First Carbon Fund payment to Nepal

First Carbon Fund payment to Nepal
Gorkhapatra, 7-Jan-08

The World Bank Community Development Carbon Fund issued its first payment of US$ 514,786 Monday for carbon emission reductions in Nepal.

The Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (APEC) received its payment for its first delivery of verified Emission Reductions to the Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that was created under the Kyoto protocol.

According to a press statement issued by World Bank, an Emission Reductions (ER) purchase agreement was signed by the community development carbon fund managed by the World Bank and the AEPC in May 2006 for sale of one million tons of Carbon ER. ?This payment represents the first of several annual payments based upon the actual verified delivery of Emissions Reductions" the press statement stated.

The Nepal Biogas Project, part of the Biogas Support Programme (BSP) is Nepal's first CDM project that developed ER household units that is known to reduce almost five tons of carbon dioxide annually.

BSP initially received funds from the German Development Bank and the government of Nepal through APEC and it promotes the use of biogas by expanding its use for cooking and lighting in rural households.

"We will be working to further develop and disseminate biogas as a mainstream renewable energy solution in Nepal," said Saroj Rai, executive director of BSP-Nepal.

According to World Bank the payment was made for the bio gas support programme-Nepal activity-1 as per the costs deduced by Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA).

"As we see by this payment, carbon finance can produce direct financial rewards while supporting sustainable development at the same time since this project produces significant local benefits to the rural people of Nepal through modern provisions for clean biogas," said Jeremy Levin, task team leader for World Bank.