Are waste incineration and gasification (Municipal Solid Waste incineration) activities eligible for certification?

Are waste incineration and gasification (Municipal Solid Waste incineration) activities eligible for certification?

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) incineration activities must meet standard eligibility requirements in addition to the following:

  1. Stakeholder consultation – The Project Developer shall ensure meaningful, effective and informed participation from stakeholder groups such as local communities who are living in the nearby area and may be impacted adversely or positively from the project. The Project Developer shall carryout the stakeholder consultation(s) following the Stakeholder Consultation and Engagement Requirements.
  2. Efficient energy generation – The project shall involve energy generation (electricity and/or heat) from MSW incineration. The MSW incineration shall be considered as recovery operations concerning the waste hierarchy as long as the project activity recovers energy from municipal waste incineration in an efficient way.
Project activities planning to make use of waste materials that are already in use in the pre-project situation shall NOT be eligible unless convincing evidence is provided to show that the current users agree with the shift of use resulting from the project. In the absence of such an agreement, the Project Developers shall demonstrate that the project activity makes use of surplus waste materials and shall include this analysis in the Monitoring Plan. They must be done as follows for projects with installed energy generation capacities of:
      Less than or equal to 15 MW or 45 MWth – once, ex ante, in time for validation
      Greater than 15 MW or 45 MWth – once, ex ante in time for validation and each verification
  1.  Awareness programme – The project shall develop and implement a waste management awareness programme to encourage stakeholders to adopt best practices for waste reduction, reuse and recycling and avoid any negative impact on prevailing waste management practices in the project boundary. Such a programme may include a variety of activities, such as community outreach and education campaigns, educational campaigns via local schools and other institutes, educational displays, television/radio campaigns, etc.
  2. Performance evaluation – The programme performance shall be evaluated frequently, at minimum biennially following the date of design certification, to assess its effectiveness and it shall be amended when required.
  3. Emissions and operational requirements – To avoid any potential negative impact, the project seeking certification under Gold Standard for the Global Goals shall meet the most stringent regulatory requirements available for emissions and operation of MSW incineration plant. In this regard, the Project Developer shall compare the host country regulatory requirements with the most recent version of European Union Regulations for Waste Incineration Plants & Waste Coincineration Plants and shall submit the comparison table for Gold Standard review at the time of preliminary review. If due to the type of technology or otherwise it is not feasible to meet the most stringent regulatory requirements, the Project Developer shall submit the rationale and proposed mitigation measures at the time of preliminary review. In such cases, Gold Standard will make a decision in consultation with the experts (if required) on a case-by-case basis.
          The Project Developer shall put measures in place to ensure that the applicable host country or other applicable regulations are complied with.
  1. Ongoing monitoring – The Project Developer shall report on compliance status with regards to regulatory requirements within six months of the operational start date, where applicable, and annually after the first reporting.
  2. Annual Report – The Project Developer shall include the relevant information in the Annual Report, as required under Gold Standard for the Global Goals.