  |
CARBON FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT |
|
LATEST NEWS |
|||
MDG Carbon Facility Assists Manna Energy Limited to Register World’s First United Nations Clean Water Carbon Credit ProgramSCHOOL CHILDREN AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES SEE BENEFITSKigali, Rwanda, 20 June 2011 – Manna Energy Limited and the UNDP MDG Carbon Facility announced the registration of the world’s first United Nations Clean Development Mechanism carbon program for water treatment. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) validated and registered Manna’s Rwanda Natural Energy Project, enabling the deployment of community scale water treatment systems for thousands of the country’s rural residents.  Manna’s prototype water treatment system in Kigali, Rwanda. This system allows Manna to tailor water treatment systems for communities across Rwanda. Manna Energy Ltd. has installed solar-powered surface water treatment systems in rural communities, serving schools, hospitals and the public. Local residents now have a close-at-hand source of reliable, clean water, which will improve health outcomes and school attendance. The systems avoid burning non-renewable firewood to boil water, qualifying the Rwanda project for issuance of carbon credits. While the project treats all the water consumed in the service region, the carbon credits generated are tied to actual wood fuel use reduction by the fraction of residents that currently boil some of their drinking water. The Millennium Development Goals Carbon Facility at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided technical assistance to Manna for the Rwanda Natural Energy Project since early in its inception. “The Manna projects in Rwanda demonstrate that carbon finance has the potential to achieve a double dividend. It can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deliver basic social services like clean water to the developing communities most in need. That underlines the win- win connections between tackling climate change and reaching the Millennium Development Goals,” said Olav Kjorven, the Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy.  Manna’s first operational water treatment system, being installed at Fawe School in Kigali, Rwanda. This system will treat water for 700 boarding school students. The Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) has committed to the purchase of Manna’s carbon credits for this project, helping Sweden comply with its Kyoto Treaty obligations. SEA also provided critical technical and investment assistance for the project. A generous grant from Global Water Challenge during the initial phase of the project helped Manna employ Rwandan engineers and technicians, working in several communities across Rwanda. “A core component of Manna’ s commitment to Rwanda is ensuring the economic sustainability of the project by its continued use and performance,” says Manna Executive Vice President Evan Thomas. “Revenue generated by the carbon credits will be reinvested in the project, helping make it sustainable for at least a decade, providing time to build local capacity and further community adoption.”
The MDG Carbon Facility operates within the framework of the Clean Development Mechanism, the market-based mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol that allows developed countries to meet their emission caps by purchasing carbon credits from developing country projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Although these mechanisms have rapidly grown into a billion-dollar, international market for carbon credits, carbon projects have so far been limited in geographic reach, restricted mainly to the largest developing countries. UNDP helps developing countries conceive projects intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and assist these projects meet the Kyoto Protocol’s agreed standards and deliver real, sustainable benefits to the environment and broader human development. UNDP then assists to identify buyers to purchase the carbon credits generated by these projects. The proceeds from the sale of the credits provide developing countries and communities with a new flow of resources to finance much needed investment and to promote development. UNDP invites prospective emission reduction projects to participate in the Facility. For more information, visit www.mdgcarbonfacility.org. |
|
The brochure outlines the Facility’s mission, the roles of UNDP and Fortis Bank, and the project types assisted by the Facility. It is available in multiple languages in