KATHMANDU, Nepal, May 3 (UPI) -- Nepal Wednesday signed an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions to help benefit small rural communities throughout the country.
The Nepal Biogas project signed by the government will reduce emissions and is expected to expand the country's use of cooking and lighting in rural households. Biogas units will be sold at a noncommercial price to help displace traditional fuel sources like fuel wood, kerosene and agriculture waste. Each household biogas unit will be able to reduce nearly 5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, Nepalnews.com reported.
"This is the first greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions project in Nepal under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol," a press statement by the World Bank country office in Nepal said.
Only 15 percent of Nepal's rural population has access to electricity. The country's dependence on fuel wood has contributed greatly to deforestation and it is hoped the switch to biogas will change that.
"This project is a major breakthrough," said Ken Ohashi, World Bank country director of Nepal. "It is the result of years of painstaking work by visionary Nepalis who saw that clean environmental practices would eventually bring economic and social payoffs."
