Philippines signs livestock waste emission bill with World Bank

WB said the agreement which will be in effect between 2010 and 2013, will introduce the Philippines with cleaner technologies to manage the 14 million tonnes of solid waste and 22 million tonnes of organic wastewater the country produces every year.

The agreement, covering the Methane Recovery from Waste Management Project, aims to help address emissions of methane gas, which is a highly potent GHG estimated to account for nearly one-third of the GHG emissions from the Philippines.

''Management of this waste and of its health and environmental impacts are a growing concern in the country. Current waste-management practices in piggeries and landfills not only emit methane and odour but also create potential for groundwater contamination and runoff into rivers and streams,'' the bank said in a statement.

The project will provide incentives for piggeries and landfill operators to adopt cleaner technologies that capture methane and use it as fuel to generate electricity, which will substitute for grid electricity generation that otherwise would be supplied by GHG-emitting fossil-fuel power plants.

The Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) derived from these projects under the framework of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol will be purchased by the WB on behalf of the Spanish Carbon Fund as a way of encouraging investments in technologies and business models that help address climate change.

LandBank president and chief executive officer Gilda Pico said the ERPA affirms its commitment to contribute to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change objective of stabilising greenhouse-gas emissions at safe levels.

WB country director Bert Hofman said the ERPA demonstrates how carbon finance could be used to encourage private and public investments into projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.