Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
BASELINE
CERs
ACTUAL EMISSIONS
Fig. 5
CER estimation by baseline
Baseline methodology is commonly used to
verify the monitoring report of a CDM project.
First, it is essential to discuss the “baseline”
which is defi ned as the amount of GHG emis-
sions that would be produced if the CDM project
is not there. The difference between baseline
emissions and the actual emissions associated
with a CDM project gives CERs. The CER calcu-
lation using baseline methodology is shown in
Fig.
5
. It can be noticed from the fi gure that the
estimation of CERs using baseline methodology
is quite simple and easy, but in actual practice, it
is not so. This is due to the diffi culty in the proper
and correct establishment of a baseline. Actually,
the concept of baseline is hypothetical in nature
because the total emissions reduction, assuming
the absence of a CDM project, is only an approxi-
mate estimation. Therefore, several baselines are
possible depending upon the factors taken in the
estimation of emissions reduction without the
implementation of CDM projects. However,
there are some common EB-approved methodol-
ogies for the development of a baseline. The
three main approaches in the development of a
baseline are using some past emissions data,
emissions associated with a technology that rep-
resents an economic course of action taking
investment barriers and the last 5 years of aver-
age emissions data related to the same project
activities in the same social, economic, environ-
mental and technological conditions and whose
performance is among the top 20 % of their cat-
egory (UNEP
2010
).
The second important thing to be noted in a
CDM project which has been discussed earlier is
if a project developer has got one CER, i.e.
1 tonne emissions reduction in a CDM project in
a host country, then he or she can produce 1 tonne
of emission in his or her other project. It means
that at one place, 1 tonne of emission is reduced
but at some other place 1 tonne is still produced.
So what is the net reduction in emissions in the
climate? More or less the answer is “nothing”. In
other words, it can be said that at one place some
sustainable output (having low emissions associ-
ated with a CDM project) and in another place
emissions are still being produced into the
atmosphere. This shows that the development of
CDM projects means the development of projects
based on some nonconventional sources of
energy. In this regard, the overall outcome is the
development of sustainable energy projects with
the development of CDM projects. The conclu-
sion is that a project developer is interested in the
promotion and development of CDM projects
because he or she can still run his or her business-
as-usual projects with high emissions generation.
And he or she is getting CERs effectively for
business-as-usual projects. Due to this problem,
the concept additionality arises in CDM, and it
becomes a primary condition for the validation of
a CDM project. Additionality must be considered
during a CDM project analysis to check if the
project is additional or not.
The next barrier in the development of CDM-
based projects is that rural and remote areas are
still far away from CDM. Project developers are
not so much interested to developing CDM-based
projects in rural areas. The main reason behind
this issue is that rural areas are not well devel-
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