South Pole develops comprehensive strategies that turn climate action into long-term business opportunities for companies, governments and organizations around the world, and has been at the forefront of decarbonization since 2006. South Pole is also a leading project developer, and has provided nearly 1,000 projects in renewables, forestry, agriculture, industry, households and public institutions in over 50 countries. Through climate finance South Pole has saved over a gigaton of CO2 emissions, provided social benefits to less privileged communities who are particularly vulnerable to climate change and helped create nearly 100,000 jobs in developing countries.
Our greenhouse gas reduction strategy
Title:To date, and from the 2019 baseline, we have already reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 12% and Scope 3 emissions by 26%. We continue to invest substantially in our manufacturing, distribution, processes and policies to accelerate our greenhouse reductions and operate in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
A complete climate strategy presents all methodologies, including reduction, removal and offsetting.
In fact, in addition to our ambitious reduction plans and the climate projects with South Pole, we also recently signed a 5-year agreement with Climeworks, to actively remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere.
The truth is that every climate solution out there (when certified and additional) is valid. It is important to take all the measures and solutions available, and not just one. This is why, with South Pole, we chose 3 key projects to diversify our impacts into the areas of biodiversity protection, biogas capture and hydropower.
Huóshuĭ Small Hydropower
Title:Clean energy for China’s remote mountain communities
Subtitle:Similarly, the powerful rivers of China's mountainous areas can be harnessed to generate electricity for its remote communities and the wider region, but hydroelectric power plants require substantial investment to set up. Prior to the project, local communities experienced poor living conditions. At a time when 80 percent of Chinas energy demands were met by coal-fired power stations, these communities had unreliable access to electricity and there was little regional investment.
Huóshuĭ Small Hydropower consists of 95 small hydropower plants. The small-scale plants range in capacity from 0.1 to 14 MW, and together supply enough renewable energy to power over half a million average Chinese homes each year. Their run-of-river design allows them to do so with minimal environmental impact.
- Project standards: SocialCarbon, VCS Verified Carbon Standard
Impacts:
- 369,000 tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) mitigated each year (SDG13)
- 740,000MWh of renewable energy generated annually (SDG7)
- Contributions to United Nations SDGs 4, 8 and 5.
Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve
Title:Preserving Borneo's tropical peat swamp forests and improving local lives
Subtitle:Der Rimba Raya Torfsumpfwald befindet sich auf der Insel Borneo in der indonesischen Provinz Central Kalimantan. Bevor das Projekt ins Leben gerufen wurde, hätten diese äußerst artenreichen tropischen Moorgebiete von der Provinzialregierung in vier Palmölplantagen umgebaut werden sollen.
Das Rimba Raya Biodiversitätsreservat schützt 91.215 Hektar an üppigen, tropischen Torfsumpfwäldern, die von Rangern vor Ort sowie mithilfe von Satelliten- und Luftbildern überwacht werden. Im Rahmen des Projekts wird die Vielfalt der Ökosysteme und der Lebensraum gefährdeter Arten wie des Orang-Utans auf Borneo geschützt. Darüber hinaus werden Emissionen vermieden, weil die geplante Abholzung von über 47.000 Hektar Wald für die Palmölproduktion verhindert wurde.
Das Projekt Rimba Raya bindet nicht nur den Kohlenstoff und schützt den Lebensraum für die einheimische Tierwelt, sondern es fördert zudem die nachhaltige Entwicklung vor Ort. Das gilt vor allem für die Vermittlung von Umweltwissen und den Ausbau der wirtschaftlichen Kapazitäten.
Projektstandards:
- Standards (Verra) für Klima, Gemeinschaft und biologische Vielfalt (CCB)
- VCS Verifizierter Kohlenstoffstandard (Verra)
Auswirkungen:
- 2.162 Wasserfilter verteilt
- 47,237 Hektar geschützt
- 3.500.000 Tonnen CO2 vermieden
Lan Dokmai Waste-to-energy
Title:Reducing climate impacts and helping with sustainable biogas
Subtitle:Thailand is one of the largest producers of Tapioca starch, which forms an important part of the economy. Unfortunately, starch production is a carbon-intensive process that not only damages the environment but also produces strong-smelling methane emissions from the wastewater that affect the quality of life in surrounding areas.
Rather than allowing the methane to escape freely into the atmosphere, the project captures the gas in order to produce clean electricity. This electricity powers production at the local starch factory; as a result, the air is cleaner and less fossil fuel needs to be purchased. This means that revenue can be generated to support social and educational activities in the community.
With less methane emissions, the quality of the air surrounding the plant has improved dramatically. In addition to this, new jobs and training opportunities for modern technologies are provided by the project. The treated wastewater is much cleaner and can be used for fish farming and irrigation of nearby fields, even the wastewater sludge is given to farmers and recycled for fertilizer.
Just like the renowned Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) is also a greenhouse gas (GHG), so its presence in the atmosphere affects the earth’s temperature and climate system. Methane is emitted from a variety of anthropogenic (human-influenced) and natural sources. Methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic GHG after carbon dioxide, accounting for about 20% of global emissions, and is also more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Therefore, reducing methane emissions has a significant effect on limiting global warming.
Project standards:
• Gold Standard (WWF)
• CDM Clean Development Mechanism (UN FCCC)
Impacts:
- 20,000 tonnes of CO2e
- 2,100 m2 of cleaned wastewater
- 2,200 litres of fossil fuels saved
Preguntas frecuentes
¿Qué son los créditos de carbono y cómo funcionan?
Los proyectos deben cumplir un riguroso conjunto de criterios para superar la verificación de agencias de terceros y la revisión de un panel de expertos de una norma en compensación de carbono como Verra o Gold Standard. Después de que una organización o una persona compre un crédito de carbono, el crédito se retira de forma permanente, por lo que no puede volver a utilizarse.
¿Qué hace que un proyecto de acción climática sea bueno?
¿Cómo puedo saber que la reducción de emisiones ocurre de verdad? ¿Qué significa la adicionalidad?
En aras de la transparencia, a los créditos de carbono se les asignan números de serie y se emiten, transfieren y retiran permanentemente en registros de emisiones accesibles al público.
La adicionalidad significa que las reducciones de emisiones que logra el proyecto deben estar "sin cambios". Eso significa que no se habrían producido si no se hubiera ejecutado el proyecto. Al comprar créditos de carbono de alta calidad y verificados, estás financiando directamente la acción climática y el desarrollo sostenible.
¿Cuáles son los diferentes tipos de proyectos de acción climática?
- La primera evita las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, por ejemplo al reemplazar la energía derivada de los combustibles fósiles por la procedente de fuentes renovables.
- La segunda elimina las emisiones de la atmósfera, por ejemplo, plantando más árboles, que retienen (o recogen) el carbono de la atmósfera y lo almacenan en forma líquida o sólida.
- La tercera capta y destruye las emisiones (por ejemplo, capturando el metano, un GEI mucho más potente que el dióxido de carbono) de las aguas residuales.
Nuestro socio global South Pole tiene cientos de proyectos de acción climática diferentes que cubren los siguientes ámbitos:
- Soluciones basadas en la naturaleza (reforestación, renaturalización de la tierra, protección de los bosques, gestión sostenible de la tierra y agricultura)
- Energías renovables (proyectos hidroeléctricos, eólicos, solares y geotérmicos)
- Proyectos comunitarios (tecnología culinaria mejorada, acceso al agua potable)
- Conversión de residuos en energía (biogás procedente de vertederos o de la industria, y biomasa).
