Nepal can cut carbon emissions by 6 million tonnes through rural biogas systems

Nepal can avoid the release of over six million tonnes of carbon emissions in the next five years through the large-scale use of biogas, according to climate change experts. Use of the low tech biofuel allows poor developing countries like Nepal to do their part in the battle against global warming. Furthermore, a switch to biogas in rural areas allows countries to trade carbon credits. Nepal's experience proves the credits come at highly competitive prices.

Biogas is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide produced by fermenting biomass. Most often organic waste matter like animal manure, household waste and municipal solid waste is used, even though increasingly dedicated energy crops are fed to anaerobic digesters as single subtrate or are co-digested with other feedstocks.

In Nepal, biogas systems are low tech, simple devices: circular pits filled with cow dung. Constructed near to people's homes, the gas they produce is piped to where the cooking is done.

Nearly 85% of Nepal's 27 million people live in rural areas and around 95% of the rural population burn traditional and unsustainably harvested fuels such as wood and agro-waste. These fuels cause severe indoor smoke pollution - a 'killer in the kitchen' claiming the lives of an estimated 1.2 million women and children each year (earlier post). Moreover, the fuels are inefficiently used: only 5 to 10 percent of the energy contained in them is captured.

Biogas systems are both cleaner and more efficient. They were first introduced in Nepal in the late 1950s and thousands of families now use them. The carbon emissions thus saved in Nepal may be small in comparison to global emissions, but this is an example of how poor countries like Nepal can help combat global warming.

Sandeep Chamling Rai, climate change adviser to the Nepal chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), says Nepal's biogas use has received recognition on a global scale and hopefully the country's contribution will be given more prominence.

Rai explained that every biogas system in Nepal avoids nearly 7.5 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. Poor Nepalese farmers and low-income rural families use the systems most.

Biogas partnership
Over 173,000 Nepali households now have biogas systems thanks to the Biogas Sector Partnership (BSP), the government's Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) and financial and technical assistance from the Dutch aid agency SNV (previous post):
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: biogas :: waste :: efficiency :: climate change :: carbon credits :: Clean Development Mechanism :: Nepal ::

These agencies pay over half of the US$ 500 cost of building a biogas system and buying a gas cooker. Today, Nepal has the world's highest number of biogas systems per capita, outnumbering China and India, according to BSP.

Biogas has turned into an indispensable part of Nepal's efforts to mitigate global warming, according to WWF-Nepal.

Saroj Rai, executive director of BSP, says biogas has already replaced the use of wood in tens of thousands of households and this allows researchers to easily see how much it has helped reduce carbon emissions.

Carbon trading benefits
In January 2007 Nepal started trading carbon emissions with the World Bank at the rate of just US$7 per tonne, and recently the AEPC signed a deal with the Bank to sell carbon emissions at $10.25 per tonne, according to WWF-Nepal. European carbon prices currently stand at around $33.12 (€22.70) per tonne.

Nepal is already earning over $ 600,000 per year through its voluntary emissions reduction (VER), which unlike the Compulsory Emission Reduction (CER) of the Kyoto Protocol is not bound by any UN convention, according to the BSP.

The government has already done its job of preparing a project design document and by 2012, Nepal will have traded a huge amount of carbon, said Batu Krishna Upreti, under-secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Picture: low tech biogas pit in Nepal, using household waste as a substrate. Credit: IRIN.

References:
IRIN News: Nepal: Biogas technology beginning to make its mark - December 6, 2007.

Biopact: World Bank to provide $5 million for biogas plants in rural Nepal - October 05, 2007

Biopact: Small CDM projects bring cash to Nepal: biogas for rural households - May 06, 2007

Biopact: WHO: indoor air pollution takes heavy toll on health in the developing world - May 01, 2007