11.12.2015 | News
NEFCO’s Board of Directors has decided to compensate for all emissions created by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation’s business travel and energy consumption. According to calculations made by the corporation’s Environmental Department, NEFCO emits an average of some 195 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually from business travel and energy consumption at its offices.
NEFCO has emitted some 4,875 tonnes of CO2 since it was established 25 years ago. Through its carbon fund activities – the Testing Ground Facility (TGF) and the NEFCO Carbon Fund (NeCF) – NEFCO has acquired 84,443 carbon credits however. Of these carbon credits, 9,800 will now be used to compensate for NEFCO’s emissions over 50 years, i.e. from when it was established in 1990 until 2040.
The remainder of these carbon credits were cancelled voluntarily on behalf of NEFCO’s owners, namely the Nordic governments, in line with each country’s financial contribution to NEFCO’s paid-in capital. The cancellation of these credits took place at the beginning of November.
“By doing this, we want to make good use of the credits we have acquired through our carbon fund activities and show that we practise what we preach,” says Vice President Helle Lindegaard who heads the Carbon Finance and Funds Unit at NEFCO.
NEFCO and its owners have supported the Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) since the very start as a supplement to direct investments in climate-friendly technologies and renewable energy in the Nordic countries. In an effort to keep the ailing carbon market alive in parallel with the international climate negotiations, during 2014 NEFCO acquired over 19 million tonnes of carbon credits from vulnerable CDM projects on behalf of Norway. Moreover, NEFCO succeeded in reducing CO2 emissions by 5.2 million tonnes through its investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, mainly in Eastern Europe.