Preliminary Guidance for Avoided Emissions in Waste Management and Recycling
In March 2019, the European Commission published a comprehensive report on the implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan. On climate issues, the report sketches out decarbonisation strategies and future challenges on the way towards a climate-neutral economy. It also defines the waste management and recycling sector as one of the key actors and enablers in the circular economy.
Innovative solutions in this sector allow greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction through mitigation (e.g. biogas capture and flaring from landfills), and avoided emissions through the implementation of optimal solutions (e.g. material recycling, waste-to-energy recovery, organic matter recovery, etc.).
However, accounting for these avoided emissions is complex as there is no robust and common approach on how to do it: the existing protocols for calculating avoided emissions do not sufficiently focus on waste management and recycling to make them operational for the sector.
A first step towards the construction of a future methodological framework
Developed by a consortium of French recycling and waste management companies, international consultancies and NGOs (Veolia, Suez, Paprec, Séché, Quantis, WBCSD, and Gold Standard) with support from Climate KIC, this preliminary guidance document defines the methodological steps needed to evaluate the contribution of waste management and recycling activities in decarbonisation strategies, in a reliable and consistent way, and aims to be the first step towards the construction of a future methodological framework to account for avoided emissions in this sector.
The report is designed for:
- Experts from the waste management and recycling sector, academia and organisations that want to contribute to the drafting of the forthcoming methodological framework.
- Voluntary users interested in accounting for avoided emissions in this sector.
- Companies from the waste management and recycling sector, and all related parties of the value chain.
- Extended application by sectoral associations or institutions to report on the benefits associated with sector-wide decisions.
Download the full preliminary guidance document here:
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