The Danish government, through Danish Development Co-operation (Danida), on December 19, 2003 signed the letter of intent to support five emission reduction projects in Thailand as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects encouraged by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement designed to combat global greenhouse effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
The five projects in the first batch of the Danish CDM project development in Thailand are: Green Power from Swine Farms; Siam Cement Biomass Gasifier with Waste Heat Recovery; Wangkanai Ratchasima Small Power Producer Expansion Project: Thai Agro Energy Ethanol and Biogas Plant; and The Natural Palm Oil 640kW Electricity and Biogas Plant.
CDM is a market-based mechanism that allows an industrialized nation such as Denmark to purchase certified emission reduction credits (CERs) arising from emission reduction projects in non-industrialized countries such as Thailand, to apply towards their commitments through the CDM framework.
The financial support from Danida will be in the project design phase, with a maximum input of 3.1 million baht each. A fully developed project that fulfils internation CDM criteria will be registered and certified, then the project can be implemented and sell its CERs to Denmark at the market price.
The five awarded projects are currently in the process of developing project idea note, which is the first step of the project design phase.
Total emission reduction in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent of the five projects combined is estimated to be approximately 520,000 tonnes per year. Beside the benefits in terms of foreign currency obtained from sales of the CERs from this Thai-Danish cooperation programme, Thailand can also expect sustainable development in forms of social, economic and environment.
At this stage, the focus of the CDM Project Development Programme is given to the projects in the energy and industrial sectors. Danida will make a call for the second batch of the programme in Thailand early in March 2004.
For more information about the programme, please visit the CDM page on the Royal Danish Embassy, Bangkok’s website at: .
