The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has procured carbon credits worth € 85,400 to offset CO2 emissions due to the meetings set to take place from 13-14 May in Dakar, Senegal.
“With great pleasure I would like to inform you that our Annual meetings for this year are officially carbon neutral,” Vice President Zeinab El-Bakri announced in Tunis last week.
She noted that this year’s Annual meeting has been certified carbon neutral and designated “AfDB Climate Friendly Conference” by Atmosfair, a leading NGO that has been pioneering the process of carbon offsets.
The theme of this year’s Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund is "
Africa and the Financial Crisis: An Agenda for Action".
Atmosfair allows air travellers to calculate the quantity of greenhouse gases caused by their flights and how much it costs to save these emissions elsewhere by investing in climate protection projects.
Among the climate protection projects that have received 100% Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Gold Standard rating include, solar energy substitutes diesel fuel, based in India; cleaning sewage water protects climate, in Thailand; small hydro power supplying a remote region in Honduras with electricity, based in Honduras; and electricity from crop residues, supplying a biomass plant with crop residues from mustard cultivation, based in India.
The CO2 emissions are related to flights, local transport, paper and energy consumption both at the meeting venue and hotels, among others, which cannot be avoided but must be offset.
Mrs. El-Bakri said , “having purchased these carbon credits, we have been issued the attached official certificate. With that, we can now claim that our meeting is carbon neutral and hence, a climate friendly event”.
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