BP Target Neutral, BP’s voluntary carbon offsetting programme, is celebrating its 11th year with an announcement that it has expanded the portfolio of carbon offsetting projects for 2017.

New projects in India, Peru, China and Mexico have been added to the portfolio, which includes activities as diverse as forest conservation, energy efficiency, renewable power and biogas.

BP Target Neutral only buys carbon credits that meet ICROA’s (International Carbon Reduction & Offset Alliance) best practice standards. Credits are used to offset carbon emissions as part of a “reduce – replace – neutralise” approach to carbon reduction. This supports the development of low carbon and carbon neutral products and services across BP’s businesses.

The new carbon offset projects have been overseen by an independent project selection forum using the UN’s sustainable development goals as a framework for assessment. The projects selected are expected to reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by more than 2.5 million tonnes per year and improve the livelihoods of more than 2 million people though better access to energy, health, education, and employment opportunities as well as protecting more than 40,000 hectares of globally significant habitat.

Andrea Abrahams, global director, BP Target Neutral, says, “BP is committed to a lower carbon transition. Our carbon project selection process ensures the integrity of carbon reduction projects and their contribution to the UN’s sustainable development goals.”

“Increasing numbers of businesses are implementing carbon management strategies which allow them to target top-line growth, business efficiency and brand enhancement with measurable and material impacts. BP is proud to provide our customers and their businesses with opportunities to not only offset their carbon emissions but also help to bring people out of poverty,” adds Abrahams.

In India, the Bagepalli Coolie Sangha Project involves installing 18,000 biogas plants and cookstoves in low income homes and over the past six years has avoided 137,452 tonnes of CO₂e (equivalent) emissions. Biogas generated in biodigesters replaces the burning of wood and kerosene in traditional stoves and secures a significant reduction in greenhouse gases and harmful indoor air pollution.

In Peru, the Qori Q’oncha Cookstoves Project is helping households to obtain improved cookstoves that have an enclosed combustion chamber which burns more efficiently and evacuates smoke from the home through a chimney. Burning more efficiently and using less firewood, each new stove reduces on average 3.3 tCO₂e per year. By January 2017, 106,000 improved cookstoves have been installed benefitting over 450,000 people from rural communities living in poverty.

In China, the Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas Project also supports the installation of biogas units and smoke-free cookstoves in low-income households. The project aims to provide one million low income households with clean, convenient and free biogas for cooking, heating and lighting and the programme has the potential to save up to 20 million tCO₂e within its 28-year lifetime.

In Mexico, the Distribution on ONIL Cookstoves Project is working to provide high-efficiency plancha-style cookstoves to families in rural Mexico. As well as improving indoor air quality, the stoves use much less firewood than traditional open fires. Traditional three-stone fires in Mexico use around 5 tonnes of firewood each year per household and gathering it is time-consuming and heavy work. High-efficiency plancha-style cookstoves reduce the time needed to collect firewood and protects bio-diversity. The project is aiming to install 35,000 cookstoves per year by 2019.

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