CHINA: March 14, 2003
BEIJING - A wind farm in Inner Mongolia yesterday became the first Chinese renewable energy project to be selected by the Dutch government to help reduce the world's air pollution under the 1997 United Nations Kyoto Protocol.
By producing electricity without emitting greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, then selling the credit it gets for keeping the air clean to the Dutch, the Huitengxile wind farm, northwest of Beijing, will pay for its own expansion. "At the moment that they prove they've reduced emissions, we'll begin to pay," the Deputy Manager of Carbon Credits at the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Egbert Liese, told Reuters.
The Netherlands yesterday approved the first overseas sustainable energy projects it will fund in order to cut greenhouse gases under the Kyoto protocol.
The Dutch will purchase emission credits through the 18 projects, which aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 16 megatonnes, the environment ministry said in a statement.
Apart from China, the 18 projects which focus on sustainable energy and clean techologies, will take place in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Jamaica and Panama.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, countries are allowed to fund projects such as wind parks, biomass-powered energy plants and solar energy projects in developing countries and get credits toward up to half their goal in cutting emissions.
The Dutch have undertaken to cut greenhouse gas emissions by six percent versus the level in 1990, during the period 2008 to 2012, with half the decrease realised outside the Netherlands.
China gets about 70 percent of its energy from burning coal making it home to some of the world's most polluted cities.
China, as a developing nation, is not bound by the goals for restraining carbon dioxide emissions laid out in the Kyoto agreement, but Chinese support is crucial for its survival.
It is the world's second largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, and the United States, the greatest emitter of greenhouse gasses, has long cited the fact that China is not bound by the protocol as one reason why it will not ratify the deal.
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