Dutch utility Eneco is working with UK offset provider CarbonNeutral Company to expand the scope of its PoA in Nepal to help fund the rebuilding of schools damaged in the April earthquake.

Eneco, owned by 55 Dutch municipalities, has a Nepal PoA registered in 2014 that aims to earn CERs from installing wood-burning cookstoves that are more efficient than existing cooking equipment.

Eneco had already been willing to pay above the market rate for CERs that can be used for EU ETS compliance – currently at €0.47 each – to ensure the PoA goes ahead.

But the new participation of CarbonNeutral Company’s corporate clients involves paying around a euro per CER more to fund additional work to rebuild schools.

“It was logical to sit down with our partners on this project, and see whether we could leverage the great efforts they are already making to combat climate change by adding a component that would improve livelihoods via earthquake security and a sounder infrastructure,” said Mark Meyrick, head of Eneco’s carbon desk.

The extra funding will be used by Build Change, a non-profit social enterprise, to rebuild and retrofit schools in the country to be resistant to future earthquakes.

The PoA is due to be issued with around 60,000 CERs and a small portion of VERs this year and has a 10-year crediting period.

This may only result in enough extra funding to rebuild one school this year but Meyrick hopes the work can be replicated and scaled up alongside the expanding PoA in future, particularly if more  companies contribute.

Some 6,500 schools in Nepal collapsed in the April earthquake, which would have killed thousands of children had it happened during school hours.

The quake killed over 9,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless with entire villages flattened.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com