THE 19TH WORLD PETROLEUM CONGRESS WILL NEUTRALISE ITS GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

March 26th 2008

The Spanish Organizing Committee has reached an agreement with AENOR & Garrigues to implement this initiative, pioneer in the history of the Congress.
The carbon offset mechanism will be used

The Organising Committee of the 19th World Petroleum Congress has voluntarily decided, and for the first time in the history of the Congress, to neutralise the greenhouse gas emissions that will derive from this event taking place. Thus, it has reached an agreement with AENOR, an organisation dedicated to the development of standardisation and certification (S+C) in all industrial and service sectors, and Garrigues Medio Ambiente (Garrigues Environment), a consultancy firm focussed on environmental issues. Both of these organisations will work very closely with the Committee in order to carry out this initiative.

The greenhouse emissions will be produced as a consequence of the transport used to displace assistants and all necessary materials to the event, as well as the energy consumption used at the venue during the event.

With the aim of neutralising the above mentioned emissions, the so called carbon offset mechanism will be used, whereby emission reductions will be purchased from developing countries and removed from the market, thus achieving an effective reduction.

To this end, in the 19th edition of the Congress the following actions will be carried out in collaboration with AENOR and Garrigues:

Inventory of Emissions: This will be developed by Garrigues Medio Ambiente (Garrigues Environment), a company with a wide range of experience in climate change services and trade in emission rights.

Emission Verification: AENOR, an ENAC certified verifier for the checking of greenhouse gas emissions, will be responsible for this project and will award the AENOR “Offset Emission” certificate to the 19th Congress.

Emission Offsetting: The emission reductions will be obtained via the intermediation of a CO2 broker.

Carbon Offset Mechanism

The carbon offset mechanism is currently being used by multiple organisations, public and private, national and international, that take advantage of this tool for the effective reduction of emissions and the transfer of funds to developing countries.

Thus, entities such as the Inter-American Bank of Development or the United Nations Foundation offset the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their activities via similar actions, assuming therefore, as the World Petroleum Congress is, their responsibility of the fight against climate change.