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