Landfill gas emission reduction in Brazil
Brazil has established a strong public policy using Clean Development Mechanism Projects to reduce methane emissions from landfills.
An important component of these projects is the sale of avoided emissions by the private market to generate revenue.
Faced with serious pollution challenges, Brazil established public policy that would create incentives for the foreign and national private market to invest financial, technological, and human resources in the country.
The premise is that experienced companies would bring their technology to Brazil, in an effort to reduce methane gas emissions.
Although this technology was new to Brazil in the early 2000s when companies first began implementing them, these methods were not new to Europe or North America.
[5] Private companies have submitted CDM projects to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to use landfill gas (LFG) discharges from waste management sites to earn carbon credits or CER.
[6] First, once the waste management company has developed the landfill with the new technology, (1a) it calculates how much methane (CH4) would have been emitted into the air without its intervention.
Additionally, the project design report states Onyx SASA expects to revegetate and reforest the land; upon fulfillment, 150,000 trees will be planted around the landfill.
It offers waste management services, including recycling and landfills, to private companies and the government.
[9] The Paulínia Landfill Gas Project (EPLGP) is located in Campinas in São Paulo State of Brazil.
The following table outlines the forecasted and actual yearly outputs of CER according to the monitoring reports filed with UNFCCC:
