By Xiao Zhang (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-06 06:34

The people of Yulin might seem far removed from the World Economic Forum, living in cave dwellings in one of the poorest regions in China.

But this is not the case. The city, located in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, will receive large-scale solar cookers under an aid project set up by the Davos Climate Alliance (DCA), a joint effort of the World Economic Forum and its member companies.

All participants are encouraged to offset on a voluntary basis their emissions and help to make the meeting carbon-free by making donations, says Barbara Rigassi, senior consultant with myclimate, a partner of the DCA.

The emissions are calculated under a methodological framework developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Participants pay "compensation" for emissions produced while traveling to the meeting.

For example, traveling from Beijing to Dalian to attend the forum by plane will cost about $11 to offset the emission of 0.70 tons of CO2 produced by the 886-km return journey. The longer the trip, the higher the price - and all of it will go to the Yulin project.

"The voluntary contributions will help to provide approximately 20,000 solar cookers to rural residents living in the dry and barren land of Yulin," says Rigassi.

"The region is extremely dry and it is experiencing severe desertification and water and soil loss. Therefore, it is an ideal region for utilizing solar energy, as it has very few cloudy or rainy days."

The project will provide the rural residents of Yulin with a practical means to meet the energy demand of their daily lives, says Rigassi. It will increase locals' disposable income by saving on coal costs, she says, and will improve air quality and mitigate the severe desertification of the region.

Rigassi says the program has been well received. "We have roughly 53 percent of the participants offsetting their emissions. Our experience is that participants offset during their stay at the meeting and even after the meeting."

"As far as the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2007 is concerned, we achieved approximately 68 percent compensation for greenhouse gas emissions," she says.

The DCA has contributed to two aid projects since it was set up in 2004 at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. It recently received an international award for its aid project established in India in 2005.

(China Daily 09/06/2007 page2)