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Total to offset travel emissions with biogas production in India
The French oil and gas major Total has invested in a project to deploy 8,400 biodigesters in Telengana State in India, which it says will avoid the emission of 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for ten years – equivalent to emissions generated by plane travel by Total employees.
An agreement was signed in November between Yann Arthus-Bertrand, President of the GoodPlanet Foundation, and Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Total. The biodigesters will improve the lives of 45,000 people as well as helping to tackle emissions.
The voluntary carbon neutrality initiative, under GoodPlanet’s ‘Social Carbon Offsets’ programme, will see biodigesters installed for households, which utilise a fermentation process to convert livestock manure into biogas for cooking and hot water. Solids that remain after the process can be used as fertiliser for crops.
Total says that the initiative will reduce deforestation by offsetting wood use as a primary fuel, as well as improving health conditions by reducing indoor air pollution from cooking with wood. It says it aligns with its broader strategy to tackle climate change and to be ‘the responsible energy major’.
The first biodigesters will become operational in 2018. Total is accompanying the programme with an awareness raising initiative about travel emissions for its employees.
Elsewhere the company says it is exiting coal and investing in renewables, efficiency and carbon capture and storage, as well as cutting down flaring of gas.
