WBank signs first landfill gas project in China

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) The World Bank has signed its first agreement in China to reduce greenhouse gases from a landfill, it said today.

Methane, carbon dioxide and other gases will be collected from a sanitary landfill in the northern port city of Tianjin that held more than 1.6 million tonnes of household waste at the end of 2006.

The project developer, Tianjin Clean Energy and Environmental Engineering Co Ltd (TCEE), will install systems on site for landfill gas collection, electricity generation and gas-flaring.

Under the agreement, TCEE will sell 635,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emission reductions to the Spanish Carbon Fund, managed by the World Bank.

Greg Browder, the World Bank environmental engineer leading the project, said there are 87 cities in China that, like Tianjin, have a population of 1 million or more.

''The residents of these and other large cities discard significant quantities of waste that will emit methane in a disposal site. The potential for landfill gas projects like Tianjin is enormous,'' he said in a World Bank news release.

Landfill gas is the fourth-largest contributor to non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions.

More information can be found at www.carbonfinance.org.

Reuters AGL DB1854