International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

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fully stabilised waste may be sent to landfill where alternative and more
suitable treatment solutions are not available.
In accordance with the methodologies developed by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the CO2 emissions resulting from the
combustion of biodegradable waste are considered carbon neutral and are
not counted for the purposes of Kyoto obligations. In addition, generation of
heat and electricity from waste in thermal treatment plants reduces the need
to produce this energy from fossil fuels and will therefore displace CO2
emissions from these sources. By exploiting an indigenous energy source,
waste-to-energy plants make a contribution to national security of energy
supply.
In the current process of revising the Waste Framework Directive
(2006/12/EC), mechanisms are being considered which would encourage
waste-to-energy plants to increase efficiency to a level comparable to
conventional power plants, thereby allowing the energy content within waste
to be transformed into electricity and heat for beneficial use in accordance
with Best Available Techniques. The Government supports this approach, in
the context of the waste hierarchy, which will minimise climate impacts
through the sustainable management of waste.
Whilst broadly correct (incinerators do not generate electricity with an efficiency
approaching that of modern power plants), the above paragraphs do not mention the
fact that it rarely the case that waste combustion facilities deal only with waste that is
biodegradable. To that extent, not all the energy generated at such facilities is ‘carbon
neutral’, and the generation of energy is typically accompanied by emissions of fossilderived
CO2 from components of waste which consist of such material (under IPCC
reporting, these emissions would be reported under the Energy). Consequently,
additional GHG emissions would have to be reported under the Irish inventory, but
these do not appear to be acknowledged anywhere in the document.
In this light, one can assess the two new measures outlined in the Strategy, which
are:
� Use of waste biomass in energy production; and
� Support for waste-to-energy projects under REFIT scheme.
These are fleshed out in the document:
Waste biomass encompasses not only the biodegradable component of
municipal and industrial waste, but also the biodegradable fraction of
products and residues from agriculture, forestry and related industries. The
recently published Bioenergy Action Plan sets out an integrated strategy for
harnessing the energy potential of all bioenergy sources, including waste
biomass, to make a contribution to renewable energy.
To assist in the development of waste to energy projects, the Government is
extending REFIT to allow support for the renewable portion of mixed
renewable and nonrenewable generation. This will allow waste-to-energy
projects to obtain support for the renewable portion of the generated
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes