This project supports collection of landfill gas and generation of 3.2MW of electricity at a landfill in Liling City of Hunan Province, China. The project is expected to reduce nearly 1,000,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions during the projectโs lifetime. Credits are generated from two pieces of the project: (1) avoiding the emissions of methane (a potent greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere and (2) using the power generated from the methane (natural gas) to displace dirtier coal-fired power coming from the electric grid. The project clearly required carbon revenues to achieve these two goals and therefore generates high-quality carbon offsets.
CNaught maintains a very high quality standard for all projects in the portfolios we manage. To ensure that a project meets this standard, we perform due diligence thatโs backed up by third-party ratings agenciesโ independent due diligence.
Additionality:
This project has very high additionality, meaning it is very unlikely that this project activity could have occurred in the absence of carbon funding. Landfill gas capture programs were very rare in China when the project began. During our due diligence process, we found that while China is the worldโs largest producer of municipal solid waste – waste that goes into landfills – it had less than 20 landfill gas capture programs when the project began1,2. Calyx Global has also rated this project highly, in part due to its additionality.
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Over-Crediting:
This project has a low risk of over-crediting due to the fact that its emissions reductions are a direct measurement of the amount of methane captured and either combusted or used for energy. Calyx Global noted that the project used a default value of 10% natural oxidation in their baseline calculation, which could result in slightly increased emissions reductions calculations. Natural oxidation is the process in which methane can sometimes permeate the cover sealing the landfill and migrate upwards, where it is oxidized and converted into CO2. If projects use an oxidation factor that is too low, they risk over-calculating the amount of methane they capture. During our due diligence process, we found that this impact is likely to be minimal, as the landfill is likely covered by a high-density polyethylene membrane (HDPE) which should lower the oxidation factor3,4. Project emissions are well-accounted for, with negligible risk from fugitive methane (as destruction occurs on-site rather than through pipeline injection) and landfill gas projects inherently carry no material leakage risk. Overall, we find that this project is likely to be accurately accounting for its carbon emissions reductions.
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Durability:
This project activity is highly durable as its emissions reductions are considered permanent, since its methane reductions cannot be reversed. Additionally, there is no risk that the project activity would lead to the creation of new landfills or additional methane emissions.
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Double-Counting:
The project credits have a very low risk of being double counted. There are no regulatory obligations being met by the project activity and the projectโs registry, Verra, has mechanisms in place to ensure that the project is not registered in any other programs.
As the project continues to operate, its climate impact continues to grow! Figure shows the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions that this project has avoided so far, shaded in green. Note: Unshaded area represents the emissions reductions the project estimates it will avoid. Projects donโt issue credits based on these estimates, credits are issued once they receive verification of their avoided emissions. Verification can take a long time to do, so there is often a lag between the current year and the most recent year that they issued credits.
Community and biodiversity co-benefits
This project provides significant community, health, and sustainable technology benefits.
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Community: This project has trained and hired local residents to help operate its facilities, supporting the local economy while also ensuring that the project activity continues running smoothly.
Human & Environmental Health: This project prevents contamination of local water supply and helps improve air quality. The project also prevents the risks of potential fires or explosions by capturing the methane produced from the landfill.
Sustainable Technology: This project is introducing an important sustainable technology to China. Landfills are a significant source of methane emissions and China, as both the worldโs largest methane emitter and landfill waste contributor, has thousands of landfills1. Before the project began, China had less than 20 landfill gas collection projects2. This project, as well as other early landfill gas projects in China, helped introduce this clean technology to the country and has supported the scaling of implementation in recent years. There is still a long way to go before this becomes common use in China though, and while the country did construct 510 new landfill gas collection facilities in 2020, it is estimated that ~80% of Chinaโs landfills have not yet implemented methane gas collection3,4.
This project has no risk of reversal because its avoided emissions are not subject to being undone.
Organizations that have purchased credits from this project
CNaught’s take: Calyx Global has found that landfill gas projects are some of the highest quality carbon projects available on the market. However, because they are not as charismatic as forest projects, they are not as popular with buyers – despite often being much higher quality. We recommend, as they do, that buyers should focus more on quality and begin to invest more heavily in landfill gas projects such as this one.
CNaught’s take: The ICVCM has been widely considered as the leading authority on carbon quality. They found that landfill gas projects such as this are some of the highest quality projects in the VCM. While a CCP label isnu2019t enough to define quality, it still serves as a useful quality indicator.
CNaught’s take: China emits ~14% of the global methane emissions each year. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Reducing methane emissions will be critical to turning the tide on climate change and landfill gas projects such as this, which reduce methane emissions and convert them into electricity, are going to help us get there.
CNaught’s take: Landfills are a major global source of methane, and given that China produces more landfill waste than any other country, it has a lot of landfill methane to contend with. If methane gas is not captured in landfills, it can build up and lead to dangerous fires and explosions. By capturing methane gas, this project helps to protect local communities from such potential dangers.nnu200d
This project contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Learn more about UN SDG 7
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Learn more about UN SDG 8
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Learn more about UN SDG 13Project data sourced from CNaught carbon marketplace. Information may be updated periodically.
