Capturing landfill gas to cut emissions
In the São Paulo metropolitan region, large landfills generate significant amounts of methane. As organic waste decomposes, this gas forms and escapes directly into the atmosphere. Methane has a much higher climate impact than CO₂ and contributes significantly to global warming.
The project addresses this issue directly. The facility systematically captures landfill gas, monitors it continuously and prevents its uncontrolled release. Instead of escaping into the atmosphere, the gas is flared in a controlled process and converted into CO₂, significantly reducing its climate impact. In addition, part of the captured gas is transported via a dedicated pipeline and supplied to customers instead of being released.
The project also aims to use the gas more efficiently in the future. In a second phase, it is planned to generate electricity from the captured gas. Part of the energy will be used for the facility’s own operations, while another share will be fed into the public grid. This phase is planned but has not yet been implemented.
Beyond its climate impact, the project improves landfill operations through clear technical processes and regular maintenance. For people in the surrounding area, it creates stable jobs and supports more structured waste management. In the long term, the planned electricity generation will strengthen the local energy supply and make productive use of a previously unused resource.
The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
Methane is a greenhouse gas emitted by many processes including livestock farming, waste management, sewage treatment, oil production, and coal mining. When released into the atmosphere, it oxidises first to carbon monoxide and then to carbon dioxide, making it a major contributor to global warming. Climate projects avoid these emissions by capturing the gas and using it to generate heat or electricity, or by processing the gas into dry and liquid gas. In this way, the gas is not released into the atmosphere and is used to generate energy instead. Gas recovery projects in the ClimatePartner portfolio are registered with international standards.
The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Four criteria for projects to meet quality thresholds
The life cycle of a climate project
A climate project has a set life cycle consisting of various phases, from the feasibility assessment to the retirement of Verified Emission Reductions (VERs).
The project developer reviews the general feasibility of the project, the project design, and the financing. Then, the Project Design Document (PDD) is prepared, which contains all the basic information about the project, such as the objective, location, timeline, and duration.
In this phase, independent auditors examine the PDD and the information it contains. This phase often also involves field visits with on-side interviews and analyses. Auditors are accredited, impartial assessors who have to be approved by the relevant standard as a validation and verification body (VVB). TÜV Nord/Süd, S&A Carbon LLC., and SCS Global Services are examples of VVBs."
Once validated, the project can be registered with a standard such as the Verified Carbon Standard or the Gold Standard. All high-quality climate projects are based on international standards. They provide the framework for project design, construction, carbon accounting, and monitoring. Recognised standards make the climate project system and the projects themselves resilient, traceable, and credible.
After the climate project has been registered, the monitoring begins. Here, the project developers monitor and document the data of the project activities and progress. The duration of the monitoring phase varies from project to project: it can cover two years, but documentation over five or seven years is also possible.
At the end of each monitoring phase, a VVB checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the verification process.
Once verified, the emission reductions that were confirmed in the verification phase can be issued as VERs. The steps of monitoring, verification, and issuance of VERs are repeated regularly and are therefore considered as a cycle.
Once a VER has been used, it must be retired. This process is also reflected in the registry. If the financing of a climate project is done through ClimatePartner, the VERs are bundled in a system certified by TÜV Austria and then retired on a regular basis. This ensures that each VER can no longer be sold and is only used once, preventing double counting.
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