Preserving Environmental Integrity in standardised baselines: The role of additionality and uncertainty

The European Union EU project PROBASE hasexplored a range of possible multi projectstandardised benchmarks as a way ofencouraging projects under Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)by minimising transaction costs. The aim ofthis paper is to examine the environmentalintegrity of the use of standardisedbaselines and to explore the role ofadditionality. The environmental integritydepends on the uncertainty in emissionreductions, which was estimated bygenerating scenario baselines and comparingthese with the standardised baselines. Thishas allowed a comparison of selected multiproject baselines with the envelope ofuncertainty on the reductions. The projectsincluded a range of electricity supply,heat sector, cogeneration and methane(CH$_{4}$) projects in different countries. Theanalysis showed that the key uncertaintieswere in the technology fuel selection inthe baseline, the continued additionalityof the project emission reductions,uncertainties in some project emissions(e.g. spinning reserve emissions for wind)and data uncertainties. The effect on theestimation of reductions was in the range±12% to ±46% for the electricityprojects and from ±19% to ±57%for the heat and Combined Heat and Power CHP sector projects.Comparison with the envelope of uncertaintyfor the range of projects showed that multiproject electricity sector baselines whichhave been weighted or use high technologyperformance benchmarks (e.g. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD)can provide conservative estimates buttheir general nature can lead to variationsbetween countries. We would recommend thatthe country-specific context must be takeninto account so that standardised baselinesfor the electricity sector are generated onthe basis of country specificcharacteristics, the project type, andwhether it provides new or existing demand.The conservative scenario produced shouldthen be weighted. Whereas weightings havebeen applied to account for uncertaintiesor to bias towards renewables, we havesuggested a weighting factor of 25% on theelectricity baseline for large projectsbased on an analysis of the effect ofnon-additionality on emission reductionuncertainty. For heat projects, theappropriate benchmark is a technology/fuelbenchmark which is deemed relevant for theheat sector in that (part of the) country.Again we suggest that a weighted sectorbaseline is required to take account of theuncertainties. These recommendations applyto large projects only for a 10-yearcrediting lifetime.     

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in influents,suspended particulate matter,sediments, sewage treatment plant and effluents and biota from the Netherlands

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been determined in 133 samples of suspended particulate matter (SPM), sediments, sewage treatment plant (STP) influents and effluents, fish and mussels from various locations in The Netherlands, as a part of a large Dutch national study on estrogenic contaminants in the aquatic environment (LOES project). Some PBBs were also analysed but not found in any of the samples at detectable levels. PBDEs and PBBs were included in this study because indications of long term effects on the balance of endocrine systems were found in the literature. High concentrations of decaBDE (up to 4600 g/kg dry weight) were found in SPM from the Western Scheldt. These levels are possibly related to spillage during use of PBDEs in industries upstream the river Scheldt in Belgium. SPM was identified as an important carrier for higher brominated diphenyl ethers in the aquatic environment. DecaBDE was not found at detectable levels in flounder, bream and mussels. The bioaccumulation of decaBDE in these fish and shellfish samples is apparently limited. Lower brominated PBDE congeners (tetra/penta) were also found in the Western Scheldt as well as in the Rhine delta and the river Meuse, but in much lower concentrations than the decaBDE. In contrast with decaBDE, the tetra and pentaBDEs were found in biota. It was concluded that at least a small part of the PBDE can pass STPs.