Clean Development Mechanism

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project is one of our main priorities today. By facilitating the construction of 5000 biogas digesters in small households, the project leverages one of the carbon reduction provisions of the Kyoto Protocol treaty to realize two major benefits for more than 300 villages in the district. Replacing firewood which is a polluting and hazardous cooking fuel with non-polluting and sustainable biogas, and providing an opportunity for small households to participate in the global carbon trade economy.

SEDS links village households with international forwarding funding for CDM. With a meticulous project design approved by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), SEDS provides the expertise to construct the igloo-shaped biogas digesters and champions their use.

Traditionally, women in rural households use firewood to cook. The smoke from such fires represents a health hazard to the women who remain bent over these fires for hours a day. When cooking with biogas, not only are the women spared the smoke, they also do not need to spend time collecting firewood, and in the words of one user “we no longer need to scrub sooty cooking pots anymore.” Since the biogas digesters run on cow manure, which is easily available in villages, it means that many tree branches saved as well.

SEDS also facilitates the rigorous validation procedures that CDM initiatives require in order to qualify to sell carbon credits. We are a bridge between global auditing firms and local stakeholders, ensuring that nothing gets lost in translation during this crucial stage. Once the CDM programme matures, SEDS will ensure that the monetary benefits from carbon credit sales to corporations that need them to offset their carbon footprint, reach the households that generated those credits.

SEDS is a member of the Fair Climate Network, an association of grassroots NGOs who utilize carbon resources for the sustainable development of the poor.