UN To Offset Carbon Emissions From Meeting

UN to offset carbon emissions from landmark high-level climate change meeting

The United Nations will substantially offset the carbon emissions - estimated at approximately 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide - resulting from today's high-level climate change meeting, which has brought together heads of State and government as well as other senior officials from over 150 nations.

The emissions primarily stem from the use of energy for the meeting, as well as the travel of UN staff and participants, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

A small-scale hydroelectric project in Intibuca, Honduras, near the city of La Esperanza, will offset carbon emissions from today's meeting. Since 2005, the site has been registered as a clean development mechanism (CDM), a system which allows projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction credits, engage the business world and create low-cost opportunities to cut back emissions.

The Honduras project, which is at the site of an abandoned hydropower plant, offers power stability to the electric grid in the surrounding area, and also provides significant local social and environmental benefits, such as supplying electricity to rural areas, reducing dependency on firewood, increasing local employment and bolstering reforestation.

It also provides such benefits as roads maintenance and repairs as the project obtains economical stability; provision of water for a few households in the immediate vicinity of the project; first aid training; greater engagement of women in work life and community issues and efforts to engage the communities; and the municipality authorities to better manage the environment and the area as a whole, including waste management.

Offsetting carbon emissions from today's gathering of leaders has a price tag of $15,800 being supported by the UN Foundation, which was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner's historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities.

ENDS

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