Clean Development Mechansim (CDM)
Outlook in Brazil

By Catherine Lee, Lee International
August 2005

Brazil’s urgent need to manage and recycle its municipal and agricultural waste is setting the stage for many CER-generating projects. Few countries can come close to Brazil’s potential. Only 13% of the country’s municipal solid waste goes into controlled landfills and 10% into sanitary landfills. Municipal waste alone accounts for 240,000 metric tons per day and is rapidly growing. With the total population (now 175 million) expected to increase by 43% in twenty years, even a modest average of 1 kg waste/day per inhabitant will constitute a huge increase in daily waste volume, and a challenge municipal, state and private entities to come up with solutions.

Up to now most of Brazil’s 5,000 municipalities have been unable to address environmental problems. The lack of management policies is one reason. But their biggest problem has been a chronic shortage of funds to acquire new technologies and skilled environmental and sanitation engineers. Their landfills are usually operated by private contractors.

Things are already happening in Brazil’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scene. Brazil can claim the first CDM project approved under Kyoto. The NovaGerar Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project in Rio de Janeiro is expected to process 2.5 million tons of CO2 through 2012. Several other projects are in the works. Recent studies have confirmed the viability and profitability of many landfill projects and the potential for the use of landfill gas (LFG) as a revenue-generating resource for municipalities and states. Interest in CDM projects and how to generate and sell CERs is spreading among municipalities and the private sector, including many of Brazil’s industrial giants.

The outlook may be just as attractive in agriculture, thanks to Brazil having become one of the word’s top exporters of beef, port and frozen chicken. With a bovine and swine population figured at 160 million and 35 million respectively, there is a growing need for modern technology to process and recycle animal waste.

For more information on CDM projects in Brazil, contact Catherine Lee, managing director, Lee International.