Quebec on Wednesday said it had approved its seventh offset project, adding that it has issued its third ever batch of credits.

The provincial government listed a project that destroys ozone depleting substances (ODS), the second such installation approved under the scheme, both operated by Recyclage Ecosolutions inc.

The project is estimated to generate annual CO2e reductions of 64,000 tonnes over a five-year period.

Quebec also issued 4,946 offsets to a landfill methane project on Wednesday.

The government has handed out a total 177,661 offsets since it began issuances in July.

The credits can be used for compliance in either Quebec or California, the two North American jurisdictions that have linked their markets under the WCI programme.

Emitters under the scheme can use offsets to cover a maximum 8% of their emissions.

CALIFORNIA

Meanwhile, California’s regulator ARB dished out 56,000 offsets over the past fortnight, one of the slowest issuance periods of the year, taking the total number issued by California to date to 34.5 million.

The newly-issued units were split between two early action livestock methane capture projects developed by Aurora Ridge and Climeco.

California’s emitters surrendered around 13 million offsets against their 2013-14 emissions, data published last month showed.

By Mike Szabo and Ben Garside – mike@carbon-pulse.com