Today, UPM’s flagship climate protection programme, the Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas PoA (CDM PoA 2898, GS 1239), received its third issuance of carbon credits. This time, around 613,000 Gold Standard Certified Emission Reductions (GS CERs), all vintage 2014, have been transferred to UPM. To date, the PoA has avoided a total of more than 2.25 million tons of CO₂.

Beyond its impact on climate change mitigation, the PoA also substantially improves the lives of more than 1.5 million members of poor rural households in Sichuan and helps promoting a sustainable future for the local communities. The PoA’s many verified co-benefits, which are well documented in the PoA’s UNFCCC’s Sustainable Development co-Benefits Reportand its Gold Standard Passport, are also highly relevant for the recently updated and amended 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

The minimum requirement of the selection of the climate protection projects is a certification under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which guarantee the fulfillment of the UN’s rules and verification by third-party auditors. In addition to the UN rules for CDM, careful attention is paid to compliance with additional criteria to ensure high quality of the projects. Thus climate protection projects are required to show impact over and above purely the reduction of CO2 and have a sustainable added value for the project countries (also known as co-benefits). The related co-benefits are for example, training of local workers, the support of local supply facilities, the protection of other environmental elements / resource protection, rural electrification, strengthening of local jobs and improving health.

Our PoA contributes notably to the achievement of at least 14 UN SDGs:

 

SDG 01:      End poverty in all its forms everywhere

SDG 02:      End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

SDG 03:      Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

SDG 04       Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

SDG 05:      Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

SDG 06:      Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

SDG 07:      Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

SDG 08:      Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

SDG 09:      Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

SDG 10:      Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG 12:      Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

SDG 13:      Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

SDG 15:      Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

SDG 17:      Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

As per today, only two household biogas PoAs worldwide have achieved a CER issuance and thereof, only UPM’s PoA has also been registered with the Gold Standard.

The issued climate protection certificates of our PoA are available and can be purchased anytime from interested companies, institutions and individuals to offset their unavoidable GHG emissions. The PoA’s GS CERs are the ideal choice if a carbon offset strategy puts particular emphasis on massive climate protection, the promotion of sustainable development and direct support of a large number of underprivileged farmer families in rural Sichuan.

In conjunction to the 3^rdissuance of carbon credits of the PoA, UPM is releasing a new info-graphic video, presenting how the project is an important component of the carbon balancing needed to prevent the dreadful consequences of climate change on the environment and the people of our planet. Watch the video here: xxx

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