Working to make UN Conferences Carbon Neutral Events
On Sunday, November 27, at a tree planting ceremony on Mount Royal in Montreal, Environment Minister Stéphane Dion and President of the Conference announced that the United Nations Climate Change Conference was a carbon neutral event. This means that all of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the event, including local and long distance travel as well as accommodation would be offset through the purchase of emission reduction credits.
Environment Canada, in collaboration with the Pembina Institute, will retire 10,000 tonnes of emission reduction credits from Canadian generated wind power in order to offset all long distance travel to the event, which accounts for approximately 96% of emissions. The wind power credits are in the form of Green Tags from the EcoLogo Program by TerraChoice and are being issued by Vision Quest, Canada's largest producer of wind power.
In order to offset emissions from local travel and accommodation, Environment Canada worked through the brokerage firm, CO2e.com, and the Gold Standard to purchase credits from a biogas project in Honduras. The project was developed by Energia Ecologica de Palcasa (EECOPALSA) and will use biogas from wastewater treatment to generate electricity and reduce emissions by displacing fossil fuels and recovering methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
In addition, as part of the carbon offsetting portfolio for Montreal 2005, Environment Canada approached Annex 1 (developed) countries that are not economies in the transition to a market economy to purchase offsets for their own delegations. These offsets will also be counted towards the overall offset for Montreal 2005.
Environment Canada worked with private sector partners to go beyond our carbon neutral commitment in order to offset emissions even further. Hydro Quebec has formed a Climate Preventative Partnership consisting of public and private sector organizations such as Bell Canada, Alcan and the City of Montreal . This partnership has invested in carbon sequestration and other projects to offset 35,000 tonnes of GHG emissions. An example of a partnership project is the reforestation of 101 hectares in boreal regions of Quebec, where the natural forest has deteriorated-due to forest fires.
Members of the EXCEL Partnership have contributed more than 25,000 tonnes of emissions reduction offsets. EXCEL is a unique partnership of major Canadian corporations who are committed to sustainable development leadership through the continuous improvement of environmental, social and economic performance.
These offsets have been obtained through various projects such as carbon sequestration and biogas/electricity projects. In total approximately 70,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from a diverse range of national and international projects will be offset for the UN Conference.
By hosting the Conference as a carbon neutral event, the Government of Canada is hoping to lead by example in the area of climate change mitigation, as well as helping to set a precedent for future international meetings. This is a leadership initiative and as such the Government of Canada will not be using any of these offset credits towards its Kyoto target. The Government of Canada is also committed to ensuring that all other United Nations Climate Change Conference-related meetings held this year will be carbon neutral.
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