'Fuel trees' offer new way to prosperity

By Divya Sreedharan

BANGALORE, NOV. 9. Imagine a world without greenhouse gases or CO2 (carbon dioxide). Or better still, think of using carbon for a sustainable livelihood.

This is no pipedream. For the last four years, Women for Sustainable Development has been working on this concept.

The WSD has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the U.K.-based company, Future Forests. Registered in Bangalore with its main office at Varalakonda in Gudibanda taluk of Kolar District, the NGO will sell Future Forests 10,000 tonnes of carbon from certified emission reductions or CERs. The order is worth $ 1,20,000.

But why would anyone want to pay for carbon? Ms. Anandi Sharan, Director of WSD, said the CER was a completely abstract concept. ``CERs are the new international currency dominated by clean energy,'' she told The Hindu. CERs were part of a global trade in ``clean fuels'' as against ``fossil fuels''.

This is how it works: Since 1997, the organisation has been working with the villagers of Gudibanda taluk and with DesiPower, Bangalore, and Shamanur Sugars, Davangere, both biomass gasifier- based industries.

Those who use fossil fuel energy -- coal, oil or gas-based electricity -- earned money today. But those using renewable energy these days could not earn a decent living. Such people lived in rural areas in developing countries and were not rewarded for their contribution to making the earth a cleaner place.

With CERs, this changed. ``We can now quantify the global benefit we produce and earn clean money,'' said Ms. Sharan. Thus, the WSD gets money to support processes that do not burn fossil fuels or produce CO2. ``A thermal power station emits 1.5 kg. of CO2 for producing one unit of power. If you produce power from cleaner sources, you save that much CO2,'' said Ms. Sharan.

Six units (210 MW) of Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) emit 32,22,000 tonnes of carbon every year. To offset those emissions, one would have to grow 1,60,000 acres of orchards.

In the Future Forests deal, WSD would pay farmers in Gudibanda $ 10 per ton of carbon. It would keep $ two and estimated that 500 acres should be planted for wood that could produce 10,000 tonnes of carbon sold to FF. The trees here were mango, tamarind, and neem. ``The villagers grow fruit trees in the middle and fuel trees on the edges of their orchards,'' said Ms. Sharan.

A tree's height and diameter were measured. ``Once you know the diameter, you will know how much wood it produces in its lifetime. One ton of wood is equivalent to 0.5 ton of carbon.''

The WSD's role was primarily one of monitoring -- to see that the trees are really planted, and in the case of a power station, to see that it was biomass gasifier-based.

How would the FF benefit from the deal? Ms. Sharan said FF got a tax rebate for buying CERs. ``This is similar to the way one got Income Tax exemption for charitable donations. Also, FF gets to keep $ one or $ two per ton of carbon it buys,'' she said.

Once the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change finished in Morocco next week, anyone in India could sell CERs to anyone within or without the country. This would be done under the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism for Small Scale projects.

The WSD planned to sell another 10,000 tonnes of CERs to Future Forests next year and was encouraging more NGOs in the State to come forward and sell CERs. In fact, the WSD wanted large Indian companies to buy CERs as part of a change in their fossil-fuel- intensive life-styles.

``We can help leading Bangalore companies get in touch with suppliers of renewable energy systems or even if the companies did not install the system themselves, they can buy the CERs produced by a gasifier-based power station and have a system installed either at their premises or in a rural area where the NGOs will run it and provide jobs for local people,'' she says.

On November 6, the WSD launched its website -- climateindia.com. For more information, call Ms. Anandi Sharan on ph: 3332530 or e- mail: wsd@vsnl.com

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : 'Biggest white-collar criminal' nabbed
Next     : Candidates make last-ditch efforts