SIX local firms engaged in projects ranging from sewage treatment to recycling have applied to join a United Nations-run scheme that makes it easier for them to trade in carbon credits.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) said yesterday that if approved, the firms will join environment solutions provider Bee Joo Industries, which last December became the first company here to gain international approval to engage in carbon trading.
The UN regulates carbon trading under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) initiative, which is part of the Kyoto Protocol.
The global treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, to which Singapore is a signatory, stipulates that businesses operating in developing countries can convert emission reductions into carbon credits.
Accreditation allows individual companies to apply to the UN for the credits, known as Certified Emissions Reductions.
Carbon credits create a market for reducing greenhouse gas by giving a monetary value to lowering emission levels.
The overall carbon market was valued at US$126 billion (S$175.6 billion) last year, double its value the previous year.
Bee Joo, a subsidiary of environmental solutions provider Ecowise, operates a plant at Sungei Kadut in Kranji which recovers steam from a boiler that contains biomass such as grain.
This cuts an estimated 15,205 tons of carbon dioxide emitted here annually.
Once fully operational, the six other local projects are expected to cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 600 kilotons.
The NEA is presently hosting a forum for more than 80 national agencies which the UN has given the task of assessing the viability of projects for carbon trading.
At the launch of the three-day forum yesterday, NEA chief executive officer Andrew Tan encouraged more local firms to look to the nascent carbon trading industry, both for their economic viability and the possibility of curbing carbon emissions.
Around the world, there are close to 1,600 projects registered under the CDM initiative, with 1.3 billion carbon credits valid till 2012.
