Business | General
Dubai centre plans to sell carbon credits in market
Move to help emirate transition to a low carbon economy
- By Emmanuelle Landais, Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:00 January 27, 2011
Dubai: The first carbon trading centre in the Middle East based in Dubai plans to offset five million tonnes of carbon annually by selling carbon credits on the international market, said one of its stakeholders.
However, the ‘ambitious' target will not be met immediately, said Ivano Iannelli, managing director of Istidama, a Dubai-based corporate social responsibility and sustainability consultancy firm, working with the newly-established Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence.
Of the targeted five million tonnes of CO2, only 25 per cent will be achieved in the beginning as the centre moves from the theoretical stage to practical stage, said Iannelli. An agreement signed last week between the Supreme Council of Energy and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) formally established the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE) formed by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) and Istidama as a public-private-partnership meant to fast-track project development in the last years of the Kyoto protocol.
DCCE, UNDP and investors from the private sector will establish a formal framework to address carbon emissions in Dubai and the UAE. "We can generate carbon credits on any project, not only industrial projects," said Iannelli.
"This is part of trying to transition Dubai to a low carbon economy," he added. "We will grant access to anyone who wants to learn more or monetise their efficiency," said Iannelli. "Dewa, Dubal and Enoc do not have [emissions reduction] quotas to meet, and as such any carbon credit generated will be sold to the international markets. Although we expect in the future for all GCC countries to comply with a legislative compliance scheme, all current activity is de facto voluntary and as such eligible under carbon schemes," he added.
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