Demo-cities of China IWM NAMA are on the right track to cut GHG emissions

The monitoring team of China IWM NAMA has published results of its first semi-annual monitoring of GHG emissions in the project demo-cities. The examination took place in May-June 2019 to assess cities’ progress in implementing climate change mitigation measures in the waste sector in the period from January to April 2019. As results have shown, almost all cities have succeeded in their activities, cumulatively reducing emissions from the waste management operations by 203,313t CO₂e in comparison to the baseline.

The achievement is attributed to a number of changes such as establishment of new decentralized small-scale waste treatment facilities for agricultural market waste in Suzhou, start of the operation of a new kitchen/restaurant waste treatment facility in Xi’an, launch of MSW incineration in Bengbu and technical upgrades on the MSW incineration plant in Taian.

The most impactful change resulted from the new WtE (waste-to-energy) facility in Bengbu, cutting city’s emissions by more than 166,600 t CO₂e.

The monitoring has also provided important insights with regard to the waste composition in the demo-cities, its changes over time and impacts on the environmental performance of waste management systems. Thus, the city of Suzhou has experienced surge in plastic waste generation, as indicated by the waste composition analysis. The monitoring team also identified a slight increase of GHG emissions intensity of the waste incineration process. The city of Lanzhou, in its turn, has achieved higher electricity generation and energy efficiency at its WtE facility due to presumably higher calorific value of waste during the last monitoring period. Therefore, a correspondingly lower emission intensity of the incineration process has been recorded for the city.

Overall, the municipalities seem to be on the right track to achieve the foreseen emission reductions and comply with the strict monitoring requirements of China IWM NAMA and its experts – albeit there is a long road ahead, and some of the demo-cities have to put more effort to catch up with the front-runners.