Geneva, New York, 2 November 2010

As key business leaders and carbon market experts meet at the Carbon Market Insights Conference in New York, and just weeks before this year’s United Nations climate summit in Mexico, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, Rabobank Group based in The Netherlands, has demonstrated its commitment to tackling climate change by entering into one of the biggest ever transactions of Gold Standard Voluntary Emissions Reductions credits.

Rabobank has purchased the credits to comply with a sustainability commitment to offset 1.3 million tons of CO2 emissions. The Gold Standard is a benchmark certification scheme for high quality, environmentally robust carbon abatement projects within the international compliance and voluntary carbon markets.  In addition to the highest standards of environmental integrity, The Gold Standard incorporates sustainable development requirements to ensure that all projects maximize economic and social benefits.

The Voluntary Emissions Reductions support the Mamak Landfill Waste Management Project in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Landfills emit methane, a greenhouse gas twenty one times  more potent than carbon dioxide. At this project, the methane gas is captured and converted  into clean electric power – resulting in half a million tons of avoided carbon dioxide equivalent per year. Skilled jobs were also created in addition to improving the local air and water quality.

“The Gold Standard Foundation congratulates Rabobank on its purchase and commitment to  tackling climate change. Projects such as Mamak are crucial in the global drive to help curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrate that carbon financing can also make a positive contribution to sustainable development by supporting local communities.” said Adrian Rimmer, CEO of the Gold Standard Foundation.

The global conservation organization, WWF, advised Rabobank on the transaction with both supporting the prerequisite to use only Gold Standard quality credits. The bank sourced the credits from the Swiss based company Invest Trading and Consulting AG (ITC  www.itcturkiye.com). “Rabobank is proud of this transaction as it has only winners, including the environment and local communities. It is a very substantial transaction in size, with a long term delivery schedule demonstrating our trust in both ITC and the Gold Standard quality label”, said Jeroen van de Kletersteeg at Rabobank International.

ITC pioneered the project as one of the first landfill-gas utilization projects in Turkey. “ITC is, via this transaction, able to capitalize on its long term investments in sustainability and accelerate the growth of its waste-to-energy business with the newest technologies in additional cities, helping both the people of Turkey and the country’s environment”, said Hans von Meiss, Vice-Chairman of ITC AG.

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