Danish embassy starts carbon project

THE Danish Embassy has signed a five-year agreement with the Uganda Carbon Bureau (UCB) to purchase carbon credits from various projects in Uganda.
Danish ambassador Nathalia Feinberg said the initiative was intended to offset carbon emissions from energy sources used by the embassy.
“This demonstrates our commitment to promote a clean environment,” she said at a signing ceremony held in Kampala on Thursday.

A carbon credit is a value assigned to each tonne of carbon emitted by an institution to offset its greenhouse gas emissions.
The embassy, which is the first to implement the measure, will review its carbon emissions resulting from vehicles, flights and light energy sources used by the staff.

Under the arrangement, farmers plant trees which capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. Institutions then pay tree growers an equivalent of the total amount of carbon that they emit annually to offset their emissions.

The beneficiaries include the Plan Vivi Project in Bushenyi district, Global Woods’ forestry plantation in Kikonda Central Forest Reserve in Hoima and Abalindwa Ebihangwa Tree Conservation Project in western Uganda.

According to UCB, induced climate change may increase temperatures by 1.5 degrees in the next 20 years and up to 4.3 degrees by 2080.