§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the (a) current total annual carbon emissions and(b) expected total annual emissions from installed capacity for all projects in the power sector fuelled by coal, oil or gas that have received assistance from the ECGD are since 1997. [65193]
§ Ms HewittSince ECGD does not have readily available information on the completion dates and operating schedules of all the power projects that the Department has supported, it is not possible easily to calculate actual total carbon emissions since 1997.
However, for power projects for which a guarantee has been issued since 1997 it is estimated that upon completion of these projects total annual carbon emissions will be of the order of 13.3 million tonnes. This is based on the following assumptions:
Fuel Type ECGD Estimated capacity (MW) CO2(tonnes per year)million Carbon (tonnes per year)million Coal 11,260 40.6 11.1 Oil 492 1.1 0.3 Gas 4,367 7.1 1.9 Total 16,139 48.8 13.3 It has been assumed the plants operate for 60 per cent. of the time (5,256 hours per year). CO2, emissions are calculated using the following conversion factors—Coal: 0.687 tonnes of CO2, per MW per hour, Oil 0.417, Gas: 0.309. These are taken from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol website, www.ghgprotocol.org, and are the 1999 average values for power plants in "Economies In Transition". These are the markets where ECGD most commonly provide guarantees.
278WCarbon emissions are calculated by assuming that carbon makes up 27.3 per cent. of the atomic mass of CO2.
It should be noted that for most large power projects ECGD is only one of several finance providers. Scaling the carbon emissions by the proportion of finance guaranteed by ECGD would give a figure of less than 6 million tonnes per year of carbon, or less than 21 tonnes per year of CO2, that is directly attributable to ECGD's participation.