20091228
allafrica

All indications are that the number of climate change investment projects in Kenya will multiply in 2010.

The projects are those which avoid the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

For example, constructing wind power plants rather than that using diesel generators.

Under a UN system, such projects qualify for funding under what is known as carbon development mechanism.

This mechanism essentially offers compensation for such projects based on the amount, in tonnes, of carbon dioxide they prevent emitting over a period of time.

The ethanol distillation plant announced by the Mumias Sugar Company is the latest highlight of climate change investment projects in Kenya.

The project will use sugar waste to manufacture ethanol.

Ethanol falls under the category of the clean fuel; those which emit very little if any carbon dioxide while performing the same role as the fossil fuels.

Ethanol for instance can run a petrol engine vehicle without modification.

The sugar miller and clean electricity generator has awarded a contract to an Indian firm, Avant-GARDE Engineers and Consultants Limited develop the Sh3.4 billion ethanol plant within two years.

"We expect the first products off the shelf by July 2011. We anticipate to produce a variety of products including neutral alcohol, anhydrous ethanol, food grades and ethanol to blend with premium fuel," Dr Evans Kidero, the company's CEO.

Mumias is already under the CDM registration because of electricity generation from bargasse, the sugar waste.

The announcement of its new clean energy project coincided with an announcement that a forestry project in Tsavo East National Park has also qualified for climate change financing but under the other non-UN window known as Voluntary Emission Reductions.

Wildlife Works Carbon, the United States-based company that manages the project announced that their Kasigau Corridor REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) Project in Kenya has been awarded the first gold level validation in Africa, under the Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Alliance's REDD Standard.

Nedbank of South Africa will buy carbon emission reduction credits from the project.

The project was started in 1998 and has helped reduce human-wildlife conflict by removing snares set to trap wildlife.

The project also facilitated the removal of cattle from the wildlife land and also helped to relocate illegal squatters from the sanctuary to a farm land located outside of the wildlife corridor.

The project also has an EcoFactory where women from the community make gift articles that are sold in the United States.

Cooking stove

This window of selling carbon emission reductions in the voluntary market is also opening up for people like Lorna Omuodo, the head of Jatropa Vanillla Foundation and Issac Kalua, the CEO of Green Africa Foundation.

Both organisations are yet to make money from selling emission reductions, but their projects which involve working with farmers to grow and process Jatropha seeds into clean bio-diesel should pay off perhaps by the end of 2010.

The fact that projects like that the one spearheaded by Ms Omuondo have inspired the manufacture of bio-diesel equipment such as a cooking stove and lighting lamp developed together with the University of Nairobi, should make the projects more attractive to carbon emission reduction buyers.

When villagers use the stove for cooking instead of firewood, they not only reduce the number of trees they cut down but also reduce the carbon that is emitted from burning firewood.

Major clean energy investments are likely to come from wind power projects.

Already two such projects, one by the Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium and the other by Giston Energy are sourcing for funds and partners.

Both projects have the capacity to provide peak electricity of 650MW, about half of Kenya's current installed capacity.

All these projects qualify for funding under either CDM or voluntary emission reductions.