THE HAGUE, 08/06/06 - Environment State Secretary Pieter van Geel has signed a contract with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) on sustainable energy projects in developing countries. Under this, special efforts will be made to realise sustainable energy projects in China.

The contract between Van Geel and IFC Vice-Chairman Lars Thunell is an extension of an existing partnership. "On top of the existing 55 million euros, another 45 million will now be made available to obtain greenhouse gas emission rights from sustainable energy projects in developing countries. The supplementary budget will specifically be deployed for realising sustainable energy projects in China."

The contract with IFC was concluded within the framework of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established in the Kyoto protocol. Under this mechanism, industrial countries are allowed to achieve part of their pledged emissions reduction by investing in sustainable energy projects in developing countries.

The Netherlands has CDM partnerships with Argentina, India, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Bolivia, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay. The CDM partnership with China is to be formally ratified in September when Van Geel is visiting China to investigate partnership opportunities in the area of environmental technology.

In 1997, the Netherlands pledged itself in Kyoto to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 6 percent from the 1990 level in the 2008-2012 period. A substantial portion of this pledge must be achieved domestically, but 100 million tonnes of CO2 reductions can be realised abroad. The CDM projects are intended to achieve a reduction of 67 million tonnes of CO2.