The Clean Development Mechanism and its impact on geothermal projects

Abstract

The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which was adopted in 1997 to meet the objective of the UNFCCC, which is to stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Kyoto protocol has three flexibility mechanisms, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and Emission Trading (ET). The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), is an emission reduction mechanism between developed and developing countries. The first commitment period of the Protocol was between 2008 and 2012, while the second commitment period is between 2013 and 2020. The CDM Executive Board has developed a voluntary tool to highlight the sustainable development co-benefits. Approximately 8,000 projects had been registered under the mechanism representing emissions from different sectors, and different scales by September 2016. About 32 geothermal projects had been registered compared to other renewables such as wind and hydro which had registered 2,397 and 1,427 projects respectively by September 2016.

The rate of registration reflects the rate of deployment of the renewable energy sources. So far, the registered geothermal energy projects are large scale electricity based from high temperature hydrothermal systems and one low temperature geothermal heat application for district heating in China, all of which should be contributing a total of 12 million tCO2e/year compared to 3.1 million tCO2e/year in October 2011. These projects are at different monitoring, reporting and verification stages and the above estimates are based on submissions in project design documents and could have significantly changed or expired. Development from geothermal energy has lower emissions per kilowatt hour (kWh) than fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide emissions from geothermal energy range from 4 g CO2/kWh to 740 g CO2/kWh with a weighted average of 122 g CO2/kWh and depend on the chemistry of the reservoir and choice of technology. Despite the collapse of the carbon markets, new opportunities exist in carbon trading through the voluntary carbon markets, new market mechanisms focusing on sectoral approaches, and the cooperative mechanisms and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Geothermal energy has the potential of contributing to global emission reduction by increasing its global share in renewables and other sources.