TransAlta 2004 Report on Sustainability - Home link
TransAlta Home
Download Report
Other Reports
Contact Us
Glossary
Search
Introduction to Report
Management Review
Governance & Management
Environmental Performance
Economic Performance
Corporate Social Responsibility
The Numbers
GRI Indicators
You Are Here: Home › Environmental Performance › Greenhouse Gases › Strategic Approach to Climate Change

Strategic approach to climate change

• Increasing Internal Efficiencies
• Diversifying Fuel Mix
• Promoting Sustainable Technologies for Coal
• Acquiring Offsets
• Contributing to Climate Change Policy
• Reporting and Tracking Emissions

Acquiring offsets

Our portfolio of offset investments covers a variety of projects, including agricultural emission reductions, energy efficiency, ruminant methane, and landfill and coal mine gas to electricity.

In developing our offsets portfolio, we actively pursue opportunities for emissions trading, a market-based approach that allows operators to buy and sell verified emission reductions to meet GHG goals. We view the development of this innovative tool as essential to enabling companies, such as ours, to meet their climate change commitments more cost effectively.

In 2004, we became the first Canadian company to buy certified emission reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. We signed a deal with Agrosuper, a Chilean agricultural company, to buy 1.75 million tonnes of GHG reductions over the next 10 years. This purchase is the environmental equivalent of eliminating the GHG emissions of 62,000 cars or a 240-MW coal plant for one year.

Steve Snyder, President and CEO
Steve Snyder,
President and CEO
Case study

TransAlta buys international GHG credits

In August 2004, TransAlta signed a deal to purchase 1.75 million tonnes of certified emission reduction credits. The supplier of the credits is Chilean food producer Agricola Super Limitada (Agrosuper), which has installed innovative technology to reduce the GHG emissions of their industrial pork operations.

TransAlta plans to use the credits in the period from 2008 to 2012, as part of Canada’s anticipated climate change program. The deal is a first for a Canadian company under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism program, whereby companies in nations with emission reduction obligations can buy credits from companies in the developing world that have created projects to cut their GHG emissions.

AgroSuper facility
Signing of the emission trades deal between Agrosuper and TransAlta

"With emission trades such as the Agrosuper deal, TransAlta is able to cost-effectively take action now to reduce GHG emissions,” says Don Wharton, director, Sustainable Development. “Emissions trading is one of several tools we’ll need to meet the Kyoto challenge."

CO2e.com LLC, a subsidiary of the New York financial house Cantor Fitzgerald, brokered the deal. Independent auditing of the reductions will guarantee they meet standards for accuracy and validity.

Find Out More

What Is Emissions Trading?

Sundance Plant / Highvale Mine

Sundance Plant / Highvale Mine

A growing number of companies, like TransAlta, are turning to emissions trading as an essential strategic tool for managing their climate change commitments.

Emissions trading typically occurs when a company, seeking to reduce its emissions, purchases emission reduction credits from a company that has reduced its emissions beyond its requirements to do so. This transaction can benefit both participants. Purchasers are able to reach reduction goals more cost-effectively than is possible through their own operational efficiencies. And sellers are rewarded financially for their investments in reducing emissions.

The field of emissions trading is rapidly taking shape against a background of international activity. The Kyoto Protocol has approved the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows companies to acquire reductions in developing countries and get credit for them. TransAlta’s recent emission reduction deal with Agrosuper was carried out under the Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism

Update On Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto Protocol

On February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol officially entered into force, creating renewed impetus for the various signatories of the Protocol, such as Canada, to implement detailed action plans to meet their climate change obligations. Developing these plans and taking action must be done quickly as the international community approaches the 2008 to 2012 deadline for implementing Kyoto targets.

To date, the absence of a national GHG plan has created much uncertainty for our industry. Answers to key questions such as by when and by how much Canadian companies will have to reduce GHG emissions remain unclear.

Meanwhile, our company continues to take prudent and cost-efficient measures that will prepare our business for a more carbon-constrained environment. We expect emission reduction credits to play an essential role in Canada’s future carbon reduction framework. We are also working on other strategies, including our increasing use of renewable energy, making our current operations more efficient and supporting the long-term development of clean coal technology, which promises to virtually eliminate emissions. Through our long-term strategic approach, our company continues to be well positioned to meet the climate change challenge.