BP's voluntary carbon offsetting program, Target Neutral, expanded the portfolio of carbon offsetting for 2017 to include projects in India, Peru, China and Mexico, BP said on Wednesday.
The new projects include activities as diverse as forest conservation, energy efficiency, renewable power and biogas.
"The projects selected are expected to reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by more than 2.5 million tonnes per year and improve the livelihoods of more than 2 million people through better access to energy, health, education, and employment opportunities as well as protecting more than 40,000 hectares of globally significant habitat," BP said.
In India, the project involves installing 18,000 biogas plants and cookstoves, replacing the burning of wood and kerosene in traditional stoves in low-income homes. Over the past six years, similar projects have avoided 137,452 tonnes of carbon emissions.
With the planned project in Peru, households will obtain improved biogas cookstoves that burn more efficiently and discharge smoke from the home through a chimney. Each new stove is estimated to reduce on average 3.3 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
In China, the selected project aims to provide one million low-income households with clean, convenient and free biogas for cooking, heating and lighting. The program has the potential to save up to 20 million carbon emissions within its 28-year lifetime.
The project in Mexico will provide high-efficiency biogas cookstoves to families in rural Mexico, to improve indoor air quality. The project aims to install 35,000 cookstoves per year by 2019.
(Anadolu Agency)
