World Bank unveils carbon incentive plan in Philippines

The World Bank said on Monday it plans to buy carbon credits from pig farms in the Philippines, helping farmers generate extra income by setting up environment friendly waste treatment facilities.

Under the program it will finance the installation of such waste treatment systems that will capture methane gas from pig manure which could be used to generate electricity, thereby reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

The World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit will buy carbon credits from farms that instal such systems, helping farmers secure an additional source of income, it said in a statement.

"This is the first programme of activities from the Philippines to be registered and it is the first... in the animal waste sector in Southeast Asia, a region home to a significant number of the world's pigs," World Bank carbon finance specialist Nick Bowden was quoted as saying.

About 100,000 tonnes of carbon credits could be earned each year through the program, the statement said, without providing details on what price it would pay for credits.

The project, supported by the World Bank and implemented by the state-run Land Bank, will be carried out under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that includes a programme for extracting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from pig farms.