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About
Us and Background
info on Carbon Credits
C TRADE, is an international developer of Carbon Trade Credits for renewable
energy projects that offset
the use of fossil fuels, such as solar, wind turbines, energy efficiency,
forest carbon sequestration and
waste-to-energy power plants.
Carbon
Credits from Renewable Energy
C TRADE, offers its clients a unique opportunity to develop a program
to design
and acquire "carbon credits" before the installation of renewable
energy projects
such as wind turbines, solar, waste-to-energy, or hybrid systems at
the customer's
site. Carbon Credits are emission offsets that are generated from
renewable energy
and energy efficiency projects which displace carbon emissions from
traditional
fossil fuel sources like coal, oil or gas with the subsequent reduction
in greenhouse
gas emissions. Companies, agencies and governments buy, sell, bank
and trade
Carbon Credits called Certified Emission Reductions or CERs.
C TRADE provides turnkey design, development, installation, financing,
training
and other professional and technical services for international waste-to-energy
projects with renewable energy and carbon sequestration benefits.
Projects are
designed to utilize waste fuels in innovative electric power generators
for
distributed generation at remote sites. Examples of waste to energy
fuels include:
landfill gas - methane, timber logging wood chip wastes, agricultural
wastes such
as palm oil wastes, soy and pecan wastes, etc.
C TRADE provides assistance with the design, monitoring, verification
and third
party certification services for marketable carbon emission offsets
that can be
potentially traded like a commodity or banked for future sale or trade
pursuant to
CDM policies and procedures developed under the Kyoto Protocol. C
TRADE
also assists companies apply for grants and funding that normally
qualify under the
renewable energy category for green and clean power development which
mitigate
global climate change to reduce carbon emissions.
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Benefits
of Carbon Credits
Benefits for a client to acquire Carbon Credits include:
(1) provide an additional source of revenue;
(2) improve the return on their investments;
(3) boost the economic feasibility of projects; and
(4) accelerate project implementation.
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C
TRADE Consulting Services
CTrade offers the following services and assistance to obtain
carbon credits
- Evaluation of carbon sequestration proposals
- On-site verification of carbon sequestration
- Aid in improving carbon management practices
- Contract structuring and development of protocols for carbon
trading
(a) Identify opportunities for CDM projects
(b) Quantify potential GHG reductions
(c) Assist in preparation of CDM - Project Design Document
(d) Assist in obtaining Validation of CDM Project by the CDM
Executive Board
(e) Assist in sale of Validated Carbon Credits
(f) Assist in conducting Monitoring and Verification for Validated
CDM Projects
CTrade Registry
& Information
CTrade Registry is being developed using information received
on current projects
being developed or requiring carbon management services, including
international
carbon sequestration and carbon trading. The site acts as an educational
and technical
resource for the identification, design, development, verification,
registration and
certification of carbon offset projects. CTrade provides energy
companies and
others valuable tools to assess the risk impacts of the Kyoto
Protocol, as well as
information on investing in carbon trading and sequestration.
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Carbon
Sequestration Projects
CTrade provides online information on the status of carbon sequestration
projects
.
This portion of the site classifies risks (e.g., certification status),
lists verification protocols,
includes the status of host country acceptance, and estimates carbon
sequestration costs
for each project. The status and amount of carbon sequestered is
provided for projects in
the United States and abroad. Project areas include forestry, energy
efficiency, and
landfill-gas-to-energy. Top of page
Background
info on Carbon Credits
The Kyoto Protocol, adopted unanimously at the meeting of the
Conference of Parties
to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change held in Kyoto,
Japan in 1997,
went into effect on February 16, 2005. The agreement legally binds
participating
industrialized countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse
gases during the five year
commitment period of calendar years 2008 - 2012 as compared to baseline
emissions in the
year 1990. The Protocol does not set limits on the greenhouse gas
emissions of developing
nations. So far, the agreement had been ratified by 141 countries,
representing over 61% of
global emissions. Those countries include the 25 countries of the
European Union, China,
India, Japan, Canada, Russia and New Zealand. The U.S. has not ratified
the agreement.
However, even though companies in the U.S.
are not subject to Kyoto's emission caps,
U.S. companies that operate in nations complying with the Kyoto
Protocol do have to mee
t those countries' caps.
Commitments under the Protocol vary from nation to nation. The overall
5% target for
developed countries is to met through cuts of 8% in the EU and 6%
in Poland, for example.
The agreement offers flexibility in how countries may meet their
targets. For example they
may partially compensate for their emissions by increasing "sinks"
- forests, which remove
carbon dixide from the atmosphere. Or they may pay for foreign mechanisms
set up for this
purpose such as emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) or joint
implementation, which are explained below.
- - International Emission Trade (ET)
- - Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
- - Joint Implementation
(JI)
Emissions Trading. The Protocol allows countries that have emission
units to spare - emissions
permitted them but not "used" - to sell this excess capacity
to countries that are over their targets.
This so-called "carbon market" is flexible and realistic.
Countries not meeting their commitments
will be able to "buy" compliance, but the price may be
steep. The higher the cost, the more pressure
they will feel to use energy more efficiently and to research and
promote the development of alternative
sources of energy that have low or no emissions. Some national registry
systems under the Protocol
have alrady been set up, as countries are eager to "bank"
emissions reductions already accomplished.
Smaller "carbon markets" are now being established by
the EU and other groups of countries.
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Joint
Implementation (JI) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
JI and CDM are project related. An investor achieves a measurable
CO2 reduction in another country,
which can be sold to a country requiring the reduction. Such investments
in energy projects are of interest to
the host country because they contribute to sustainable economic
growth. These are projects that might not
have been achieved without carbon finance. JI is aimed
at countries that also have a reduction obligation under
Kyoto, mainly Central and Eastern Europe. CDM focuses on developing
countries without reduction obligation.
JI program allows industrialized countries to meet part of
their required cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by
paying for projects that reduce emissions in other industrialized
countries. In practice, this will likely mean
facilities built in the countries of Eastern Europe (including Poland)
and the former Soviet Union (the so-called
"transition economies") will be paid for by Western European
and North American countries. The sponsoring
governments will receive credits that may be applied to their emissions
targets and the recipient nations will gain
foreign investment and advanced technology (but not credit toward
meeting their own emissions caps; they
will have to do that themselves).
2. Clean Development Mechanism. Through the CDM, developing
countries get involved. Industrialized
countries pay for projects that cut or avoid emissions in poorer
nations, and are awarded credits that can be
applied to meeting their own emissions targets. The recipient countries
benefit from free infusions of advanced
technology that allow their electrical generating plants and factories
to operate more efficiently. This mechanism
has drawn extensive interest from rich and poor countries alike,
and steps have been taken to put it into operation.
It is cost-effective and offers a degree of flexibility to industrialized
countries trying to meet their targets. The
system also appeals to private companies and investors. The mechanism
is meant to work bottom-up; to proceed
from individual proposals to approval by donor and recipient governments
to the allocation of "certified emissions
reduction" credits. Countries earning the credits may apply
them to meeting their emissions limits, may "bank" them
for use later or may sell them to other industrialized countries
under the emissions trading system described above.
Private firms are interested in the mechanism because they may earn
profits from proposing and carrying out such
work and because they may develop good reputations for their technology
which will lead to further sales.
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What
are carbon credits?
Carbon credits are reductions of emissions of greenhouse
gasses caused by a project / an investment.
One carbon credit is 1 t CO2 equivalent. In JI carbon
credits are officially called Emission Reduction Units or ERUs.
In the CDM they are called Certified Emission Reductions or CERs.
CO2e, is the same as a carbon credit, ERU or CER.
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How
do Carbon Credits work?
Companies in countries can buy the emission reduction achieved
(carbon credits) that you realise
through your investment and that would not have existed without
your investment.Prices are realised
by process of competitive bidding. Carbon
credits may be generated from investments in renewable energy,
energy efficiency, fuel switch and waste management projects. Top
of page
What
kind of investment projects result in carbon credits?
Energy supply: - renewable energy (e.g. wind
mills)
- biomass (heat and/or power) and cogeneration
- improving energy efficiency by replacing existing equipment
(installing new efficient, new water pumps etc.)
- fuel switch (e.g. switch the fuel for a boiler from coal
to biomass)
Energy demand - replacement of existing electrical
equipment with more efficient units and improvement
of energy efficiency of existing production equipment.
Transport - more efficient engines for transport
(e.g. replacing old diesel trains by modern diesel trains)
- model shift (e.g. from plane to train) and - fuel switch (e.g.
public transport buses fuelled by natural gas)
Waste management - capture of landfill methane
emissions & utilisation of waste and wastewater emissions
Forestry - Afforestation & Reforestation
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Baselines
Before you can sell carbon credits you first of all determine
how much your project reduces emissions.
Prior to this you define a baseline, which is a scenario in which
you provide supporting evidence about
what the emission of greenhouse gases would be until 2012 without
your investment. You compare this
baseline with the lower emission that will be achieved through your
investment. The difference between
them is the amount of saleable carbon credits. In the
case of JI projects you can only sell the reduction
achieved between 2008 and 2012 and not what you achieved in the
previous years or years after.
Certification requirements
- A validation or certification organisation, acting
as an independent third party, validates the baseline
you have drawn up. This organisation must work according to the
"Accreditation Guidelines on the
Application of EN 45004 (ISO/IEC Guide 17020) for the Validation
and Verification of JI projects"
or according to the guidelines of the UNFCCC Executive Board Accreditation Panel for CDM projects.
- The host country's government must give approval for the
transaction in carbon credits through a Letter
of Approval. This facilitates obtaining a Letter of Approval.
However, even if there is a MoU with the
country in which you want to invest, you will have to obtain this
letter from this country's government yourself.
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