Announcing the First Grouped Project in Malaysia on VCS

The first ‘grouped project’ in Malaysia has been added to Verra’s Verified Carbon Scheme (VCS)!

We’re proud to announce the first of a series of biogas plants that capture methane from wastewater has been successfully validated and registered. Launched in conjunction with Cenergi, this registration commences the Grouped Project and allows other biogas plants that meet the eligibility criteria to have efficient access to carbon credit registration and issuance.

The Importance of Capturing Methane

Methane capture is recognised as one of the fastest ways to address near-term climate change and will be a prerequisite for reaching the 1.5 °C target. The Global Methane Pledge initiative was launched at COP26, aiming to abate anthropogenic methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030.

Reducing emissions from methane are clearly a global priority, and it’s also a priority in Malaysia, where methane accounts for about 15% of the total emissions.

By capturing emissions from the effluent that comes from the processing of agricultural crops, the agriculture sector in Malaysia not only lowers its greenhouse gas emissions but also harnesses renewable energy.

Benefits of the Grouped Project

Each biogas plant reduces emissions by about 20,000-40,000 tCO2e p.a. and produces the same number of carbon credits each year.

Monsoon is working to scale up the Grouped Project over the short to medium term. We are hopeful that the issuance for the 2025 will be several hundred thousand credits.

The Grouped Project has additional benefits beyond the reduction of emissions.

• Bioenergy is seen as a major opportunity in Malaysia’s National Energy Transition Roadmap. The biogas plants in this Grouped Project generate renewable electricity: each plant generates approximately 10,000 MWh of renewable energy each year.

• The construction, operation and maintenance of the biogas plants offer job opportunities and technical skills education for staff engaged in these projects.

You can visit here to read detailed information about this project.

Why is a Grouped Project so Important?

An individual biogas plant makes a relatively small (but important) contribution to reducing emissions. However, these individual projects are not sufficiently large enough to be registered, monitored and verified efficiently. Many individual carbon projects in Malaysia have failed to successfully verify and issue carbon credits because of this issue.

The use of a grouped project means that these relatively small plants can issue carbon credits much more easily and efficiently than if they were individual projects. In fulfilling the role of a coordinating and managing entity and encouraging these projects to be delivered at scale, Monsoon Carbon provides an important link in the chain of carbon financing.

This assists the industry to make an accelerated change to a more sustainable practice, rather than continuing to treat the wastewater in large open ponds.

This change is potentially applicable to a wide range of agricultural products, in a wide range of countries.

How Can I Get Carbon Credits from Biogas Plants?

It’s a long, complex and tightly-audited process to register an emission reduction project and receive carbon credits. Biogas plants are particularly difficult, as the monitoring is somewhat complex and an individual site will generate a relatively small amount of credits.

The Grouped Project has been initiated by Monsoon Carbon to make it easy for owners and operators of biogas plants to earn carbon credits. We manage the monitoring and reporting process, and engage with the verifiers and Verra to ensure the individual sites earn the credits to which they are entitled.

The Grouped Project is open to new projects who meet the eligibility conditions and can involve methane capture from any type of industrial wastewater. Please contact us using the form below if you believe you have a suitable biogas plant, in Malaysia or perhaps further afield.

More Information About Carbon Credits

Carbon credits represent a quantifiable and verifiable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). The most common standards for carbon credits are Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) or Gold Standard (GS), although there are others.

Carbon credits are a major opportunity for the owners of eligible projects, and they provide a direct pathway for companies to contribute to climate change and achieve sustainability reporting initiatives.