Low carbon innovation projects

In the absence of subsidies for low carbon innovation, these projects need financial support, for a limited period of time, to become established and compete with existing polluting forms of manufacture.

There are many new emerging technologies that will provide the energy and goods that we use today but will cause significantly less environmental damage. These technologies save GHG emissions by recycling waste and by-products and using sustainable forms of energy. Examples include:

• Green cements manufactured from the by-products of steel production and power generation
• Cars and small power generators are powered from waste cooking and other fats
• Power generators using a variety of sustainable and low carbon energy sources including water, sunlight, plants and waste heat and gases

As new entrant technologies, their costs are generally higher than those of established polluting forms of manufacture and energy generation. This makes it impossible for them to enter the market and compete with established technologies.

These low carbon innovation projects therefore look to sell their emission savings for a limited period of time to derive a form of subsidy to help them to enter and become established in the market. The independent verification process used on our offset projects ensures that these projects are unable to sell their emission savings if they no longer genuinely need this financial support.

Current projects

Case study 1:
Green Cement in Ireland and the Netherlands