Through its Carbon Finance Support Facility, Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) provides funding
and technical assistance for installing methane recovery systems in sanitary landfills. Local government
units (LGUs) and operators of sanitary landfills availing of this program can earn “carbon credits” or
certificate of emission reductions (CER) which can sell for extra income.
In an agreement signed with LANDBANK, the World Bank commits to buy these carbon credits,
providing LGUs and landfill operators more financial incentives to upgrade their facilities. Working with
LGUs and landfill operators, LANDBANK commits to deliver 1,736,528 carbon credits until 2020.
According to Gilda E. Pico, President and Chief Executive Officer of LANDBANK, the new agreement can
help LGUs comply with the ecological solid waste management law while improving the finances of their
waste management operations.
The new agreement, technically called emission reduction purchase agreement or ERPA, utilizes the
Clean Development Mechanism or CDM set by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. (The Kyoto Protocol is an
international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
that commits countries or parties to reduce greenhouse gases emissions.)
CDM allows industrialized countries and companies to fulfill part of their greenhouse gas reduction
commitments through the purchase of carbon credits in clean-and-green projects in developing countries, like the Philippines.
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