CDM implementation towards reduction of fugitive greenhouse gas emissions

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is the market-based mechanism introduced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) during various activities. Enormous literature has been available on the GHG mitigation activities in energy, transport, agriculture, construction, waste handling activities, afforestation and reforestation sectors using CDM. However, no single study has been carried out for reduction of fugitive emissions or leakages which releases during the industrial activities. Therefore, this paper presents a critical assessment of CDM projects implemented to reduce fugitive emissions during industrial activities. Out of entire 7749 registered CDM projects (in all sectors of CDM), only 154 (1.98%) fugitive emission reduction projects were implemented up to 2016. These 154 projects contribute up to 147,563,247 MTCO2e (8.87%) estimated emission reduction out of total 1,663,533,108 MTCO2e estimated emission reduction in all sectors of CDM (https://cdm.unfccc.int/about/index.html). Out of these 154 registered fugitive projects, 125 projects were assessed for fuel emissions, 19 for halocarbons (HCF) emissions and 10 for sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions. The details of the projects were gathered from Project Design Document (PDDs) of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) project cycle search and further verified by monitoring the reports of each project. These projects were studied to examine estimated emission reductions with special emphasis on the achieved emission reductions in terms of Certified Emissions Reduction (CERs) to calculate financial benefits. Available CDM methodologies to reduce fugitive emissions were also studied. Further, the distribution of these projects across India was mapped using Arc-GIS. Findings show India is second most country after China in registration of CDM projects. Westerns and northern part of India covers maximum CDM activities. Amongst various methodologies, abatement of methane from coalmines (ACM0008), approved methods decomposition of fluoroform (HFC-23) and point of use abatement device to reduce SF6 emissions (AM0078) were used extensively for reduction of fuel, HFC and fluoride gas emissions. 260,064,195 MTCO2e of CERs (14.5%), i.e. emission reduction was achieved from these projects till 2016 (https://cdm.unfccc.int/about/index.html). Therefore, some key challenges or barriers are discussed for development and disclosure of carbon strategies to get transparency in entire CER trading processes.