HC Deb 06 February 2002 vol 379 cc958-9W
Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total carbon emissions are that have been omitted from all Export Credits Guarantee Department supported fossil fuel power generation projects since 1997. [31837]

Ms Hewitt

Since 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 to easily calculate actual total carbon emissions since 1997.

However, for the power projects for which a guarantee has been issued since 1997 it is estimated that upon completion of these projects total annual carbon emission will be of the order of 13.3 million tonnes. This is based on the following assumptions.

Fuel type ECGD1 CO22 Carbon2
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
1Estimated capacity (MW)
2Tonnes per year (million)

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: 0687 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.Carbon 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 six million tonnes per year of carbon that is directly attributable to ECGDs participation.

Tom Brake

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much finance has been made available by the ECGD to support UK businesses involved in fossil fuel power projects since 1997. [31836]

Ms Hewitt

The total value of guarantees and insurance provided by ECGD in respect of fossil fuel power projects since 1997 is £1.754 million.