United Nations Foundation chooses Tricorona for Gold Standard CDM carbon offsetting

The United Nations Foundation, a public charity committed to helping the United Nations solve the world’s toughest challenges, is purchasing carbon credits from Tricorona to offset the climate impact of the UN Summit on Climate Change, held at UN Headquarters in New York on September 22, 2009. The offsetting will be provided by Tricorona’s Gold Standard CDM biomass project Sri Balaji, in Andhra Pradesh, India.

“The United Nations is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of its work”, says United Nations Foundation Vice President for Energy and Climate, Reid Detchon. “That’s why we wanted to offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with the UN Climate Change Summit with the highest quality credits available.”

Sri Balaji uses agricultural waste, such as rice and cotton husks, to generate electricity in a modern biomass power station. By replacing coal-fired electricity, the project saves roughly 30 000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, along with hundreds of tons of other pollutants. The project also generates local employment opportunities and has contributed to local health and education initiatives.

“Tricoronas focus is developing premium quality CDM and Gold Standard carbon offset projects”, says Per Egstam, head of voluntary offsetting at Tricorona, “and we are pleased to be able to assist the United Nations Foundation in this offsetting initiative.”

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a part of the Kyoto Protocol, regulates carbon offset projects to ensure that they are additional, quantifiable, third-party verified, monitored and registered.

Gold Standard (www.cdmgoldstandard.org ) is a certification program for carbon offset projects backed by environmental organizations, including WWF International. It aims to identify the projects with the highest contribution to sustainable development, with a specific focus on social sustainability.

About the UN Foundation
The UN Foundation, a public charity, was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation is an advocate for the UN and a platform for connecting people, ideas, and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems.  We build partnerships, grow constituencies, mobilize resources and advocate policy changes to support the UN’s work for individual and global progress.  The UN Foundation’s work - focused on select global problems - is decreasing child mortality, improving disaster relief, protecting diverse cultures and environments, creating a clean energy future, empowering women and girls, and improving U.S.-UN relations.  For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

About Tricorona
Tricorona is a major international investor in and developer of emissions reductions projects within the CDM framework of the Kyoto Protocol, with a focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and Gold Standard projects.

For more information contact:
Per Egstam, President, Tricorona Climate Partner, telephone +46 8 506 88 559
Elin Bergman, Marketing Manager, Tricorona Climate Partner, telephone +46 8 506 88 590