Successful Issuance of vintage 2022 GS VERs from UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA

Today, UPM’s Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas Development Programme (CDM PoA 2898, GS 1239) successfully obtained its eleventh issuance of Gold Standard VERs covering vintage 2022. After deduction of the share of proceeds to support CDM and Gold Standard operations and contribute to climate change adaptation activities, slightly more than 711,000 premium-quality GS VERs are available for sale to help clients around the globe achieve their climate action and CSR objectives.

Due to the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol and the uncertain future of the CDM after 2020, UPM has decided to have all PoA carbon credits as from (and including) vintage 2020 going forward issued solely under the Gold Standard, as GS VERs. However, the waiver of CDM certification only applies to the PoA’s vintage 2020+ issuances, the PoA itself has not been withdrawn from the CDM. It remains registered both under the CDM and the Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) and there is no change whatsoever in the approach or quality of this project.

This PoA’s host country China has not yet published any guidance on how it avoids double counting in compliance with Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement and has not yet issued any host country corresponding adjustment approvals. End-users located outside of China should therefore rather use this PoA’s vintage 2022 GS VERs to support climate action in China (contribution or impact claim) than for offsetting their own GHG emissions (compensation claim) to avoid any double counting risks.

From vintage 2023 onwards, this PoA will have decreasing GS VER issuances volumes as more and more of its included VPAs will have reached the end of their crediting periods. The issuance of vintage 2023 GS VERs from this most reputable climate action programme is expected for early 2025.

Learn more about the PoA by visiting one of its participating households with our latest virtual-tour here.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs or GS VERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500

Successful Issuance of vintage 2021 GS VERs from UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA

Today, UPM’s Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas Development Programme (CDM PoA 2898, GS 1239) successfully obtained its tenth issuance of Gold Standard VERs covering vintage 2021. After the deduction of the share of proceeds to support CDM and Gold Standard operations and contribute to climate change adaptation activities, nearly 750,000 premium-quality GS VERs are available for sale to help clients around the globe achieve their climate action and CSR objectives.

Due to the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol and the uncertain future of the CDM after 2020, UPM has decided to have all PoA carbon credits from (and including) vintage 2020 and beyond issued solely under the Gold Standard as GS VERs. However, the waiver of CDM certification only applies to the PoA’s vintage 2020+ issuances, the PoA itself has not been withdrawn from the CDM. It remains registered both under the CDM and the Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) and there is no change whatsoever in the approach or quality of this project.

This PoA’s host country, China, has not yet published any guidance on how it avoids double counting in compliance with Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement and has not yet issued any host country corresponding adjustment approvals. End-users located outside of China should, therefore, rather use this PoA’s vintage 2021 GS VERs to support climate action in China (contribution or impact claim) than for offsetting their own GHG emissions (compensation claim) to avoid any double counting risks.

The issuance of vintage 2022 GS VERs from this most reputable climate action programme is expected in early 2024.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs or GS VERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500

Successful Issuance of vintage 2020 GS VERs from UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA

Today, UPM’s Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas Development Programme (CDM PoA 2898, GS 1239) successfully obtained its ninth issuance of Gold Standard VERs covering the year 2020. After deduction of the share of proceeds to support CDM and Gold Standard operations and contribute to climate change adaptation activities, slightly more than 723,000 premium-quality GS VERs are available for sale to help clients around the globe achieve their climate action and CSR objectives.

Due to the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol and the uncertain future of the CDM after 2020, UPM has decided to have all PoA carbon credits as from (and including) vintage 2020 going forward issued solely under the Gold Standard, as GS VERs. However, the waiver of CDM certification only applies to the PoA’s vintage 2020+ issuances, the PoA itself has not been withdrawn from the CDM. It remains registered both under the CDM and the Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) and there is no change whatsoever in the approach or quality of this project.

In contrast to the previous year, vintage 2020 GHG emission reductions achieved by this PoA increased again. There are two main reasons for this upward trend: Firstly, the swine flu epidemic situation in China improved considerably and secondly, due to COVID-19, many people living in densely populated urban centers returned to their families in the countryside. Consequently, more pigs had to be raised to feed them. 

The Sichuan Household Biogas PoA remains one of the leading household biogas programmes globally for its positive climate impact of more than 7.5 million tCO2e since its inception and its large contribution to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The issuance of vintage 2021 GS VERs from this most reputable climate action programme is expected for the second quarter of 2023.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs or GS VERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500

German State of Hesse buys Gold Standard CERs from UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA to offset GHG emissions from 2019 business travels

In August 2021, the state of Hesse became the first German federal state to purchase high-quality Gold Standard CERs from UPM’s flagship project, the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA in China. The emission credits (certificates) purchased and subsequently retired will be used to make the business travel (vehicle fleet, air and rail travel, and business travel by private car) of the Hessian state administration climate neutral.

The Hessian cabinet had already decided in May 2010 to achieve a CO2-neutral state administration by 2030 and to prepare and gradually initiate the neutralization of the remaining GHG emissions through compensation. In this context, climate neutrality is a holistic approach with three major fields of action: Minimize, Substitute, and Offset unavoidable emissions.

As an important intermediate step towards this goal, the neutralization of GHG emissions for the area of official mobility in the state administration was started in 2020. To this end, quality-proof certificates are procured annually in compliance with public procurement law. This means that the emission credits for offsetting business travel took effect for the first time in the 2018 CO2 balance sheet.

For the state of Hesse, the purchase of carbon credits is basically a transitional solution until 100 percent of final energy consumption is covered from renewable energy sources, if possible, and the Hessian state administration has reduced its total GHG emissions to almost zero.

“We are very pleased to have won the Hessian state administration as a new carbon offset customer and to be able to support them in becoming climate neutral by 2030 with carbon credits from our highly appreciated Sichuan Household Biogas Program,” said Martin Dilger, Managing Director of UPM.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500 – 13

Successful Issuance of UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA 2019 Gold Standard CERs

UPM’s Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas Development Programme (CDM PoA 2898, GS 1239) successfully obtained its eighth issuance of Gold Standard CERs covering the year 2019. After deduction of the share of proceeds to support CDM and Gold Standards operations and contribute to climate change adaptation activities, 673,544 premium-quality GS CERs will be available for sale.

Recently, the PoA had renewed its crediting period under CDM and GS until 10th of April 2026. 

Vintage 2019 sees a slight decrease in the quantity of Emission Reduction achieved due to the porcine flu epidemic in China. The Sichuan Household Biogas PoA remains one of the leading household biogas programmes globally for its emissions reductions and overall contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To date, it has achieved a reduction of almost 6.7 million tCO2e.

The issuance of vintage 2020 GS CERs from this high-impact climate protection programme is expected for the second quarter of 2022.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500

New McKinsey report confirms the importance of UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA for reducing GHG emissions from agriculture

Beijing/Munich, — 20 May 2020 | News Release

This month, renowned strategy consultants McKinsey & Company have published a new report titled “Agriculture and climate change. Reducing emissions through improved farming practices”. This report deals with the key role of the agricultural sector for climate change mitigation, since more than one quarter of the world’s GHG emissions come from agriculture, forestry, and land-use. Unless actively addressed, these emissions are likely to increase as more people populate the Earth and the need for food continues to grow. Hence, a “rapid and far-reaching” transition also of the agricultural sector is required to limit the impact of climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The McKinsey study identifies the top 25 measures to reduce on-farm emissions and organizes them into a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC). These measures have the potential to abate up to a combined 4.6 GtCO2e by 2050 compared with business-as-usual emissions – a reduction of about 20 percent of total emissions from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change. Moreover, the top 15 measures by abatement potential would contribute 85 percent of this emissions abatement and touch four major categories: energy, animal protein, crops, and rice cultivation.

Expanding the use of anaerobic animal manure digestion, as it is done in UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA, is one of the top 15 mitigation measures. By capturing and using methane through anaerobic digesters approx. 260 MtCO2e can be saved until the mid of the century at an estimated cost of USD 92/tCO2e. At the same time, fertilizing with eco-friendly organic digestate produced in biogas digesters, like those distributed by UPM’s PoA, substantially lowers the need for applying emissions-intensive chemical fertilizer and contributes to avoiding harmful nitrogen overapplication, the latter still a serious problem in China and India. These two co-benefits of rural household biogas programmes are top 15 abatement measures as well and can further reduce GHG emissions of agriculture by several hundred million tCO2e.

“McKinsey’s recent report is very useful for prioritizing GHG abatement measures in the agriculture sector. In addition, it provides further evidence for the high importance of UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and similar programmes promoting animal manure digestion to fight global warming”, says UPM’s Managing Director, Martin Dilger.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

andGaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500 – 13

New Study highlights the link between air pollution exposure and higher death rates from COVID 19

Beijing/Munich, — 20 April 2020 | News Release

Almost 3 billion people still rely on open fires or inefficient stoves to cook, filling their homes with harmful smoke and increasing their vulnerability to respiratory infections. People exposed to air pollution are more likely to die from COVID-19 than people living in areas with cleaner air, according to a new study by the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA (USA). Though the study’s findings still need to be peer-reviewed and focus on the United States, they align with similar results from Italy.

As the Clean Cooking Alliance rightly points out in a recent Thomson Reuters Foundation commentary, this research is an ominous sign for many developing countries, where air pollution levels often far exceed World Health Organization guidelines. More worrying still, air quality inside people’s homes can be magnitudes worse than the air they breathe outside, due in large part to how people cook. It is well documented that household air pollution from cooking increases susceptibility to respiratory infections such as pneumonia and aggravates respiratory illnesses like asthma – which may, in turn, lead to poorer outcomes after a COVID-19 infection.

The new COVID-19 study shows, even a slight increase in air pollution in the years before the emergence of virus is associated with higher death rates. Clean cooking solutions are critical to reducing household air pollution and building people’s longstanding resilience to respiratory illnesses.

If these research findings are transferred to China, UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA plays an important role for strengthening the health of participating farmer families and becoming more robust against harmful COVID-19 effects.

As UPM’s Managing Director, Martin Dilger, puts it: “By having equipped nearly 400,000 poor rural households in China’s Sichuan province with biogas digesters and clean biogas cook stoves, UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA has promoted a wide-ranging fuel switch from dirty coal and firewood to clean biogas and has thus contributed verifiably to strongly reducing the level of indoor air pollution in the homes of our programme’s beneficiaries already for many years now. The COVID-19 pandemia reminds us once again, why it is so important to fight indoor air pollution globally.”

By investing in this PoA and purchasing its carbon credits, you can do your part to help funding this highly beneficial climate protection programme and to support the local farmer families in Sichuan. Your contacts at UPM for the Sichuan Household Biogas PoA and its GS CERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

andGaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500

New first-of-its-kind Carbon Offset Guide features UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA

Since 1 April 2020, a first-of-its-kind open-access climate action guide is available for businesses, organizations, and individuals looking to increase confidence that their purchases of carbon offsets will really achieve stated climate impact claims. This guide was created by the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute through grant funding provided by the High Tide Foundation.

This guide recognizes that institutional (as well as individual) buyers want to assure the sustainability and environmental integrity of their carbon offsets but do not have unlimited resources to do in-depth research to support their carbon offset purchase decisions. Therefore, the guide provides the required pragmatic decision-making approaches to perform robust due diligences of carbon offset projects to safeguard these meet the highest quality standards and do no harm. As one of the benchmark-setting projects, the guide explicitly mentions UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA in China on page 8 of the downloadable PDF version.

An example for potential users of the guide are airlines participating in CORSIA, the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. As from 2021, these companies will need to surrender carbon offsets that meet applicable CORSIA eligibility rules.

“This new carbon offset guide is a very useful tool for all those businesses, public sector authorities and people seeking reliable and independent expert advice on how to compensate for their still unavoidable carbon footprint in the right way. And, of course, we are very happy as well that UPM’s Sichuan Household Biogas PoA has been mentioned as a best-practice carbon offset project,” says UPM’s Managing Director Martin Dilger.

The summary guide, “Securing Climate Benefit: A Guide to Using Carbon Offsets,” provides offset buyers practical technical guidance. A more detailed web guide is available at http://www.offsetguide.org/.

Your contacts at UPM for high-end Gold Standard carbon offsets are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500

UPM has first large sale of Sichuan Household Biogas CCERs in China’s carbon offset market

Earlier in this year, UPM has had its first large sale of China Certified Emissions Reductions (CCERs) from one of its two Sichuan Household Biogas CCER projects. These projects, each with annual GHG emissions reductions of around 50,000 tCO2e, have been specifically developed by UPM to meet China’s mandatory and voluntary CCER carbon offset demand.

This recent transaction has been made with a Chinese financial market trading company via Sichuan Environment Exchange (Sichuan EEX). UPM is closely monitoring China’s regulation with respect to CCER eligibility in China’s national emissions trading scheme (China ETS) and can flexibly start new project verifications to get issuances of younger CCER vintages, if needed. On demand, we can also develop entirely new CCER projects for our clients, e. g. for CORSIA, the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation which will start its pilot stage in 2021.

Your contacts at UPM for procurement of Sichuan Household Biogas CCERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500