Biogas has made history by materialising carbon revenue for Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s biogas programme has made history by materialising carbon revenue for the country and receiving its first UN certified emissions reduction payment.

This is the first-ever payment for emissions reduction made by bio-digesters installed under the National Biogas Programme of Ethiopia (NBPE). A UN body, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) issued the Certificate for the Emission Reductions (CERs) based on monitoring, reporting and verification of the first two credit years (April 2016 to April 2018) for 4,112 digesters installed during 2015 to 2017. A total of 34,480 tons of CO2 equivalent has been saved which results in a CER payment of US$ 390,000 under the programme’s Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement.

This certification also confirms that the emission reduction in Ethiopia per bio-digester per year is about 4.25 tons of CO2 equivalent of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). “We expect that this figure will increase once the biogas injera stove (mitad) use becomes more prevalent,” said Saroj Rai, NBPE+ Team Leader, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation.

The Manager of NBPE at the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE), Temesgen Tefera said “the fund will be used for two main purposes. Firstly, it will be used is as a contribution to the investment cost borne by households when purchasing a bio-digester and for the maintenance of the digester”.

Saroj Rai, NBPE+ Team Leader, SNV, said, “If more bio-digesters are installed and the functionality is improved, this will lead to more emissions reduction and carbon revenue!  Our objective for NBPE is clear - to do more and better, to benefit communities and reduce environmental impacts.”

In Ethiopia, more than 26,820 domestic bio-digesters have been constructed under this biogas programme. NBPE started implementation in 2009 and phases I and II were funded by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS). For these phases, SNV has provided technical assistance for the programme implemented in Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray regional states. The scale-up phase of the programme (NBPE+) which commenced in April 2017, is funded by GoE and The European Union. NBPE+ is currently implemented in 8 regions with the addition of 4 new programme regions (Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Somali) and SNV is responsible for the overall programme management as well as technical assistance.