Gaziantep Landfill Gas

CNaught maintains a very high quality standard for all projects in the portfolios we manage. To ensure that a project meets this standard, we perform due diligence that’s backed up by third-party ratings agencies’ independent due diligence. 

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‍Additionality: This project has high additionality, meaning it is very unlikely that this project activity could have occurred in the absence of carbon funding. Landfill gas capture programs were very rare in Turkey when this project began (only 9 out of 2800 landfills captured methane!1), suggesting that the activity is not common practice. In addition, the project thoroughly demonstrated both regulatory, and most critically, financial additionality through a rigorous investment barrier analysis. Calyx Global has highly rated this project specifically due to its robust investment barrier analysis.‍Over-Crediting: This project has a low risk of over-crediting due to the fact that its emissions reductions are a direct measurement of the methane captured and combusted or used for energy. However, Calyx Global did cite that the project used a default value of 10% natural oxidation in their baseline calculation, which could result in slightly increased emissions reductions calculations. Natural oxidation is the process in which methane can sometimes permeate the cover sealing the landfill and migrate upwards, where it is oxidized and converted into CO2. If projects use an oxidation factor that is too low, they risk over-calculating the amount of methane they capture. During our due diligence process, we reviewed the Gaziantep landfill’s geology, location, and size and found that it is unlikely to have a <20% oxidation rate, so the use of this default value could lead to slight over-crediting. However, the project uses a very conservative estimate of the global warming potential of methane, which leads to under-crediting that would more than counteract any issues that their oxidation rate presents.‍Durability: This project activity is highly durable as its emissions reductions are considered permanent, since its methane reductions cannot be reversed. There is also no risk that the project activity would lead to the creation of new landfills and thus additional methane emissions.‍Double-Counting:The project credits have a very low risk of being double counted. There are no regulatory obligations being met by the project activity and the project’s registry, Gold Standard, has mechanisms in place to ensure that the project is not registered in any other programs.