MDG Carbon Facility announces
Rwandan clean water project
SCHOOL CHILDREN AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO BENEFIT
New York, 8 December 2009 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently announced two new MDG Carbon Facility projects where carbon finance will fund the delivery of a basic social service, clean drinking water, to people in Rwanda. The projects are expected to be a first in Rwanda, where to date no Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project is registered.
Manna’s prototype water treatment system in Kigali, Rwanda. This system allows Manna to tailor water treatment systems for communities across Rwanda. UNDP has been providing technical assistance to the project’s developer, Manna Energy Ltd (Manna), since early in the project’s inception. In October 2009, Manna entered into a service agreement with UNDP, cementing this relationship. Manna also recently signed contracts to sell the projects’ carbon credits, including post 2012 carbon credits, with the Swedish Energy Agency.
The projects will involve installing solar-powered water treatment systems near secondary schools. These systems will offer free-of-charge, clean water to children and the local communities. As the solar systems will avoid the burning of non-renewable firewood the projects can qualify to issue carbon credits. Manna will then utilize the carbon credits to finance the cost of installation and maintenance of the treatment plants.
The projects are remarkable for their contribution to sustainable development, positively impacting nearly all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and in particular education, health, environmental conservation and poverty reduction.
“The Manna projects in Rwanda demonstrate that carbon finance has the potential to achieve a double dividend. It can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deliver basic social services like clean water to the developing communities most in need. That underlines the win-win connections between tackling climate change and reaching the Millennium Development Goals,” said Olav Kjorven, the Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy.
Manna was founded as a social enterprise aimed at generating profits through carbon credits to fuel social improvements in the health and environment sectors. Manna will implement the project in partnership with the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) and Rwanda Ministry of Education (MINEDUC). The projects have attracted letters of intent for financing from several well-known US-based social investment funds, and a commitment from the Swedish Energy Agency to purchase the generated carbon credits.
The Swedish Energy Agency is responsible for the governmental CDM programme in Sweden. The programme is focused on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and aims at a broad geographical distribution of CDM projects, including in least developed countries.
Manna’s first operational water treatment system, being installed at Fawe School in Kigali, Rwanda. This system will treat water for 700 boarding school students. "Using solar power to replace unsustainable use of biomass or fossil fuels is beneficial for the climate and contributes to sustainable development. I strongly support these types of projects within the CDM, as well as its contribution to a broader geographical distribution of CDM projects" commented Andreas Carlgren, Swedish Minister for the Environment.
It is hoped that this project model and methodology can eventually be replicated in other developing countries. These project activities constitute the first part of a broader program by Manna that is expected to have an energy component involving the installation of biogas digesters to provide methane for high efficiency cook stoves.
The MDG Carbon Facility
The MDG Carbon Facility operates within the framework of the Clean Development Mechanism, the market-based mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol that allows developed countries to meet their emission caps by purchasing carbon credits from developing country projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Although these mechanisms have rapidly grown into a billion-dollar, international market for carbon credits, carbon projects have so far been limited in geographic reach, restricted mainly to the largest developing countries.
UNDP helps developing countries conceive projects intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and assist these projects meet the Kyoto Protocol’s agreed standards and deliver real, sustainable benefits to the environment and broader human development. UNDP then assists to identify buyers to purchase the carbon credits generated by these projects. The proceeds from the sale of the credits provide developing countries and communities with a new flow of resources to finance much needed investment and to promote development.
UNDP invites prospective emission reduction projects to participate in the Facility. For more information, visit www.mdgcarbonfacility.org.
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The brochure outlines the Facility’s mission, the roles of UNDP and Fortis Bank, and the project types assisted by the Facility. It is available in multiple languages in