A United Nations panel issued nearly 2 million carbon offsets to a hydrofluorocarbon-23 destruction project in China on Wednesday, it said on its website.
The Zhejiang Juhua Co. in China was awarded 1,997,903 U.N.-backed offsets called certified emissions reductions (CERs).
Under the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), rich countries buy CERs, which are each equivalent to 1 tonne of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The panel this summer halted issuing CERs to HFC-23 projects while it investigated allegations that some developers were manipulating the CDM.
At the panel’s last meeting of the year in November, it gave clearance to issuing the credits, despite a U.N. investigation which found flaws in the methodology the projects use.
The European Commission has proposed to restrict the use of CERs from such projects in its emissions trading scheme from January 1, 2013, which some countries and companies oppose.
