7 August 2012: The World Bank is supporting the Philippines in the development of an efficient farm waste collection system in the Philippines. The system allows farmers to obtain carbon credits through the installation of anaerobic wastewater treatment systems that save methane emissions.

The “Methane Recovery from Waste Management” project provides incentives to invest in a more efficient waste management system on Marcela Farms in the Philippines. Through directing the farm’s wastewater into an open air lagoon, methane separates naturally from sludge, and may then be converted to electricity and used to power the farm itself.

This project is part of a Programme of Activity (PoA) registered on 26 July 2012, by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for piggeries under the Methane Recovery from Waste Management Project that allows farms across the Philippines to generate carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). When fully implemented, the program is expected to produce over 100,000 carbon credits per year from dozens of pig farms across the Philippines, which will be bought by the Spanish Carbon Fund, administered by the World Bank Carbon Finance unit, providing the piggeries with an additional revenue stream. [World Bank Press Release] [World Bank Feature Story]