GERES takes care, among other activities, of 2 CO₂ saving projects (Cambodia, Afghanistan) that save almost 300,000 (tCO2e) per year, corresponding to 300,000 carbon credits.
The money coming from the sale of these carbon credits is included in the initial budget of the project and complements finance coming from the institutional sector (the European Commission, AFD, FFEM,) and the private sector (sponsorship).
Carbon finance : a means not an end
GERES used the carbon finance tool for the first time for the project to distribute improved cooking ovens in Cambodia. In 2005, carbon finance was a relatively new source of finance and there were very few precedents for projects for efficient cookers.
However, as bit by bit the limits of the CDM process were becoming more obvious, interest increased in how to encourage projects orientated more towards development. This resulted in the World Bank allocating a small subsidy to establish a financial structure for carbon in Cambodia, in order to permit access to carbon finance for projects for the distribution of efficient New Laos Stove (NLS) type cookers. This allowed GERES to implement studies and to gather the necessary information to make firm calculations on the basis of the fuel and emissions reductions of the NLS project.
Un enfant cambodgien au milieu des NLS
The aim was the large scale distribution, i.e. on a national level, of a technology which had been tested in a pilot area. Carbon finance was a financial tool to increase the scope of the project. The high start up costs (compiling PDD project documents, the costs of verification, registry and trading of credits) mean that a large amount of equipment must be distributed to cover these them.
In GERES carbon finance comes from :
- CO₂Solidaire, the compensation scheme of GERES, which, in 2011, financed savings of more than 13,000 tons of CO2 through 120 business partnerships and several hundreds of individual donors.
- The Direct Sale of Carbon Credits (Agence Française de Développement – AFD)
- Sale of Carbon Credits to Intermediaries.
