ICA may become aggregator of carbon credits

International Copper Association (ICA) is looking at becoming an aggregator of certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits on behalf of small and medium copper enterprises to help them benefit from their clean energy projects, ICA President Francis Kane said.

“We are already involved in developing methodology for projects registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and may play the role of an aggregator in the future,” he said.

Kane was speaking on the sidelines of the India Copper Forum 2008. New York-based ICA is the leading organisation for promotion of copper use worldwide and is active in 60 countries. He said copper usage had significant potential to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus play a major role in the fight against climate change.

Programmatic clean development mechanisms that involve emission reduction for mass-based programmes hold great opportunity for small and medium copper companies, he said.

“The programmatic CDM method could be employed better with aggregators from the industry like ICA pooling in carbon credits on behalf of smaller copper units and thus helping them earn higher returns for their energy efficiency methods,” he said. He admitted that it was much more difficult to aggregate small units of carbon credits issued to small and medium enterprises but said the ICA was up for the task.

“Issues like additionality, methodology problems like accurate monitoring of emission reductions do exist, but ICA is working with the UNFCCC on behalf of its members to try and simplify and standardise some of the steps in the lengthy project registration process,” Kane said.