Industrial N2O Projects Under the CDM: The Case of Nitric Acid Production

The paper finds that CDM nitric acid projects have successfully fostered abatement in a sector that previously lacked such practices, with limited risk of carbon leakage and no evidence of systematic baseline manipulation. However, it highlights significant variability in baseline emissions between plants and monitoring periods, and notes substantial delays in credit issuance, particularly for projects using secondary abatement (AM0034). The authors recommend transitioning to a common benchmarking approach for baseline emissions to simplify methodologies, reduce transaction costs, and ensure environmental integrity.

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) effectively encouraged the adoption of N2O abatement technologies in the nitric acid sector, which had not previously engaged in such practices. This resulted in the introduction of secondary and tertiary abatement and monitoring standards in 63 plants across 11 Non-Annex-1 countries.
• There is no evidence of systematic manipulation of baseline emissions to maximize Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). The authors note that actions to increase N2O emissions typically decrease nitric acid production efficiency, which would harm the project proponent's profitability.
• The risk of carbon leakage—where production shifts from non-CDM plants to CDM plants—is judged to be limited at current CER prices. This is partly because nitric acid plants are often locally operated and the product is primarily sold in regional markets.
• Baseline emissions exhibit considerable variability both between different plants and across different monitoring periods at the same plant. This variability suggests that the AM0034 approach of using a single campaign to set a baseline for all crediting periods may not be representative.
• Nitric acid projects face severe delays in the issuance of credits, especially those using the AM0034 methodology for secondary abatement. For AM0034 projects, 77% of monitoring reports are still awaiting credit issuance, and only 10 of 35 projects that submitted reports have received credits.
• The authors recommend replacing current baseline determination methods with a common benchmarking approach. They suggest an initial baseline emission rate between 4 and 5 kg N2O per tonne of nitric acid, which should decline over time to reflect technological improvements.

APA

Kollmuss, A., & Lazarus, M. (2010). Industrial N2O Projects Under the CDM: The Case of Nitric Acid Production. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-nitricacid-9nov2010.pdf

Chicago

Kollmuss, Anja, and Michael Lazarus. Industrial N2O Projects Under the CDM: The Case of Nitric Acid Production. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2010. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-nitricacid-9nov2010.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kollmuss |first1=Anja |last2=Lazarus |first2=Michael |title=Industrial N2O Projects Under the CDM: The Case of Nitric Acid Production |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=November 2010 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-nitricacid-9nov2010.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kollmuss2010industrial, author = {Kollmuss, Anja and Lazarus, Michael}, title = {{Industrial N2O Projects Under the CDM: The Case of Nitric Acid Production}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2010}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-nitricacid-9nov2010.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }