeta Kaushik, County Head-Canada and Pavan Kumar Kundi, Senior Manager were other panellists in the webinar.
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Manish Dabkara shared a presentation and started by telling about its company and the performance of EnKing’s IPO which is listed at BSE SME. He informed, “The Company shares are performing very well. When we got in the IPO, the rate was Rs 102 per piece and today it has crossed Rs 450. So it is doing very well”.
He shared details on the progress of his company and stated, “We are the World’s largest Carbon Offset Developer. We have more than 2000 clients, 90+ people, 100+ Vendors and we work in more than 40+ nations.
The company has a growth history of over 12 + years. In India, we have a 90 per cent market share. Majority of the projects that are generated from Renewable Energy or energy efficiency, waste management projects etc, we have developed 90 per cent of them during the last eight years.
We are supplying carbon offsets very successfully to international buyers including small companies, large companies, government organizations, United Nations type of organization and similar multi-lateral organizations. In International markets we have 30 per cent share into Voluntary Markets from Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Projects.”
He further shared the list of the company’s major clients at the national and international level including IMF, World Bank, NHPC (Hydro), NTPC (Solar), Azure Power, Soft Bank energy, IBRD and more.
He explained the services offered by EnKing in detail. The services include GHG Projects Registration, Verification and Trading, Carbon Footprinting, Sustainability Reporting, Implementation of ISO Standards and Electrical Safety Audits. Discussing climate change and global warming, he also explained carbon credit.
“One tonne CO2 emission reduction from the atmosphere is one carbon credit.” He informed that carbon credit generates from the projects which help in reduction. He explained the concept in detail.
Manish Dabkara also discussed the Kyoto Protocol which is an international treaty that binds developed countries because it recognizes that they are largely responsible for the current high levels of GHS emissions in the atmosphere. He said, “It makes developed nations as obligated entities to reduce their emissions.
If they can’t reduce their emissions, they have provided three options. One is they can buy carbon offsets from the projects that are registered under the clean development mechanism, if the projects are coming from joint implementation (any two developed nations had implemented any project within their own geographical or country boundaries but the project should be located in a developed nation and those projects used to be as GI joint implementation) but the joint implementation does not exist as of now.
So, CDM is the most famous compliance program which has been evolved from the Kyoto Protocol.” He further discussed the first and second commitment periods.
He discussed the ‘Global Temperature increase by 2100’. He said, “It has been estimated by the scientists that if we will not do anything by the end of 2100, so 3.3 degree Centigrade is going to be the emission trajectory.
If we will do something like the voluntary pledges signed by all the nations. If we club all those emission reduction pledges then still we would be able to cap till 3 degrees only. Paris Agreement mentions that by 2050 the temperature should cap at 1.5 degrees Centigrade. It also states the upper limit is set at 2-degree centigrade.
By 2100, we should be able to achieve carbon neutrality. Many nations like India, China, Europe, and USA have declared that they will be able to achieve carbon neutrality around 2050. So all nations would not emit or even if they do they will absorb through nature based solution projects or technological measures, mitigation activities, buying carbon offsets generating from countries where it’s cheap or other alternatives.”
Further, he discussed Paris Agreements, India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC’s), Kyoto Protocol- National Clean Development Mechanism Authority, Apex committee for implementation of Paris Agreement, Conference of Parties 26 (COP26). He then summarized his presentation with Paris Agreement: Implication to Corporates, State & Central Government.
He also discussed the Carbon Credit Standards- Clean Development Mechanism, Verified Carbon Standard, and Global Carbon Council in detail. Next, he described the Renewable Energy Attributes- International REC and the Tradable Instrument for Global Renewables.
Further, he described the company’s scope of work- Carbon Credit Project Life cycle which includes- Validation, Registration, Verification- Generation of Carbon Credits & Issuance and Trading of Carbon Credit of Project.
Then, he explained the professional procedure. He stated, “Our Unique Selling Proposition of our company is starting from document collection up to revenue realization, each and everything would be done by us along with ensuring the financial risk. The best part is we do not charge any fee in between, once, the client gets the revenue and then only we charge our fee.
That’s the best thing to work with EnKing International. Since we have done more than 1000 projects, we supplied more than 60 million credits in the last year. This year, we are targeting 100 to 200 million credits.
We do have a wide network across the world for all kind of buyers looking for all technology and program credits. He discussed the type of projects covered by his company including Renewable Energy Projects, Energy Efficiency, Nature Based Solutions, Community Based Projects, Waste Management Project and More.
Vineeta Kaushik, County Head-Canada, EnKing International was the next speaker. She shared a presentation on ‘Carbon Credits for Energy Efficient Cookstoves’. She informed more on the carbon credits market which is divided into Voluntary Emissions Reductions (VER) and Certified Emissions Reductions (CER).
She also shared information on greenhouse gases and energy Inefficient Cookstove impacts. She said, “Cookstove impacts are pretty deep. They are grassroots level. In terms of numbers, three billion people rely on inefficient open fire cookstoves. Three billion looks like they are 40 per cent of the world’s population.
They are 60 per cent of the developing world’s population and 82 per cent of the population in Sub- Saharan Africa, 44 to 71 per cent in Asia, 19 per cent in Eastern Europe and 17 per cent in Latin America. This catches everyone’s attention on how dire the situation is. Air pollution is recognized as number one environmental health risks.”
She further informed, “four million premature deaths each are attributable to household air pollution from cooking, lighting and heating. 58 per cent of black carbon emissions come from building solid fuels for heating and cooking in homes. Up to 10 hours each week is the amount of time that women and children in developing countries can spend gathering fuel.”
“United Nations General Assembly in 2015 have adopted seventeen Sustainable Development Goals aiming to act as a blueprint towards ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all of us.
The clean cooking support stand of these 17 goals. This shows how important is the clean cooking and how this is the need of the hour to support these kinds of projects.” She further discussed the benefits of the ‘Energy Efficient cookstoves’. She stated, “A single cookstove offsets one to two tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
They help to improve health, quality of life and livelihoods. A single clean cookstove carbon offset delivers USD 151 in additional socio-economic benefits- Health, Economic Development & Women’s empowerment and impacts the Local livelihoods & Education.” She shared details on the type of cookstoves and projects related to cookstoves.
She also discussed the Baseline Scenario and Project Scenario. She also explained the Project cycle of the Cookstove Carbon Credit project. She defined the Carbon Standards for clean cookstoves.
Vineeta Kaushik emphasized the Monitoring of the Cookstove projects. She said, “It happens in four ways- the operation of the cookstoves, the efficiency of the cookstove installed, what fraction of Biomass is saved or how much replacement is there, by use of efficient cookstove and the leakage.”
She explained the concept of leakage in detail, “Leakage is something like- you are doing some activity at a place to reduce carbon emissions but in achieving that you are emitting more CO2 at some other place. That’s the kind of leakage. It is very important to ensure that the leakage is not happening to maintain the sanctity of the entire model.
She further discussed on the ‘Cookstove carbon credit opportunities and Challenges’. “The opportunities- adds extra revenue, contribute to the economic development of the host country and improves the project performance due to strict monitoring requirements.
The challenges include creating period monitoring processes that are highly complex and require skilled personnel, monitoring requirements which are elaborative and challenging for project management, preliminary financing and the actualization period which is of about two years post-onset of project.”
She further discussed EnKing’s role in cookware projects, “We can identify the appropriate standards, take up end to end carbon assets management for these projects and very well adapted to find the suitable buyer at a very appropriate rate and our team is very strong in negotiating the beneficial emission reduction purchase agreement for the appropriate buyers.”
“We are pretty heavily working in this area and we as a consultant have developed a POA for the World Bank in Bangladesh. We have already registered 45 cookstove projects which have the potential of 1.6 million offsets over five years. We have a zero rejection rate. Whatever projects we have taken up for registration in these registries have always been registered.
The large scale projects coming up in multiple countries with a total potential of more than eight million carbon credit over a year. So, it will come up to 40 million credits over five years.
We have a major presence in cookstove carbon credits trade transactions across the globe.” She concluded with the quote, “It is an opportune time for more corporations to show climate leadership by offsetting their unavoidable emissions through clean cookstove carbon offset purchase.”
Sachhin Patra, Senior Manager- Sales, EnKing International shared his views on Waste Management activities. He explained the Carbon Offset Project Cycle- Project Design, National Approval, Validation, Registration, Monitoring, Verification and CER Issuance and Trading. He also spoke on the international offset standards- CDM, VCS and also on the new international standard- Gold Standard (GS).
He informed that waste management projects are eligible in all these four standards. Further, he discussed in short Integrated Waste Management and the options available to us in case of waste management activities. Moving on, he talked about the benefits of SDGs.
“In the case of waste management, it can be seen that it is not only about managing the waste and reducing the methane emission from that. These activities can also help us generate significant co-benefits like a segregate waste at the source.
It can result in improved resource used and waste to resource’s recovery. If we can segregate the waste at the source then the work we need to do at sorting centres can be significantly reduced.
Improved collection and disposal of waste can lead to good sanitation facilities in areas significantly. This can lead to several health benefits. Many vector-based diseases spread through the medium related to how waste is managed. This way, there are many co-benefits linked to multiple SDG benefits. These projects can help to increase the value for carbon offset.” He further discussed ‘Approved Methodologies from CDM’.
He shared the methodology summary and EnKing’s work on Waste Management Project. He said, “The most celebrated project of ours is Indore Municipality Project where they earn approximately 1.7 lakh credit per annum.
In the last 1.5 years, they have already gained the financial benefit of 50 lakhs. He shared important points on the Market Data CDM, VCS and Gold Standards. He also presented sector wise data on the valuation of voluntary Carbon offsets traded. Sachhin Patra further told us about the importance of waste management projects and why Carbon Offsets are crucial.
Pavan Kumar Kundi, Senior Manager spoke on ‘Carbon Credits for Nature Based Solutions. “Nature Based Solutions are the solutions in which you mitigate carbon emissions using nature some way or the other. So, it is about creating a self-resilient ecosystem to sustain for a long time. The first kind of activity in Nature Based Solutions is afforestation and reforestation.
So, the name suggests that when you come up with a new plantation over a land parcel where there is no forest in the past, it is termed as afforestation. By reforestation, we mean if there is a forest in the past which has degraded for various reasons and it is not there at the land parcel at present. You are planning to plant trees to renew carbon from the air, it is called reforestation.
These are considered to be one of the divine actions towards climate change because it is about removing carbon which is already there in the atmosphere. These usually play a wider role.
We are expecting to create a large number of carbon sinks around the world. These are pretty much a part of many country’s NDC’s too. On average, A/R project activities generate around 20 to 50-tonne carbon credits on a per hectare basis. This wide range of credits is because of multiple species.”
He further discussed in detail ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). “It is also important that we protect our existing forests from getting degraded.
The prime reason being when you try to come up with a new plantation, it is about growing something from seed but these grown-up trees have a superior potential of sequestering carbon and they play a vital role in mitigating climate change.” He further discussed it in detail. He also shared information on Blue Carbon- Mangrove Restoration & Plantation.
“Mangroves usually serve as the protection to the vulnerable areas on the coast from the cyclonic storms and erosions. If these Mangroves are destroyed, then the areas relying on the coast get exposed to cyclonic storms and they have a lot of threats. Mangroves restoration and Plantation includes restoring and plantation includes restoring the degraded mangroves along with plantation activities to safeguard the coast. Mangroves restoration and plantation can give around 10 to 100 carbon credits per hectare.
Pavan Kumar Kundi explained about ‘Blue Carbon- REDD+ for Mangroves’ in detail which can generate up to 50 to 60 carbon credits per hectare. He also discussed ‘Bamboo Plantation’ that can generate around 20 to 30 carbon credits per hectare, Sustainable Agricultural Land Management, Livestock Management and Grassland Management.
Oguz Tosun, Country Head- Turkey, EnKing International discussed some points on carbon offsetting from RE projects, Renewable Energy Certification and Offset vs REC. “There are two different ways of additional revenue gaining for RE projects in the world. The first one is carbon offsetting and the second one is renewable energy projects.
Carbon Offsetting shall be done in three main steps- Listing, Registration and verification. The time required to issue the first carbon credits is approximately two years. We have to very carefully work on the carbon offsetting requirements at every single stage.” He explained the three steps in detail.
He further explained about the Renewable Energy Certification. “The time pass to issue the first RECs is approximately three months. Three steps are to be followed for REC- Company registration, Device Registration and REC Issuance.”
He explained the existing REC Schemes. He presented a slide on the difference between Carbon Offsetting and Renewable Energy Certification and explained it in detail. He shared graphs to understand the market dynamics of carbon credits.
He concludes by discussing ‘why is carbon offsetting?’ He said, “It is one of the oldest environmental market in the world. We have very high market liquidity for carbon credit mobilization and we have a diversified end-user profile.
Also, we monitor different parameters in this carbon crediting scheme. The diversified co-benefits are coming to other carbon assets.
These co-benefits can happen in social, environmental and economic frameworks. Also, better pricing compared to Renewable Energy Certificates. Here we make it even better in terms of price.” He concluded the webinar by answering the questions of the participants.
