the methodologies of GHG mitigation projects
Every emissions mitigation project activities has to writen down in a document which shows the process of the mitigation. These activities has to be measurable under parameters that express the project emissions.
The objetive of a methodolgy is to establish the project guidelines so it could be used in a similar characteristics projects and also will made a clear vision of the project activities.
For a practical point of view, a methodolgy has to have the following elements:
Characteristic |
Description |
| Project boundaries | The description of the project activities that would be measure. In the operating process is possible that some actions has no effect in the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, so it is important to describe which activities would be measure in the project life time. In most of the cases a figure or diagram is better to understanding the project boundaries. |
| Factors | The factors of the methodolgies are figures that sustain the calculations that would be used in the GHG emissions account. The source of each factors in necesary to apply a nomenclature with will be referenced in the equations. |
| Baseline | Is the activities description that would be done if the project didn't took place. These activities are are different that those which actually took place in the entity, because many times the project is needed for an increase of the operation capabilities. |
| Project | Is the activities description in the project boundaries. It has to consider in the activities the direct and indirect actions that allows the mitigation. An example of the indirect actions: a carbureting project which use compressed natural gas as fuel, it has to be consider the emissions in the combustion as direct emissons, and the indirect emissions would be the electricity consumption in the compressed process of the natural gas. |
| Baseline parameters | Are the figures that would be used to measure the baseline activities. |
| Project parameters | Are the figures that would be used to measure the direct and indirect activities described in the project boundaries. |
| Monitoring | Because of the mitigation effect took place from the comparsion of the project emissions and those which would took place without the project (baseline), it has to be establish the actions that allows the emissions measurement in both cases, so can be account the amount of mitigation in a certain period of time, which is usually a year. |
| Formulas | Are the mathematic expression of the project reality, which includes the relationship between the factors and parameters and showing the final result in tons of carbon dioxide equivalence (tCO2e). All the equations has to use the nomenclature expressed in the factors and parameters, because with that, the final equation woulb be simplified as a formula. |
In the specific case of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects of the Kyoto Protocol, the methodologies are registered independent from the projects. In many cases, when similar projects are registred already, the common thing to do is to use the same methodology of those projects, because all the methodologies are public and can be consulted in the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) website.
When the project methodology doesn't exist, it must be registered before the UNFCCC aside of the project design document (PDD), which has to make the refference to the methodologies applied in the project activities and development.
Cosmo Consulting develop the mathematic expression of the reality, in the equations that would be used in the methodology, and also helps to the manage the registry in the international organism.
