CDM and Addionality

I was working on getting some data on Biomass CDM projects. From a few numbers on IRR, I realized none of these projects would be investment worthy without earning from CDM/Carbon offsets.

That was a correct observation because I then found this fascinating condition/clause for CDM/carbon offsetting. Financial Additionality is necessary for carbon offsets. Which basically means you cannot gain carbon offsets for your renewable energy projects if you do not prove that without earnings from those offsets, the project would be unviable.

It did seem like a stupid clause to me at first, but then just later Sara and SustainableJohn explained, ‘Because to offset emissions in another country, you need to prove that the project would not have happened without CDM.  Otherwise, it’s not really offsetting, it’s just giving renewable projects in another country an added incentive to develop. It is proving that the project is beyond business as usual.  Additionality comes mainly in two forms: investment and barrier.  Investment additionality is most often used by proving that your project has an IRR lower than the industry benchmark, but that the IRR would be higher if extra  revenue from sale of carbon credits could be earned. Barrier additionality has more to do with technology availability/other policy or market barriers.’

Makes sense from the perspective of the developed countries looking to offset, but to me this is just another reason why I don’t like carbon offsets. The viability of the entire project depends on the price of the CERs and nobody is really gaining much in terms of revenues. Maximum IRR I’ve seen yet is 28.33% and avg is around 15.45%. These are really low.

Anyways, I haven’t got the time or energy to debate carbon credits. Maybe later.

I also found a good ebook on calculation of additionality, which now looks very useful for my project last sem on SROI. Go ahead and download it. http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/images/C799363E2FFF45B789F70168169EBEE8.pdf

Air Kissing aka Cheek Rub

A social tradition that had me confounded for a long time is ‘Air Kissing’. I hadn’t really experienced it much until the past few months in Hyderabad. And only after a few confusing experiences, I appreciated the complexity and mild absurdity of it! I’m still not particularly suave with this, but I at least understood the laws/rules/codes of it from a little practice.

Cheek Rub

1. Its not really kissing. Its a cheek touching another cheek. Why? A way to get a whiff of your stink or rather the cologne, deo you are wearing.  Or just something that is rooted in our animalistic instincts. (If you are adventurous, go ahead and smell her hair.)

2.  Don’t make the mistake of going ahead and pulling a girl to air kiss! Only a female member of the species has the right to take first step of the process. If the first step of she touching you slightly and leaning is complete, you may proceed to lean in and bend in for the cheek rub. If she doesn’t and proceeds to air kiss other males in the group, wear better pants and don’t look scary scared next time.

3. Because you Air Kissed, doesn’t mean you are now close acquaintances. No you can’t even ask for her phone number now. You need at least 4-5 of these with the same person to become acquaintances, although in some cases it might mean you spend too much time hopping around in parties and people still don’t know you. Also the minimum number can be reduced if you go ahead and have a long conversation, which ends with a similar Air Kiss or at least a ‘See ya, around’ instead of the female walking away mid-conversation and proceeding to completely ignore you throughout the night.

4. The number of Air Kisses a ceremony might have still looks quite random to me. Certain group of females hanging out together might do one, two(both sides) or even three(both sides and one more). update: Chinmay says Italians/Spaniards kiss twice and French do it thrice.

5. Try not looking surprised or looking anywhere(now is not the time to sneak a peek) but in the general direction of her face the first time you do it. Social savvy is important.

6. Oh and of course dudes don’t air kiss dudes. Unless of course you are a dude who is into other dudes, then I think you can. Not sure. Google it up.

By the way, I am just half way through reading this fantastic ebook on ‘Addionality of Projects’. Read the next post for that.

Yesterdays

The next book I’m reading is ‘The Five People You Meet In Heaven’. I’ve seen this book so many times in stores, but really any book with ‘heaven’ in the title is generally not for me.

Anyways a friend posted this quote on FB and its all I’ve been thinking about all day. And changed my mind about reading this book.

“I figure it’s like in the Bible, the Adam and Eve deal?” the Captain said. “Adam’s first night on earth? When he lays down to sleep? He thinks it’s all over, right? He doesn’t know what sleep is. His eyes are closing and he thinks he’s leaving this world, right?

“Only he isn’t. He wakes up the next morning and he has a fresh new world to work with, but he has something else, too. He has his yesterday.”

The Captain grinned. “The way I see it, that’s what we’re getting here, soldier. That’s what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays.”

Beautiful.