|
U.S. Agency Funds Climate
Change Projects in Nine Nations
By CHERYL PELLERIN
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is spending $2 million in
nine countries to fund climate-change projects that enhance the capture
and use of methane, which accounts for about one-sixth of powerful
greenhouse gases. The funds-to projects in India, China, Russia,
Argentina, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Nigeria and Ukraine-are
from the Methane to Markets Partnership, which the United States and 13
other countries launched in 2004.
The European Commission joined the group in September 2007, swelling the
number of partners to 21. Together with more than 600 participating public
and private organizations, the partners work on nearly 100 projects and
activities around the world.
Paul Gunning, branch chief in the Climate Change Division at the
Environmental Protection Agency, says the European Commission membership
"is a good development because it brings additional expertise into the
partnership and additional commitment that will help us grow the
partnership and continue to achieve reductions in greenhouse gases
globally."
A little more than half of methane emissions come from people-generated
sources. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have more than doubled
over 200 years, largely because of human activity. Methane is 23 times as
effective as carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere.
The Methane to Markets program targets four major causes of the emissions:
coal mining, landfills, agriculture (animal-waste management), and oil and
natural gas systems.
Of several projects being funded in India, one will help the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry coordinate activities for
advancing Indian methane recovery and use projects in the agriculture and
landfill sectors, and another will help the International Institute for
Energy Conservation in India initiate a nationwide system for recovering
methane from manure at animal feeding operations.
Gunning says the European Commission has expressed interest in partnership
activities that deal with capturing methane from coal mines and from oil
and natural gas systems. The Commission sent a delegation to the Methane
to Markets Exposition in Beijing in 2007 to learn more about the
partnership.
The Commission is the first multi-country entity to join Methane to
Markets. Four member countries (Germany, Italy, Poland and the United
Kingdom) are already involved. In the coal sector, the Commission will be
able to provide more than 50 years of European Union experience in
targeting methane emissions from coal mines. Methane is not only a
greenhouse gas, it also is the main component of natural gas and a
clean-burning energy source. The projects funded by the Environmental
Protection Agency support a range of activities that help remove technical
and other barriers to methane capture and use.
With the grants, the agency is supporting a suite of activities that
include training, database development on potential project sites,
feasibility studies, technology transfer and project expositions.
"One of the more important areas is direct project assistance," Gunning
says. "So, for example, in Mexico we'll be working with the Border
Environment Cooperation Commission to undertake two feasibility studies
[on gas recovery and use] in two cities.
"Our expectation is that the reports that are developed and issued from
those studies will serve as a catalyst for private-sector investment to
undertake a full-scale project," Gunning says.
In Nigeria, the Center for People & the Environment received a grant for a
study of electricity generation from coal mine methane at a site to be
determined, and the International Solid Waste Association will develop a
Nigerian landfill inventory.
The Ecological Regional Center in Russia will develop a landfill inventory
for that nation, and the Russia Energy Efficiency Demonstration Zones
Association will create a Clean Energy Technology Information Center in
Moscow.
In South Korea, the Korea District Heating Corporation will conduct
feasibility studies of methane recovery from the Chuncheon, Gangneung,
Jinju and Mokpo landfills.
"Virtually all the projects are leveraging other resources," Gunning says.
"So in all cases, the institutions we are cooperating with will contribute
funding for projects, and in some cases have partnered with others, too.
So the award amounts aren't necessarily the full amount-it's a portion
supported by the U.S. government."
Cheryl Pellerin is a USINFO staff writer.
Courtesy: SPAN Magazine |
Contact
editorspan@state.gov
|
