NEW CDM TOOLS FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT PROJECTS

Experts estimate that 8 to 12 % of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developing and threshold countries are due to waste management activities. The major sources are methane emissions from disposal of untreated municipal solid waste, which in those countries contains a large portion of degradable organics. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) offers the opportunity to get emission reductions certified and to make them sellable. However, the CDM methodologies do not generally promote enhanced technologies in waste management. The financial contribution from carbon trade to the enhanced climate mitigating technologies like MBT and combustion does not crack the invest barriers nor recover the higher operation costs. Most recent activities target on improving existing CDM methodologies and on developing new concepts. Three different methods have been used to develop new tools for CDM: • New Methodology (NM) according to the terminology of UNFCCC • Refined baseline concept for modelling the methane generation • Program of activities (PoA) according to the terminology of UNFCCC A new methodology is proposed for the so called methane oxidation layer (MOL). MOL is a landfill cover system which facilitates microbiological activity in the cover layer. Due to the biological decay processes methane, which passes the layer, is being oxidised and turned into CO2. The efficiency of a methane oxidation layer depends on the quality and biochemical relevance of the cover material. A typical soil layer with low carbon content shows rates of 2.5 – 12 l CH4/m2*h. Compost and stabilized biomass from biological waste treatment succeed 12 – 30 l CH4/m2*h. The baseline calculations for covering old landfills are similar to new landfills. The methodology AMS III.F (Avoidance of methane production from decay of biomass through composting) serves as the base of the baseline study and the monitoring concept for Methane Oxidation Layer (MOL) project. For calculations an appropriate separate tool is available, the „ Tool to determine methane emissions avoided from dumping waste at a solid waste disposal site”. The formula contains one term modelling oxidation effects of landfill covers (1 – OX). A default value for landfills covered by soil is OX = 0.1. For the new methodology it is proposed to calculate the project emissions (remaining emissions after implementation) by using the same formula. The methane generation is commonly described by the first order decay model. It is a very simple model and reflects a conservative scenario. Real gas generation can happen much quicker, particularly under tropical climate conditions. Since the crediting period is limited to a certain time (10 years or 3 x 7 years) the velocity of gas generation is of particular interest, because it effects the emission reductions. With the aim to more exact determine the emission reduction a research project has been started to develop a technical simulation of decay processes. The method shall replace the first order decay. During the 90ies, a number of investigations on technical simulation of landfill processes have been carried out in Germany. As a first step, the results of the tests have been confronted to the first order decay model. It can be seen that the real gas generation develops 5times higher during the first year. A program of activities allows establishing an umbrella framework with many individual projects under one/more approved methodologies. The PoA is a strong new concept under the CDM with the potential to literally bring the benefits of the CDM into the houses of people in developing and Least Developed Countries (LDC). PoA facilitates programs in numerous small applications to be developed and implemented over a longer period of 28 years. Contrary to bundled CDM projects, PoA allows adding units to the project after its registration. Thus, no registration fee is payable on CPAs which are added subsequently to validation. Compared to bundling of small‐scale projects into one single CDM project, the PoA has significant benefits: • The individual project activities need not to be defined in advance • The exact sites of the project activities (CPAs) need not to be defined in advance • The individual project activities can be included into the PoA at any time without undertaking the validation process afresh.