Seeking brownie points: Govt seeks to earn carbon credits on Kohala project

Consultants hired to approach the United Nations.

ISLAMABAD:

The government has decided to earn carbon credits under the United Nations-sponsored clean development mechanism on the 1,100-megawatt Kohala hydropower project located in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir.

In a report submitted to the Ministry of Water and Power, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) said it had hired consultants to register the Kohala project with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in an attempt to claim carbon credits as provided under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of Kyoto Protocol.

The CDM allows rich countries to offset some of their carbon emissions by investing in climate-friendly projects, such as hydroelectric power and wind farms, in developing countries.

This has resulted in collective investments of $215 billion in about 4,500 projects in 75 developing countries. According to reports, these projects have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by one billion tons, which would otherwise have gone into the atmosphere.

The Kohala project site is just upstream of Dhal Chatian village, about 28 kms upstream of Domel on Jhelum River.

In January 2009, the Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) issued a letter of intent (LOI) to China International Water and Electric Power Company (CWE) for upgrading the feasibility study done by Wapda consultants.

Wapda had signed a consultancy contract with SMEC Scott Wilson, Sogreah, MAES and EGC on June 26, 2007 at a cost of Rs312.46 million for preparation of feasibility study, detailed engineering design and tender documents for the project.

In the report submitted to the water and power ministry, Wapda’s water wing said after change of Kohala ownership, CDM consultants Perenia suggested that Wapda may approach the PPIB in order to get written assurance from CWE that it would abide by all rights and obligations stipulated in the original contract without any loss to Perenia and its constituent companies.

In a meeting on CDM held in Islamabad on May 23 this year, it was decided that Perenia would continue to work on winning carbon credits as per its agreement with Wapda.

Environment impact assessment of the project has also been conducted and copies of the report have been sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir for getting no-objection certificate for implementing the project.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet also reviewed the project summary, sent by the water and power ministry, on September 27, 2010 and endorsed the decision of the AJK council for development of the project in light of the opinion of the Ministry of Law.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2012.